New Age Beverage's XingTea Blueberry took the top spot in the Ready-to-Drink Flavored Green category at the North American Tea Championship. The beverage was judged along with 250 other iced teas, each of which was placed within 20 separate sub-categories. According to World Tea Media, which hosts the annual championship, the judging panel was comprised of professional "cuppers" who assessed the quality of each submission in a blind analysis.

With news of the upcoming Facebook IPO dominating headlines this week, Socialbakers, a social media and digital analytics firm, has released an infographic depicting the top brands on Facebook as measured by the total number of global "fans." It turns out that beverage companies are doing a pretty good job at engaging their consumers online as three of the top five brands on the list are owned by drink manufacturers.

Relational Investors, an investment firm known for taking an activist role in underperforming companies, announced that it has acquired a $600 million stake in PepsiCo – amounting to about 0.6 percent of the company - according to The Wall Street Journal. Relational began accumulating shares of PepsiCo in the fall of 2011, and has been one of several voices calling for the company to split its snack and beverage businesses into two separate and independent units.

Lifeway Foods has announced an agreement with Target that dramatically increases the number of stores that carry its Kefir line. The new distribution deal is Lifeway's first major expansion in Target in eight years and increases the availability of Lifeway Kefir drinks from 170 to 453 Target locations. The expansion covers a range of flavors and sizes of Lifeway Kefir, a probiotic drink similar to drinkable yogurt, and adds three new flavors of its 8 oz. Lifeway Kefir 4-packs to Target dairy cases.

Story jumped into the paper likely on the rumors of Coke's potential for a play for Monster Energy, but despite some analysts squawking that the company needs to take leadership in all categories, there's an equal number of claims that the company, with 500 brands, has trouble focusing as well.

Hot on the heels of Pepsi NEXT, the Coca-Cola Co. is rolling out a pair of mid-calorie CSDs of its own, taking Sprite and Fanta into 70-calorie cans sweetened with a mix of sugar, stevia and erythritol.

More news from the burgeoning world of beverage-related class-action lawsuits as Lifeway becomes the latest company to be hit with allegations that its drinks do not provide their advertised health benefits.