After spending $500 million to acquire a majority stake in Blue Bottle Coffee, it might be surprising to hear that Nestlé is content to let the premium roaster and retailer “just be.” Blue Bottle CEO Bryan Meehan spoke about the company’s relationship with Nestlé, its purposeful innovation strategy and efforts to enhance consumers’ experience with coffee. Also in this episode: an interview with former N’Sync star Lance Bass, who recently launched a cocktail mixer brand.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters claimed today that strategic decisions made by Coca-Cola bottler and distributor Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling (RCCB) “have created significant disruption in the quality of service” for customers in Southern California, according to the results of a survey of over 100 retailers.

GLOE Brands will add thousands of new locations for its Organic GLOE Sparkling line; Celsius adds Anheuser-Busch InBev DSD distributors; Origin Almond partners with Rainforest and KeHE; Koia adds 530 new Target stores.

Over the past two months, investment group and incubator Sonoma Brands has seen changes to its operating team including the addition of two managing directors. Founder Jon Sebastiani told NOSH the additions are reflective of how the firm has evolved since its inception.

Pete Lescoe chronicled his journey as an entrepreneur, including how he created a foundation for success as the founder of Food Should Taste Good, discussed his perspective on risk and explained why cash will always be king. He also spoke about the eventual sale of the company, why he got back in the food business and why he doesn’t think about happiness as a goal.

The Coca-Cola Company announced last week its first flavor extension for the flagship line in 12 years: Orange Vanilla, available in original Coke and Coke Zero Sugar varieties, launching nationwide this month. The flavor extension is one of several recent innovations for Coke’s core CSD products over the past two years.

Internationally inspired nuts, better-for-you booze and a sesame surge are among the several emerging food and beverage trend predictions for 2019 that were highlighted in a webinar hosted by data technology company SPINS on Wednesday.