• 🆕 Gallery: This Week’s Hot New Sips
• 🏀 Spirits: On-Premise Sales Steady
• 🥃 Pronghorn Adds Japanese Whiskey 
• 🦾 Canopy Flexes Cannabis Strength
• ⚡ Is Superfood Still Relevant? And, Why Is ‘Rampage’ On A Kick?

The popularity of flavored beers is on the rise. From fruity sour beers to barrel-aged stouts, the flavor choices are wide-ranging. And, if you have questions about creating a successful and delicious new brewery product, the Product Development team at Allen Flavors has the answers you need. Learn more

It’s Friday at last, and if you were planning to do any grocery shopping over the weekend there’s no shortage of new beverages in new locations. As we wrap up the week, here’s a sample of the latest distribution gains from around the industry:

🇨🇦 Never Say Never: Mateina Hits the States. Canned Canadian yerba mate maker Mateina (say that five times fast) is launching in the U.S. this month via Erewhon stores in Southern California. On LinkedIn yesterday, Mateina founder and CEO Nicolas Beaupré said the launch marks a big step for the startup, as only a year ago he said “there’s no chance we launch in the U.S. anytime soon.” 

Well, a year is an eternity in the CPG industry so “soon” may be relative. Based near Montreal, Beaupré started Mateina in 2017 after discovering yerba mate while on vacation in Chile. Now, he says that launching with trendsetting retail chain Erewhon is a “perfect match” for the brand as it ventures into the American market.

🪁 From THC to DSD. Hemp THC- and CBD-infused seltzer brand Climbing Kites is now canvassing over 50 counties in Iowa – where recreational cannabis is still banned – through Molson Coors-aligned DSD distributor Iowa Beverage (IBEV). The brand, which launched last year, is made with 5 mg of Delta-9 THC and 10 mg of CBD per 12 oz. can.

"It's the Busch Light of THC and CBD beverages in our area," Jeff Bruning, co-owner of Des Moines-based restaurant operator Full Court Press, told Axios. "The fact that we get it from our beer distributorship, almost more than anything else, made it legitimate to me.”

⚡ Matador Enters The Circle K Arena. Energy shot brand Matador announced this week it will roll out to 7,000 Circle K stores across the country. Co-founded by Youtuber Danny Duncan and CEO Chris Pruneda, Matador will launch its 185 mg caffeine shots in Strawberry Acai and Blue Raspberry flavors at the c-store chain. 

🐻 A Bear Walks into the Club. New York-based cold brew coffee maker Wandering Bear is now available in Costco Wholesale locations in the Northeast, the company announced yesterday. The expansion further grows the brand’s presence outside of the New York metro area, where the bulk of its brick-and-mortar locations are centralized, and into New England, where its retail footprint appears to be spottier but where actual bears tend to be more common.

👽 Midwest Gains. Health-positioned shake maker Remedy Organics is now available in Giant Eagle stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to the New Jersey-based brand. Meanwhile, better-for-you soda brand Perfy is now “invading” over 100 Hy-Vee stores throughout the Midwest.

Today is Friday and you all know what that means…it’s new product gallery time! We’ve rounded up the hottest new products and packaged them together right here, just for you. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

💕 That’s hot! Alani Nu teams up with socialite Paris Hilton to create its latest energy drink flavor, Pink Slush. The new flavor is also available in the brand’s pre-workout powder format.

🚀 In a collaboration that’s out of this galaxy, Bones Coffee and Lucasfilm LTD release three Star Wars-themed coffee flavors: Dark Side Chocolate Truffle, Wookie Cookie (Chocolate Chip Cookie) and Twin Sun Tiramisu. 

🌛 7-Eleven is seeking to bring the “first taste of midnight” to its stores with a new limited edition flavor of Gatorade Thirst Quencher: Midnight Ice. The new variety is exclusively available in 28 oz. bottles at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes. 

Check out the full roundup on BevNET.

For both on-premise and off, overall 12-month spirits depletion trends, ending in March, were down -2.7%, and have slid even steeper, by -5.2%, over the last three months, according to a new report from WSWA’s SipSource. Here’s a rundown of the monthly trend recap:

🍸 On-premise depletion trends were nearly flat in Q1, with on-premise spirits down only -0.1%. One bright spot is premixed cocktails, which are up on-premise +24.6%.

🍺 Drinkers bounced back to bars for March Madness: Over a quarter of consumers enjoyed the festivities on-premise, jumping to over two-in-five (40%) among the 21-34 age demographic.

🍽️ Switching up the vibe, vodka in particular has made gains in fine dining, increasing its share of fine dining spirits sales by 0.8 percentage points in the 12 months to February, thanks to the popularity of ultra and super-premium brands. Cheers to martinis!

Learn more about what is performing best on and off-premise in the full story on BevNET.

Shinju Spirits is the latest Black-owned spirits company to receive strategic investment from Pronghorn, the firm announced yesterday. 

🚀 Shinju Whisky, launched in 2019, and will now get a boost to elevate its presence in key markets and introduce new product offerings, according to the press release. The brand is owned by spirit developer Rouge Baron, and is distributed in the U.S., U.K. and the E.U.

💸 Last year the firm announced it had surpassed 20 investments since its launch in 2022 with the goal of investing in 57 Black-owned companies by 2032. This is the first Japanese whiskey to join the portfolio. 

Canadian cannabis purveyor Canopy Growth is exercising its option to buy two American companies – edibles producer Wana and vape manufacturer Jetty Extracts – in deals totalling $370 million, Law360 reported this week.

🌱 Colorado-based Wana was reported to sell for $297.5 million, giving Canopy access to its entire portfolio of edible products across three corporate entities in a 2021 deal, while Jetty Extracts sold a 75% stake to Canopy for the relatively more friendly price of $69 million in May 2022.

🏋️ The acquisitions will be housed under Canopy USA and underlines the company’s focus on the U.S. cannabis market.

💹 What they said: "With these acquisitions now triggered, Canopy USA has taken a crucial step forward in bringing together these high potential businesses and will soon be able to demonstrate the full potential of this ecosystem across the U.S. cannabis market," said Canopy CEO David Klein in a press release.

Dates, consumed for millennia, are having a modern moment. But can the superfood maintain its momentum, particularly among mainstream consumers? And, while we’re asking: has “superfood” lost its luster? Taste Radio’s hosts have their say. We also sit down with MMA icon Quentin “Rampage” Jackson, who is a partner with upstart beverage brand F3 Energy.

The episode is out now. Listen here.