CEO Daniel Birnbaum recounts SodaStream’s first foray into advertising during the Super Bowl. Despite showing a diluted version of the original ad during the game’s fourth quarter (that’s post-blackout, for all you keeping score at home), Birnbaum writes that the investment was easily worth the cost.
Three weeks after BevNET reported on the Tata Group’s decision to cease all new investment in Activate, co-founder Anders Eisner confirmed that he has acquired all financial interest in the brand from Tata as well as that of Tornante Co., the investment firm owned by his father, former Disney chief Michael Eisner. The deals were completed on Jan. 1, and while Eisner declined to share terms of the deals, he stated that he is now the sole owner of the company.
Caliwater’s Cactus Water is an all-natural beverage that is made with prickly pear cactus (both in concentrate form and extract). The product, which contains 22 percent juice, is sweetened with both the cactus pear juice and added organic stevia. From a taste perspective, the product is light and thirst-quenching, with a flavor that is probably best described as a very mellow berry with an earthy finish.
In a recent interview, Mamma Chia CEO Janie Hoffman explained that sales of of its chia-infused drinks have “doubled, if not tripled, with going into mainstream,” in large part due to rapidly growing awareness of chia -- and its nutritional content -- among mainstream consumers, and noted that the rapid and positive trajectory of the brand has given it the ability to innovate and take a leadership position in the world of chia.
Hot Lips, which markets a line of fruit-infused sodas, recently launched its first ginger ale variety. The company's Real Root Soda Ginger Ale is a blend of sparkling water, organic ginger root from Hawaii, and pure cane sugar. From our perspective, Hot Lips has done well to create a great tasting product that is both approachable and stays true to its well-recognized branding.
Taking a gamble that the future of beverage – specifically, juice -- is going to include snatching meal occasions from quick-serve restaurants and soda companies alike, First Beverage Ventures has invested in Project Juice, a combination storefront and packaged fresh juice operation from the San Francisco Bay area.
HealtheeUSA's Organic Turmeric with Cinnamon drink is a USDA certified organic beverage that contains the equivalent of 4500 milligrams of fresh turmeric. Turmeric is certainly a timely and on-trend ingredient, and while the formulation of the product is good, its packaging needs quite a bit of work before the brand can really get off the ground.
Fueled by increased scrutiny and criticism about the energy drink category, nearly six in 10 Americans who are current consumers of the products say that they are concerned about potential health risks associated with the highly-caffeinated beverages, according to a new report from Mintel, a global research firm.
As more consumers begin to seek beverages with sugar substitutes, scientists aim to solve the massive puzzle of sweeteners. What’s all-natural (whatever that means), calorie-free and tastes, you know, good? In an article for The New York Times that has the meat of War and Peace, Slate.com columnist Daniel Engber writes about the widespread, ongoing journey toward an answer that may or may not exist.
A new Wells Fargo Securities report covering Nielsen xAOC (expanded all outlets combined) sales data over a four-week period ending on Dec. 21 indicated that sales of carbonated soft drinks saw a minor decline in sales growth as compared to the same timeframe in the previous year, but that the category is still facing a difficult road ahead as consumers continue to shift to other beverage categories.
A new stevia sweetener jointly developed by The Coca-Cola Co. and said to have a closer taste to table sugar than other stevia products has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On Monday, the FDA issued a No Objection GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) letter to Pure Circle, one that will allow the stevia producer to supply its Rebaudioside M (Reb M) ingredient for use in food and beverages.
Aloe Gloe’s “Coconut” variety takes the brand into a new — and much more successful — beverage segment. For this product, the company blends 15 percent coconut water with its base aloe water, which definitely makes it taste like a hybrid product. But will crossing into the coconut water category boost awareness among consumers that are still unfamiliar with aloe beverages?
Tumeric Alive’s Brooklyn Beet Elixir is the company's first product to use beets, and the most bright-looking of its tumeric-infused drinks to date. The beverage -- which is being made exclusively for the opening of Whole Foods' new store at Third and 3rd in Brooklyn -- blends beets with a base liquid that appears to be the same as that of TumericALIVE’s core flavors. Of the limited selection of beet drinks on the market, this one is quite good.
WTRMLN WTR (aka “Watermelon Water”) is a cold-pressed watermelon juice beverage that is made with watermelon flesh, watermelon rind and lemon. It is high pressure processed (HPP), which gives it an extremely fresh and refreshing flavor. And it certainly tastes like watermelon -- there’s no question that the company nailed that part of the product. From our perspective, this could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the consumer.
