Beverage entrepreneurs, start shining up your business plans: the New Beverage Showdown will return to BevNET Live on June 4 and 5 in New York City. With an enhanced format featuring a “wild card” slot for two lucky brands and a profile raised by the near-instant acquisition of the previous winner, Coco Café, by Vita Coco, the stakes at the New Beverage Showdown 3 are even higher this time around.
In a new report on opportunities within the global beverage market, MarketResearch.com forecasts that sales of bottled water will reach $125 billion by 2015, and that short-term growth in beverages will come from China. The report, titled “Growth Opportunities in Soft Drinks," estimates that the market for bottled waters will grow by 4.8 percent annually over the next three years, and become the second fastest growing category behind functional beverages.
Pepsi Next is a new cola that is being launched nationwide today. It’s a blend of elements found in Diet Pepsi and regular Pepsi, with the goal being to cut…
Runa, whose founders participated in the New Beverage Showdown 2 at BevNET Live Winter 11 (video), is a unique product made with brewed guayusa “tea.” It offers extremely enjoyable flavor,…
A few weeks ago I had the unexpected pleasure of catching a preview of a new documentary called Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I don’t write much about non-liquid forms of nutrition these days, and I’m not particularly a sushi fan either. But the film proved to be a moving experience in ways that I think are relevant to beverages, particularly the innovation space.
Red Bull Total Zero is a new addition to the Red Bull family that offers a slight “twist” on their now classic flavor. Plus, it’s Red Bull’s first energy drink…
Starbucks “Refreshers” is a line of energy drinks made with green coffee extract. What is green tea coffee extract, you ask? It’s a source of natural caffeine — and also…
It’s been a quite a successful run for Mamma Chia during its first year and a half. The first to market chia drink went national with UNFI only eight months after its initial launch and quickly established a solid footing in major natural retailers including Whole Foods, Sprouts and Wegmans. With a deep and wide presence within the natural channel - and chia on the verge of mainstream acceptance - Mamma Chia is setting its sights on crossover into hybrid and conventional grocery stores in 2012.
This is the time of year that, as the “Boys of Summer” return to Florida for Spring Training, I get to think about my favorite things: the Yankees, and my annual baseball analogy column. I just love the chance to compare the comings and goings of the sport I love to the action in the business I love. This year, I’m going to play the grizzled vet, dispensing lore and wisdom to a group of eager rookies wondering how they’ll break into the lineup.
Taking its first crack at the ever-expanding health and wellness market, H2M Beverages recently introduced 989 On Demand, a new cap-activated enhanced water. The product boasts an innovative and proprietary twist cap that contains a reservoir of liquid ingredients, a key point of differentiation from competitors like Activate and Karma, whose caps contain a powder-based mix.
Naked’s Fruit Juice & Oat Smoothies are some of the more ambitious products that have ever made their way to this brand of super premium juices and smoothies. It all…
Steve Gress has a message: Don’t count him out yet. Gress, the owner of distributor Exclusive Beverages, acknowledges his business has taken some shots in the past year, including the departure of key staff and one especially prominent brand, Vita Coco, but he said he’s getting back to the basics, taking on a suite of newer entrepreneurial brands while adding a few others that have struggled to find their way in New York.
Xiomega 3 Chia Water is one of those rare products that looks like a supplement, but tastes very much like a mainstream beverage. And why wouldn’t it? The product is…
In recent months, several veterans of the beverage industry have resurfaced in the water category. It’s a surprising twist because just three years ago that category itself was in the midst of a downward spiral, one brought on by a race to the bottom on pricing and a backlash over the environmental impact of its product containers.
