Expo East 2022: Harmless Harvest CEO Talks Coco Coffee, Company Evolution

While mass-market coconut water may have consolidated around Vita Coco and private label products in recent years, Harmless Harvest has never thought of itself as a coconut water brand. The organic, Fair For Life-certified brand may made its name with its flagship premium coco waters, but product innovation around coconuts in general has taken the San Francisco-based company in a variety of directions, including yogurts, smoothies and now caffeine-added products like coffee and Yerba mate. 

At this year’s Natural Products Expo East trade show in Philadelphia in September, BevNET caught up with Harmless Harvest CEO Ben Mand to discuss the new drinks and the brand’s ongoing search to develop new products that showcase its star ingredient. He also talked about how the brand is coping with inflationary pressures as a premium product, the nuances of extending coconut into multiple day parts and occasions, and shared advice on how brands should approach making the shift to 100% rPET packaging.

Transcript

Martin Caballero [00:07] Hi everyone, thanks for joining us. I'm Martin Caballero, the managing editor at Bevnet.com, and here we are in Philadelphia for 2022 edition of Natural Products Expo East. I'm here. There's lots of coconut water around me that must mean that I'm with Ben Mann, the CEO of Harmless Harvest. Ben, it's great to see you.

Speaker 2 [00:24] It's awesome to see you too.

Martin Caballero [00:26] It's always a pleasure to catch up, but I think we should preface a little bit. Most people probably know Harmless Harvest as a coconut water brand. At least it started that way. Tell us…

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