Confidence Rebrands as Emotional Utility Beverage
When Southern California-based functional beverage brand Confidence launched with a single SKU in 2021, its blend of B vitamins, GABA, rhodiola, ginseng, magnesium and 5-HTP was intended to provide consumers with an emotional uplift – something as close to literal “liquid confidence” as possible.
Now, about eight months after bringing former Runa and Roar Organic chief executive Alex Galindez on board as CEO, the brand is repositioning its product portfolio around its new identity, Emotional Utility Beverage. The company showcased its revamped offerings at Natural Products Expo West 2023 last week, launching two new lines – Euphoric (30 mg of caffeine) and Focused (100 mg of caffeine).
The new branding leans into the same science and tech-themed positioning as its previous iteration, featuring imagery of a digital brain scan and a body diagram on the front of each 12 oz. can and including callouts for nootropics, adaptogens, B vitamins and neurotransmitters. Each line has four unique flavors: Focused includes Pomegranate Black Cherry, Strawberry Kiwi, Blood Orange Tangerine and Cranberry Lychee. Euphoric features Berries Mint, Sweet Lemon, Coconut Lime, and Mangoes Passion Fruit.
According to co-founder Brandon Oberfeld, the new name and the expansion is intended to help the brand grow in mainstream channels, including convenience, where it will retail for $2.99 per can.
“It got to this point where we were like ‘Let’s make a very cool brand, backed by science, that looks believable because it is a good product, using top line ingredients, but selling them at a fair point,’” Oberfeld told BevNET at the show.
Oberfeld said the name Confidence proved to be polarizing for consumers and the name Emotional Utility Beverage is intended to draw attention towards the drinks’ functionality. Co-founder Charles Gores added that the rebrand also reflects a change in the company’s ethos, moving away from a single functional effect and towards situation-specific need states.
“This is about a company that’s providing products and tools to allow people to go into scenarios and situations with their best self and how they want to be,” Gores said. “If you’re going to a meeting you want to be focused, if you’re going to want to be at a party, maybe not drinking but you want to feel good, you have an Euphoric.”
Oberfeld said the brand’s target audience is Gen Z, which as a cohort has experienced higher levels of mental health issues, a need which an emotion-focused beverage brand could meet.
During the rebranding process, Confidence was off the market. Now, Oberfeld said Emotional Utility Beverage is relaunching with several past accounts, including Erewhon and office accounts like Space. The drinks will also be launching simultaneously in Los Angeles and New York.
Hawaiian Soda Co. Debuts
The functional soda trend is getting a tropical twist as Hawaii-based startup Hawaiian Soda Co. launched at Expo West last week.
The brand, created by co-founder and head of operations Gina Ho, along with her husband Caesar, aims to provide a better-for-you alternative to local Hawaiian beverage brands like Aloha Maid and Hawaiian Sun, which feature large amounts of sugar with minimal real juice content.
“We were looking for a product that has the taste of the islands, but not awful for you,” she said.
Hawaiian Soda Co.’s five-SKU line includes Mango Sunset, Luau Punch, Pineapple CItrus, Passion Orange Guava and Lilikoi Lychee flavors. Each drink is made with 40% fruit juice, sparkling water, stevia and prebiotics and contains 90 calories per 12 oz. can. According to Ho, the drinks will be sold individually at first with a retail price of $2.99 per unit but the company does hope to launch multipacks in the future.
The business is self-funded and is preparing to launch primarily in Hawaii in about three months, Ho said, but the company has hired a sales team to also launch in the continental U.S. At the show, Ho said Hawaiian Soda Co. is currently working to forge relationships with distributors and has already entered agreements to launch with foodservice distributors in Hawaii. Down the line, she also hopes to take the brand international.
“It’s like aloha in a can,” she said. “It takes you to the islands every day.”
New Barn Stakes Claim to Regenerative Organic Almond Milk
As we’ve reported over the last year, the slow but steady rise of Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) products has begun to make their presence felt within the industry, as environmentally conscious brands seek new ways to deepen their sustainability credentials and move beyond USDA Organic as the gold-standard for natural CPG.
Having been one of the early players in the non-dairy milk space, NestFresh-owned New Barn Organics is now looking to be one of the first in the category to fully embrace Regenerative Organic Certification, a set of rules which governs soil health, animal welfare and fair wages, among other topics. The brand has long been a supporter of the cause, becoming the first brand to nationally distribute ROC eggs.
At the company’s Expo West booth, co-founder Kerry Robb explained that the company is working to source its nuts from the world’s first-ever ROC certified almond grower, California-based Burroughs Family Farms. Previous versions of the cartons were labeled as “regenerative,” but that space has now been replaced by the ROC seal on both its unsweetened original and vanilla almond milk SKUs, earning the company a Nexty Award for Best New Certified Organic or Regenerative Product.
Though still lagging behind USDA Organic certification, the ROC seal is beginning to appear in more places and products, as reflected at Expo West. Alexandre Family Farms, the country’s first ROC dairy operation, continued to drive awareness via its milks and kefirs, but also brought in regenerative matcha maker Wild Orchard to showcase a Black Matcha Latte at its booth.
Lychee Flavors Cropping Up
Asian fruit flavors have been a popular avenue for beverage brands to innovate around in recent years – just look at the prevalence of yuzu flavored drinks now on the market. Now, three years after sparkling water maker Sanzo debuted its Lychee flavored seltzer, the Chinese berry is finding itself in multiple new products featured at this year’s Expo West.
Along with a presence in SKUs from the aforementioned Hawaiian Soda Co. (Lilikoi Lychee) and Emotional Utility Beverage (Cranberry Lychee), lychee showed up in sparkling juice brand Blue Monkey’s Tropical line at the show, which CEO Simon Ginsberg said will launch in Costco in the coming weeks. He told BevNET that lychee was a popular request from consumers. The brand has often been quick on the draw to introduce new trending flavors – it added a Yuzu sparkling juice in 2021, which Ginsberg said is beginning to “take off” now as American awareness of the citrus fruit grows.
Taiwanese company Orbitel International, meanwhile, sampled its new Jelly Popping Boba RTD drink made with proprietary, shelf-stable popping boba bubbles and aloe vera. The line was developed specifically for the U.S. market and features Lychee Oolong and Peach Oolong flavors in 8.1 oz. cans. Orbitel VP Fanny Chen said the line will launch in Costco and is currently working with distributors to add additional accounts.