Six beverage startups emerged from a field of 12 contestants to secure a spot in tomorrow’s final round of New Beverage Showdown 31 at BevNET Live New York City 2026, presented by Coca-Cola North America’s New Revenue Streams Unit.
Thursday’s final will feature Umma Juice, a Korean-inspired better-for-you juice; Brause German craft soda; LYFLO protein water; Cabu Latte; Dirty Virgo, a line of electrolyte-enhanced non-alcoholic cocktails; and Dad Grass low-THC beverages.
The finalists were selected from a group of competitors that also included Shinzo Matcha, Disco Fizz non-alcoholic functional beverage, Purple Corn modern chicha morada, Gingerbug organic ginger soda, Flying Ostrich electrolyte and hydration beverages and Lemonday lemon water.
The participating brands each gave a two-minute presentation to the panel of judges that included Mike Schneider, CRMO at BevNET; Nicoletta Payne, Senior Merchant at The Vitamin Shoppe; Kyle Fitzpatrick, Founder of Paperboy Ventures; and Madeline Hayden, Founder of Nutpods.
Tune into BevNET.com tomorrow, June 11, to watch the final round of the competition live, starting with part one at 8:30 a.m. ET and part two at 11 a.m. ET. The New Beverage Showdown 31 champion will be announced at 12:45 p.m. ET at the closing of BevNET’s annual New York City conference.In addition to hard-earned bragging rights, the winner will walk away with a $10,000 awareness-building advertising package from BevNET, and join the ranks of previous victors, including Projo Power Coffee, Poppi, Health-Ade, MALK and Cann.