A judge’s decision to invalidate New York City’s ban on the sale of large sugary drinks had opponents of the measure euphorically cheering the ruling, while supporters of the ban, and, in particular, Mayor Michael Bloomberg were left exasperated and vowing an appeal.
With its most recent launch, NEO North America is doubling down on its bid to become a significant player in natural beverages. Among Expo West’s vast sea of products, NEO North America debuted NEO Energy, a certified organic energy drink made with guarana, ginseng, green tea extracts and B-vitamins, fused with electrolytes and sweetened with cane sugar.
There’s 100,000 bottles of tea on the wall, and Honest Tea is hoping they’ll be taken down, passed around, and are just pretty much gone, and soon.
ROAR is a line of sports drinks made with coconut water and B vitamins. We applaud the brand for developing a well-formulated line of beverages and its use of an on-trend ingredient in coconut water. On the branding front, however, ROAR could use a bit of work in how it names and labels its three varieties. Overall, it's a solid start for the company.
Whether a first-time attendee or grizzled veteran of Natural Products Expo West, there was a singular feeling felt throughout: the 2013 show was simply mind-boggling in size and scale. Within the cavernous halls of the Anaheim Convention Center, a keen sense of excitement and opportunity filled the air as beverage companies, retailers, distributors and investors looked to take advantage of the rising tide of consumer demand for natural products.
XYIENCE has signed an agreement to add its Xenergy products in more than 1,400 Safeway stores, drastically expanding the availability of the beverages nationwide.
Layoffs at Neuro have taken place recently, but they are part of a realignment strategy that has been forced by the company’s growth, the company’s president told BevNET today. “It feels crummy,” Paul Nadel said. “But from a company standpoint it was the only thing to do.”
BevNET Live’s signature competition, the New Beverage Showdown, will be back in the Big Apple this summer. The New Beverage Showdown, which takes place as part of the two-day BevNET Live conference, will be held on June 4 and 5, 2013 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. The competition gives beverage entrepreneurs an opportunity to show off their business plans and new products and receive immediate feedback from a judging panel.
Victoria's Almond Water is a line of all-natural drinks made with a base of purified water and cane sugar and infused with natural extracts (almond, vanilla, rose). The brand recently introduced coconut and licorice/mint varieties, each of which are nice complements to the original product, however, we feel more needs to be done in terms of differentiation in packaging.
Lining the aisles of Natural Products Expo West, which recently concluded in Anaheim, Calif., few booths touted products with a singular appeal. Rather, juices were packed with extracts. Coconut water was melded with teas, protein and coffee. Key, growth-driving ingredients rarely stood alone.
One might imagine that there would be a focus on natural and specialty retailers among the brands working the aisles of a natural products exposition, but at Natural Products Expo West, which wrapped up on Sunday, a growing number of beverage companies have started bypassing those channels – and Whole Foods itself – altogether in an attempt to capitalize on the very same health and wellness movement that the grocer helped to launch to prominence.
While the market for beet juice has traditionally been quite small, the beverage is finding a growing number of enthusiasts, and in particular, serious athletes. That being said, it’s hard…
Calling New York City’s impending ban on the on-premise sale of large sugary drinks one that is "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences,” a judge today blocked the city’s administration from implementing and enforcing the ban.
It was nearly two years ago when Harmless Harvest launched a first-of-its-kind “raw” and organic coconut water, in which the company utilized high pressure processing (HPP), instead of pasteurization, as a means of delivering not only a safe product, but one that retained the flavor profile and nutrients of the liquid closer its original form. Today, Harmless Harvest has once again turned to HPP to launch an innovative line of organic, cold-brewed tea drinks.
