Bai Quietly Discontinues Original Line in Favor of Bai5

Sharpening its focus on growing trends of health and wellness, Bai Brands has quietly phased out its original line of coffee fruit-infused drinks in favor of its five-calorie Bai5 line. According to Bai Brands founder Ben Weiss, the company ceased production of the original line "about three months ago," and has set sights on careful expansion of the Bai5 brand with a goal of national distribution by the first quarter of 2014.

Shots: Small Package, Big Universe

Sure, 5-Hour Energy gets all the attention.It should: the company is one of the new millennium’s most impressive meatspace success stories, taking the rising tide of energy drinks and rethinking them into a smaller package. If energy drinks are the mega-version of the soda, then 5-Hour Energy is almost a reimagining of the very same morning espresso that has powered Europe for centuries – a tiny shot that, rather than coming hot and bitter, is in a sweet, portable, oh-so-American package.

Review: Monster’s New Flavors

The ever expanding line of Monster Energy drinks has just been given two new flavors. First up is Cuba-Lima, a non-alcoholic of the “Cuba Libre” cocktail that features a unique…

Crafting a Field Marketing Strategy? Beverage School Can Help.

Having a potential consumer sample a product and enjoy it enough to buy it is a key step in the successful launch and development of a new beverage brand. However, few entrepreneurial beverage companies fully understand how to most effectively generate the kind of buzz and excitement that is so important to a brand's success. BeverageSchool.com can help and offers crucial guidance on how to create and execute a successful field marketing and sampling strategy.

Review: Mission Root

Mission Root is a new line of “ayurvedic refreshment” beverages that hails from Cambridge, MA. Their products, which are best described as herbal teas, are USDA Organic and are currently…

Can the Clothes Make the Brand?

As I write this column, summer is easing off and soon it will be time to stow the t-shirts away. (At least it will be for those of you for whom t-shirts don’t qualify yet as year-round “business casual” attire.) So I thought it might be fun to riff on t-shirts, given their inextricable role in the beverage business. After all, folks’ reception to t-shirts can be a great gauge of brand health, particularly in image-driven categories like beer and energy drinks.

Review: Aquation

Aquation is a new xylitol and electrolyte enhanced beverage that was designed with oral health in mind (it’s “recommended by dental professionals”). It’s a novel approach, but the design of…

Fighting Functional Myopia

You’d think Carl Sweat, the hard-charging CEO of FRS, would have it easy by now. Strong investors, a dynamite functional additive, popular endorsers and clever marketing have been wrapped together into a very cold-box-friendly package. But the company is still fighting it out every day, trying to convince consumers that the quercetin compound that powers the product is worth its sometimes challenging taste and its hard-to-define health benefit.

Review: COCO Coconut Water

COCO Coconut Water is a Canadian brand (the product is made in Brazil) of not from concentrate coconut water. While it’s bilingual packaging is a plus for the Canadian market…

Spotlight Category: Single Serve Fruit Drinks

It’s amazing what distribution can do – look at FUZE, which is coming on strong in single-serve, and at Lipton, which is also showing major growth in what is a very minor part of its line (Brisk). Meanwhile, wouldn’t you love to get a peek at Tum E Yummies’ Wal-Mart numbers, since they just passed Bug Juice in the big four-channel listing? That’s strong growth for a company that continues to move up in the pack.

Review: Sambazon Supergreens Kale + Ginger

Sambazon’s line of super premium acai beverages recently got an update to its “Supergreens” Kale + Ginger flavor. The revised formulation is enjoyable, although more kale and ginger flavor would…