For Americans experimenting with a sober curious lifestyle, Dry January was an easy way to reduce one’s alcohol intake post holidays. Now, “Sober October” is trending and for the many people cutting back on the booze, cutting back on socializing over high-end food or sacrificing flavor for temperance is not part of the deal. Sober curious consumers are demanding more alcohol-free options for more discerning NA palates.

Nanotech startup ALTR is taking on the “hard problem” of developing a more efficient dealcoholization process that leaves more of the flavor in the bottle with less or none of the buzz. Starting with wine, the B2B company recently closed an undisclosed amount of pre-seed round funding led by FTW Ventures with additional investments from Bluestein Ventures, Tet Ventures, Joyance Partners, winetech investment firm Xinomavro Ventures and Dutch accelerator Rockstart.

“We don't want a binary world of drinking and not drinking. We believe in what we call spectrum drinking,” ALTR founder Richard Schatzberger told BevNET on Tuesday.

Schatzberger, along with co-founder Darron Hollowell, have assembled a team of nanofiltration experts to develop what Schatzberger calls a “technology dial” to delicately remove different levels of alcohol without impacting the intricacies of flavor in everything from high-end wine to spirits or beer.

Currently, non-alc wine and spirits are made in primarily two ways: vacuum distillation and reverse osmosis. Vacuum distillation gently heats an alcoholic beverage while keeping the temperature from rising too high, which would impact flavor (dealcoholization industry leader BevZero uses a version of this process with its spinning cone column technology). Vacuum distillation can cause a lot of “disassembly” of the flavors, Schatzberger said. 

Reverse osmosis uses pressure to filter ethanol alcohol and water from the concentrated beverage. The water is heated to boil off the alcohol and then slowly incorporated back into the concentrated liquid to make an alcohol-free version of the drink. Yet, this technique can be energy intensive and inefficient causing the end product to be higher priced to offset the costs.

ALTR intends to use proprietary nanotech membrane technology to create a less energy-intensive filtration system that will sustain the nuances of flavor at the molecular level. The company will work with Rockstart’s accelerator in Copenhagen to innovate its technology bringing more options to the non-alcoholic beverage category.

Stay Tuned For A Deeper Dive Later Today

Last week, two cannabis companies found themselves entangled in lawsuits over trademark infringements. 

• In a complaint filed in Vermont federal court on Thursday, Maine-based craft brewery Goodfire Brewing Co., which has been selling beer, apparel and glassware under the Goodfire name since 2017, accused Vermont-based cannabis dispensary Goodfire LLP, which operates as Vermont GoodFire Cannabis of trademark infringement likely to cause consumer confusion.
• The complaint reads, “Both are intoxicating products and there has been more and more overlap between the craft beer and cannabis industries.” 
• Goodfire Brewing Co. is seeking an injunction, the transfer of the “goodfirevt” domain name and unspecified damages.
• In a separate complaint, THC and CBD-infused beverage maker Reddi Beverage Co., which sells drinks under the FLORA brand and trademark, alleges that Floral Beverages LLC is marketing drinks under a “confusingly similar and nearly identical name.” 

According to Law360, Reddi is suing Floral Beverages for common trademark infringement and tortious interference with its contracts and business relationships.

With a focus on client communication and customization, TechniBlend’s experienced team goes above and beyond for clients. Schedule time with us at this year’s Pack Expo in Las Vegas to see why TechniBlend™ is the trusted partner of some of the largest beverage brands in the world. Learn more

Chances are high someone working in whiskey is an aficionado, but apparently that’s not the perception if you’re a woman: a new survey found that more than 80% of women in the whiskey world are still asked if they “actually like whisky (sic)” while at work or while making a purchase, with 89% agreeing that consumers still widely perceive whiskey to be a man’s drink. 

1. The new data comes from the world’s first global survey of women in whiskey, conducted last month by the OurWhisky Foundation. 
2. The report found a staggering 70% of women working in the whiskey industry have experienced sexual harassment while on the job.
3. 87% of respondents felt that they experience more challenges in the workplace than their male counterparts, reporting the top three most challenges they face are unconscious bias (84%), stereotyping (76%) and a lack of representation (54%).
4. The statistics echo industry-wide issues: the 2023 Women Raising the Bar Study showed only one in 10 women working in the beverage alcohol industry believe there has been a significant positive change toward women overall in the last five years.

Who’s Making A Change? After “Forbidden,” Will More Female Bourbon Distillers Follow Marianne Eaves? and Six Questions with Elizabeth McCall, Woodford Reserve Master Distiller

At least that is what So Cool Brands is hoping consumers will say when they see its new Paper Water Bottle technology, announced on social media platforms yesterday. The beverage company, which makes zero-sugar, flavored water So Cool Thirst Quencher in cartons and aluminum bottled waters, has launched a marketing campaign for its new biodegradable paper water bottles.

• In a fairly over-simplified instructional video, the company says that its bottles will biodegrade in landfills more efficiently than plastic bottles and help create energy-producing methane gas that helps power communities.
• The brand appears to be preparing for distribution of the Paper Water Bottle product in Whole Foods, Wegmans and Sprouts locations as well as a possible partnership with JetBlue Airlines, all of which were tagged in the post.
• Paper water is not a new innovation. Boxed Water is Better launched in 2009 and Will and Jaden Smith-backed Just Water brought its own spin to paper-based receptacles in 2015 by infusing flavor into water.

Read on to learn how Boxed Water is Better has tried to trademark the “Boxed Water” name

Shadi Bakour, the co-founder and CEO of PATH, a bottled water brand that uses refillable aluminum containers, spoke about how he convinced retailers and investors that there was an unmet need for the brand, the game changing impact of relationships with San Francisco Airport retailers and Natural Products Expo West, the value of licensing deals with Barbie and TMNT, and PATH’s $30 million Series A funding round. Listen to the Interview.

The damage that Jackass star Steve-O has done to his body is potentially immeasurable – the vast majority of it self-inflicted for yours and mine’s viewing pleasure. But now the comedian and stuntman has partnered with Liquid Death to put that power into the hands of the people with, what the brand says is, his first ever supernatural stunt by selling a line of authentic voodoo dolls. Spooky!

• The “All-Natural” voodoo dolls have been hand-made with Steve-O’s real hair and activated by an actual witch doctor, Liquid Death claims.
• The site says that “Anything you decide to do to the doll, Steve-O will actually feel!” It’s unclear how this will be verified, but the star seems to be prepped for any psychic miseries that may or may not befall him.
• They’re available now online for $125 each (limit two per customer, please).
• It’s far from the first time Liquid Death’s marketing department has deployed a witch doctor. In one of its first big viral promotions in 2019, the brand had a curse placed on its entire product line (selling the reversal spell for $1) and last year they tried to rig the Super Bowl.

Is the witch doctor contracted or have they brought him in-house yet? At this point, they use him enough that he should be full time by now. He could bless the production facility and do data entry on the side. Better than the gig economy…

Capri Sun is changing the game for tired parents. Though it might look like a fancy Bose product or a new Playstation accessory, the kid’s drink maker’s innovation is in fact just clever marketing in a fancy box. The new advertising campaign launched this week with a hidden camera video of the brand selling its “Wireless Kid-Noise Canceling Technology” in a consumer electronics store where parents are shown the “easy to install, active noise cancellation system” of two Capri Sun juice pouches in a box. For about 50 glorious seconds, parents can “experience the high fidelity sound of no sound” as their children sip on 6 ounces of Capri Sun juice drink.

Well done, Capri Sun! Well Done!