Transparency, literal and figurative, is always good for a product. A pink lemonade should dress the part. As such, whenever possible, you should banner the brand to help the consumer make the connection. The reds, blues, greens and other colors of the spectrum helped to give Jones Soda and dozens of other companies their signature. They were all fun, and added to the drinking experience. That holds true today.

It’s easy to disrespect the Coke purchase of Glaceau, but taken together, the company brands have sold $1.3 billion in IRI-tracked channels in the past year; that puts the whole Coke water system at $2.2 billion, well ahead of PepsiCo. Smartwater has nearly eclipsed Vitaminwater, it’s true – but that gives the red system a premium-priced alternative to Dasani and a brand architecture that many brands would only dream of.

The segment certainly is becoming tantalizingly visible even to the beverage conglomerates. Some of the investment in Health-Ade, after all, came from the Coca-Cola Co. via its stake in the First Beverage fund; also, there have long been rumblings that kombucha-like probiotic brand KeVita has dallied with PepsiCo’s incubation arm in Southern California.

Nearly a month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils, the major dietary source of trans fat in processed foods, are no longer GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe), a prominent consumer advocacy group is calling for an end to the use of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

What does it say about the beverage business that the small companies on display at Natural Products Expo East, the little sibling of the massive West Coast show, could generate more energy than those who were attending the annual showpiece fiesta of a giant organization?