Ocean Spray is launching its first-ever foray into sugar-free via Zero Sugar juice drinks, out today. The move comes as the brand continues to modernize its identity and pull in millennial consumers concerned over the amount of sugar in their beverages.

🧃 Available in Cranberry and Mixed Berry flavors, the Zero Sugar beverages are sweetened with stevia leaf extract and contain five calories per 8 oz. serving. Both will begin rolling out to Walmart stores nationwide next month for a suggested retail price of $3.71 per 64 oz. bottle.

❌ According to Trinh Le, Ocean Spray VP of Next Generation Beverages and Omni-channel marketing, Ocean Spray’s Zero Sugar line is the first shelf-stable zero sugar juice that doesn’t contain artificial sweeteners. 

👏 While zero sugar juice drinks are not a new product format – options on the market range from Tropicana to Minute Maid – Ocean Spray is hoping its reputation for “quality and full flavor” can set the brand apart on store shelves.

Read the full story on BevNET. 

Shoppers are adjusting to the cost-of-living crisis, and your brand should too. Learn 9 strategies to stay top-of-mind for price-conscious consumers designed by live consumer intelligence platform, ProQuo AI. Learn more

As expected, this month’s National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) trade show was a major showcase for the latest and greatest in the still-evolving “energy+” category, which has seen functional ingredients and fitness trends converge with product innovation (and some familiar candy flavors) to create a dynamic new force within the beverage market. 

BevNET contributor Joshua Schall tracked developments within the space at this year’s show, where supplement-driven brands are showing they’re ready to compete with established CPG giants when it comes to marketing functional foods and beverages. 

Read the full story on BevNET

And if you haven’t seen his post-NACS dispatch with BevNET/NOSH editor-in-chief Jeff Klineman, check that out here.

The so-called “James Bond” of wine has added a distillery and line of ultra premium spirits to his nearly 30 global wineries.  Vintner Jean-Charles Boisset purchased a Calistoga historic landmark, the California Depot Distillery in 2021 and recruited local distillers including Spirit Works’ Ashby and Timo Marshall to produce an ultra-premium, barrel-aged and wine-cask finished spirits portfolio, released last Friday.

🍷 Boisset’s properties include a number of Burgundy vineyards as well as estates in California’s Russian River Valley and the Napa Valley. The luxury wine mogul has built his business by acquiring wineries and then transitioning the vineyards to organic or biodynamic, upping the price, and adding them to a portfolio of hundreds of wines at varying prices for distributors to pick and choose. 

📈 Boisset has been expanding outside of his wineries lately: he acquired Napa’s nearly 140-year-old Oakville Grocery, founded Napa’s first wine-history museum, and has planted tasting rooms and shops in luxury strip malls and lounges in the surrounding bay area in recent years. 

💑 Power couple alert: it’s possible Boisset is following the lead of his wife Gina Gallo, the third-generation face of E&J Gallo, which has successfully made its move into spirits thanks to brands like High Noon.

🥃 The whiskies and brandy, which run from $75-$400, will launch with a limited series of tasting events taking place at the distillery, followed by a national rollout beginning in California and Texas, and nationwide in 2024.

What makes for the ultimate fall fashion accessory this season? We vote for a can of Ralph Lauren’s RTD coffee, now available in 9 oz. cans. 

☕ Ralph’s Coffee is brewed by La Colombe and comes in a single black, unsweetened flavor. The drink is rolling out to Ralph’s Coffee locations in Miami, New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. in single cans ($6) and 4-packs ($24), or in a 24-pack ($110) at the Ralph Lauren website. 

🗺️ Ralph’s Coffee opened its first location in New York City in 2014, and the chain now boasts outposts in London, Japan, China and Qatar.

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If you haven’t had a chance to submit your nominations for BevNET’s Best Of 2023 Awards, we have good news. We’ve extended the deadline to Friday, November 3. Read the story.

Why are some investors writing checks while others are content to stay on the sidelines? The hosts discussed a new survey that examines the dynamics of contemporary deal flow. They also spoke about opportunities for entrepreneurs to spotlight their brands at BevNET’s Winter 2023 events and highlighted two food brands that developed new snacks in collaboration with beverage companies. Read the story.

Harmless Harvest CEO Ben Mand will speak at BevNET Live Winter 2023 to give attendees an outline of the decision making process around portfolio expansion, as well as guidelines and tactics that can lead to successful innovation around core products. Read the story.