Las Vegas, Nev. — NBWA’s 68th Annual Convention and Trade Show took place at the Bally’s and Paris Hotels September 18-21, 2005. The show is one of the year’s most important opportunities for the beverage industry to come face to face with key beer and beverage distributors. This year’s show featured a host of new products. Malternatives, particularly energy malternatives, dominated the new product entries at the show.
Energy malternatives are a fast growing category pioneered by beverage alcohol brands such as McKenzie Brewing Company’s Sparks and Anheuser-Busch’s BE. In a departure from established patterns, RockStar anounced that it will soon be launching RockStar 21.
Other energy malternatives presented at the show included Liquid Charge, Torque and 24-Seven. United Brands’ 3 Sum, one of the first energy malternatives to hit the market, was also at the show along with its non-alchoholic energy drink Diesel.
Meanwhile, several new non-energized malternatives were also introduced. They included Markarita, Hard ‘n Hot Lemonade, Kalima, Hard Creamer and Star Ice.
On the non-alcoholic side, energy drinks continue to be a hot category for new product introductions. Introduced at the show were the Beast, Iron Horse, Go Girl, Liquid Ice, Banzai, RadioActive Energy, Xtreme Shock, Diesel and Fuel Cell.
By most accounts, the show was extremely productive for the exhibitors. Even companies with products thought typically to be outside the range of NBWA’s standard attendee focus, such as Honest Tea and Purity Organic, raved about business at their booths.