Having helped grow brands like Vitaminwater, Honest Tea and Zico – and before that products like Nantucket Nectars, among others -- Big Geyser has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the best distribution partners for emerging brands in New York City. The company has also leveraged its skill at growing new products into a brand development laboratory, or sorts, for Coca-Cola’s emerging brands group, giving test runs in the city to products like Illy Issimo.

Xyience's management team issued a statement today distancing the company from founder and former owner Russell Pike. Pike, who was found guilty on income tax evasion charges earlier this week, left the company in late 2006. The company is now owned by the Fertitta Brothers, who also own the mixed martial arts association UFC.

In recent years Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has pushed for increased oversight of the food, beverage and supplement industry on many fronts; yesterday he sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to investigate caffeine content in energy drinks. Durbin said the letter came after he learned the story of 14 year-old Anais Fournier, who died last December of a cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity after drinking two 24 oz. Monster energy drinks over a 24-hour period.

Sometimes the opportunity to write about this business is pure joy. This is one of those times.Once struggling to meet its financial obligations, early energy drink company Bawls Guarana announced today that it had acquired a pair of energy brands, CRUNK!!! and an outsdoorsman-focused energy shot called "Strut & Rut."

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have dropped their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative business organization that is behind the movement for national “Stand Your Ground” gun laws and other controversial measures, according to NPR. The two soda giants cut ties with ALEC after civil rights group ColorOfChange.org launched an online drive that called on Coca-Cola to cease funding ALEC and its support of “discriminatory” voter identification laws.

BevNET has confirmed sightings of Jarritos moving through the DPSG system in Southern California, part of a strategy that the company will make public in the near future. The brightly-hued, sugar-sweetened 11-flavor Mexican CSD line has suffered from wide-ranging but fractured distribution via a DSD and broker network that includes licensing partner Novamex.

Though one has to wonder how many of today’s youth think that legendary golfer Arnold Palmer was named after the lemonade/tea combo that he himself made famous, it certainly won’t be an issue for his former rival and protégé, Jack Nicklaus, who, like Palmer, has partnered with AriZona to launch a new beverage line. Last week, AriZona introduced Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear Lemonade, and it appears that the company may be prepping for a much larger launch later this month.