• 📉 C-Stores Q3 Sales Slow in Q3
• 👨🏼‍💻 Zenso Debuts Upcycled Tech For Brewers and Distillers
• 🥥 Sweet Relief: NewTree Confirms Desugaring Tech
• 🍾 Celeb Spirits Are Box Office
• 💪 NFL’s Crosby Latest Athlete Investor in Slate Milk
• 🎼 Green Monké THC Drinks Coming Your Next Concert

Convenience retailers had mixed feelings about beverage sales after a slower Q3, according to the latest Beverage Bytes survey from Goldman Sachs Equity Research. 

• Total beverage sales in the channel were up 4.4% in the third quarter, down from 6.6% growth in Q2. 
• Although sales remained “healthy” the muted performance led retailers to downgrade their year-end outlook to 5.1% growth.
• Inflation, channel shift, and a trend towards smaller packs were a few of the key headwinds behind the slowdown.
• The energy category remains a bright light: Sales were up 11% in Q3 (versus +13% in Q2) and outlook for the year remained consistent at 12%. Monster (+8%) and Red Bull (+7%) decelerated slightly, while brands like Celsius, C4, Alani Nu, Ghost and Prime continue to drive hype and optimism for retailers.

And what do c-store owners think of Monster’s acquisition of Bang? Well, it’s complicated. Survey respondents expect Bang’s bleeding sales to moderate under the new management, projecting a -23% decline this year and -3% next year. But some retailers worried the damage has been done and Bang will have an uphill battle regaining lost shelf space and regaining consumers who adopted new brands amid its lengthy out-of-stocks.

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Mass.-based beverage-tech company Zenso Labs has hit the market with its first two products – a Pear Ginger hard seltzer and a canned Moscow Mule – designed to demonstrate the application of ingredients created with its new upcycling tech and process for other brewers and distillers. 

👩🏼‍🌾The process utilizes brewers’ spent grains and other byproducts of the distilling process and creates sugars, primarily glucose, which can then be sold as ingredients

🌾 Zenso’s process also unlocks the grains’ biological yeast, which can be used to make ethanol. The idea is to reduce waste and enable craft brewers and distillers to “become mini biorefineries,” said founder Russ Heissner.

🗣️ “The entire purpose is to enable a category based upon sustainable sipping – the best way to do that is to put consumer brands into the market to demonstrate market adoption,” he said.

Read the full story on BevNET.

NewTree Fruit Co. has spent a decade fine tuning its proprietary sugar removal technology -- so was it worth the wait? The Michigan-based ingredient supplier is eager to test the waters and find out. 

🍊 The company is touting itself as the first to be able to remove up to 100% of the naturally occurring sugars in juice (fructose, sucrose and glucose) without impacting the fruit’s nutrient content and density.

\🏭 NewTree is investing in two additional manufacturing hubs — each priced at somewhere between $5 million and $7 million, and likely to be placed somewhere outside the U.S. — set to be built over the next two years. 

💰 Backed by minority investment from InterContinental Beverage Capital (IBC), the company is looking to become a leading supplier of finished goods in the space; Israeli startup Better Juice has also developed similar processes.

Read the full story on BevNET

It’s the ‘hot or not’ of celebrity spirits. A new report shares which A-listers are selling at bars and restaurants, who’s rising to the top, and how those spirits are selling compared to other brands.

🤩 With most celeb-backed brands in the premium and above segment, cocktails with celebrity spirits are a whopping 73% higher ($16.25) than the average spirits drink ($9.38). 

🇲🇽 Despite all the newcomers, celebrity spirits as a category is still largely driven by George Clooney’s Casamigos, which represents 91% of the sales share of celebrity spirits sold at venues in the report. But a few brands that found retail success during the height of lockdowns are now gaining traction at bars and restaurants. 

Read the full story on BevNET

What defines compelling innovation? Novel ingredients? Esoteric flavors? Unusual packaging? The hosts discussed how strategic and entrepreneurial companies are attempting to innovate in food and beverage and what’s moving the needle for consumers. They also riffed on two new celebrity coffee brands, one launched by a “Yellowstone'' star and the other known for her status as a “teen mom.”

Listen to the full episode on BevNET

Leveraging its relationship with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White and its recent marketing partnership with the mixed martial arts league, better-for-you chocolate milk brand Slate Milk has added another professional athlete to its investor list. Maxx Crosby – a longtime UFC fan, friend of White and star defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders – is the latest athlete-investor to join the company.

🤼 Crosby attributed his interest in Slate to his connection to White and UFC, saying in an interview with Boardroom that Slate “checked all the boxes” for investment, adding that he is “starting a fund that will allow me and my partners to invest in and become owners in different sport properties.”

🥛 Launched in 2019, Slate Milk aligned early on with professional athletes including NBA players, Duncan Robinson (Miami Heat) and Terance Mann (Los Angeles Clippers) and closed a $10.5 million Series A investment round at the beginning of the year.

Pairing live music and cannabis drinks seems like a natural fit, or at least so hopes Green Monké. The low-dose delta-9 THC soda brand, a division of St. Peter's Drinks, Inc., has partnered with live entertainment company Oak View Group (OVG) to offer the drink in select concert and sports venues within OVG's expansive network in the U.S. and UK.

🏟️ Entering OVG's global venues -- which include Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle; Moody Center in Austin and CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, plus others in Brazil, Europe and Canada -- is projected to generate direct sales of over $20 million in the next 24 months, per the company. 

🎤 The move should give a clearer indication of how cannabis drinks can function in competitive environments alongside alcoholic beverages and compete on price, flavor and experience: "Each time Green Monké is offered alongside alcohol, we win," said St. Peter's president and CEO Pat Gleeson.