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Having helped grow brands like Vitaminwater, Honest Tea and Zico – and before that products like Nantucket Nectars, among others -- Big Geyser has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the best distribution partners for emerging brands in New York City. The company has also leveraged its skill at growing new products into a brand development laboratory, or sorts, for Coca-Cola’s emerging brands group, giving test runs in the city to products like Illy Issimo.

Xyience's management team issued a statement today distancing the company from founder and former owner Russell Pike. Pike, who was found guilty on income tax evasion charges earlier this week, left the company in late 2006. The company is now owned by the Fertitta Brothers, who also own the mixed martial arts association UFC.

In recent years Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has pushed for increased oversight of the food, beverage and supplement industry on many fronts; yesterday he sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to investigate caffeine content in energy drinks. Durbin said the letter came after he learned the story of 14 year-old Anais Fournier, who died last December of a cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity after drinking two 24 oz. Monster energy drinks over a 24-hour period.

Sometimes the opportunity to write about this business is pure joy. This is one of those times.Once struggling to meet its financial obligations, early energy drink company Bawls Guarana announced today that it had acquired a pair of energy brands, CRUNK!!! and an outsdoorsman-focused energy shot called "Strut & Rut."

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have dropped their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative business organization that is behind the movement for national “Stand Your Ground” gun laws and other controversial measures, according to NPR. The two soda giants cut ties with ALEC after civil rights group ColorOfChange.org launched an online drive that called on Coca-Cola to cease funding ALEC and its support of “discriminatory” voter identification laws.

BevNET has confirmed sightings of Jarritos moving through the DPSG system in Southern California, part of a strategy that the company will make public in the near future. The brightly-hued, sugar-sweetened 11-flavor Mexican CSD line has suffered from wide-ranging but fractured distribution via a DSD and broker network that includes licensing partner Novamex.

Though one has to wonder how many of today’s youth think that legendary golfer Arnold Palmer was named after the lemonade/tea combo that he himself made famous, it certainly won’t be an issue for his former rival and protégé, Jack Nicklaus, who, like Palmer, has partnered with AriZona to launch a new beverage line. Last week, AriZona introduced Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear Lemonade, and it appears that the company may be prepping for a much larger launch later this month.

Russell Pike started the brand, but if he drinks a Xyience Xenergy now it’ll probably have come from his canteen account after he was convicted on federal tax evasion charges…

Cherries have always had a strong association with Valentine’s Day, but last Feb. 14 was especially sweet for the team at CherryPharm, the company behind the line of tart cherry juices that are now known as Cheribundi. That’s because the company consummated a deal of a different kind on the holiday, closing a $4.5 million equity round led by Greenwich-based Emil Capital Partners, along with its previous lead investor, Cayuga Venture Fund, and other shareholders.

It turns out that even beverage giants aren’t immune from the recent outbreak of lawsuits infecting the industry. Earlier this week, the JD Journal reported that Coca-Cola was hit with a lawsuit claiming that the name and marketing of the company’s Simply Orange brand are misleading. The suit contends that the beverage is not simple orange juice; rather, it is juice that is heavily processed and contains added flavorings and constituents to change its color, consistency, taste, and aroma.

Looking to strengthen its position as a natural alternative to traditional sports drinks, ZICO has unveiled a new team of athlete endorsers. And while Team ZICO appears to be the big-name part of the company's marketing initiatives for 2012, the company says it ZICO has more in store. Marketing VP Bill Lange told BevNET that the company will pump up its marketing spend by 75 percent over 2011 and is close to signing a "major celebrity" as an endorser.

Hoping to take advantage of the vast access to fresh fruit in the state for use in its premium, locally-sourced drinks, Spindrift Soda is opening a West Coast facility in California wine country. The company, which produces a line of all-natural, fruit juice-infused sodas, has opened a new production facility in Healdsburg, California, and will begin distributing in the state later this week.

Watching a small but well-distributed rival create share in a market white space without responding isn't on the menu at Coca-Cola, apparently. The CSD giant has filed a trademark for Dasani Drops, defined under Goods and Services as "Concentrates and syrups used in the preparation of soft drinks; syrups for beverages."

Citing a lack of scientific data to support a change in policy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected a request to ban bisphenol A (BPA) from cans, bottles and other packaging. The FDA decision was made in response to a petition filed by the Natural Re­sources Defense Council (NRDC) in 2008 which called for an end to the use of BPA – a chemical commonly used in the lining of cans and plastic bottles - in food and beverage-related products.