• 🆕 NPG: This Week’s Hot New Sips
• 🇺🇲 Hail to the Soda Chief
• 🏴‍☠️ Diageo Sails Captain Morgan into FMBs
• 🤝🏼 Spirits Accelerators Bring in New Cohorts
• 🍄 Gut Sodas, Funding Woes and Mushrooms

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We’re just a few short weeks away from the deluge of Expo West, but the new product announcements are already coming thick and fast. Here’s a quick look at some of what you’ll find in the full gallery:

🥳 G Fuel seeks to take consumers on an excellent adventure with its latest flavor release, Wyld Stallyns Bahama Mama. Made in partnership with Creative Licensing Corporation, the limited edition variety takes inspiration from the classic comedy film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. 

🥤 Spindrift reimagines two classics with the launch of Grapeade and Island Punch. The former is a better-for-you take on the classic grape soda of the 90s made with Concord grapes sourced from vineyards in the Pacific Northwest combined with sparkling water. The latter, a brighter take on tropical punch, is crafted with passion fruit, orange and guava juice.

🥛 Plant-based milk brand Mooala debuts a new on-the-go format for its Bananamilks in Sprouts stores nationwide. Available in three flavors – Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry – each 8 oz. shelf-stable carton of milk is available for a SRP of $1.69.

Check out the full New Products Gallery on BevNET. 

When we first encountered New York-based start-up United Sodas of America back in 2020, the brand was just getting off the ground under the leadership of co-founder Marisa Zupan with an ambitious billboard campaign touting the slickly designed line of 12 oz cans across the five boroughs. 

Four years and one BevNET Award later, Zupan has exited day-to-day operations, but the company lives on under the leadership of a new executives team, announced this week: Dan Herndon, a longtime CPG sales and marketing exec, has been named president, and former Juvee and Red Bull marketer Carli Nicholas has been appointed head of marketing.

🌈 United Sodas was founded in 2019 and launched a year later with a 12-SKU line of better-for-you CSDs, marked by unique flavors like Pear Elderflower and colorful, minimalist can design.

💰 The brand is still early stage and just closed a $4.25 million seed funding round last year, which helped to bring Herndon and Nicholas into the fold.

🛒 As President of the U.S.A., Herndon will oversee day-to-day operations, while CEO and co-founder Craig Roscoe will focus mainly on investor relations. Herndon now wants to extend the brand further outside of natural retailers and into conventional grocery accounts with a goal of achieving 60% year-over-year growth in 2024.

Read the full story on BevNET.

Captain Morgan has released a new ready-to-drink cocktail, but don’t expect it to contain rum.

Diageo’s flagship spiced rum brand is being extended into the flavored malt beverage category with a new cocktail-inspired product, Captain Morgan Sliced, launching this month.

➡️ Just yesterday CEO Debra Crew spoke at the CAGNY consumer analyst conference about how Diageo’s innovations are recruiting new drinkers, so we can only assume the new cocktail-inspired product is tapping into flavor forward trends and recruiting from those Gen Z drinkers who prefer non-carbonated canned cocktails. 

📊 While spirit-based RTDs have been leading growth for the segment, FMBs recorded the second highest dollar sales growth in the beer category in 2023 and c-stores make up a lot of those dollars. With a malt-base, the cocktail has access to more retail channels. 

🆕 It’s been a busy month for RTD launches: In addition to Snoop and Dre’s juicy debut, Diageo’s rival, Pernod Ricard, also launched a slew of ready-to-serve (RTS) and ready-to-drink (RTD) products this month, including a three-SKU Malibu Rum RTS line in one-liter TetraPak cartons.

Read the full story on BevNET

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Two spirits accelerators have announced their next generation of emerging brands: Diageo’s Distilled Ventures is kicking off its first pre-accelerator cohort of 2024 with two women-owned spirits, meanwhile InvestBev’s Sprout brought in 12 new founders for its three-month program.

💰 DV’s seed funding and mentorship program, aimed at recruiting underrepresented founders into the drinks community, has invested in Jackson McCrea Whiskey and UME Plum Liqueur. Jackson McCrea is a Black and women-owned luxury whiskey, based in L.A. and positioned by and for women. Giving us more purple hued drinks, UME, a NY-based luminescent plum liqueur is inspired by the tart and slightly sweet flavor of plum liqueurs enjoyed from around the world.

Since its introduction in 2021, the Pre-Accelerator has committed $10 million to 16 drinks brands and 19 founders from under-represented communities, including Lodestar Whiskey, Atōst and

Vervet.

🌏 Across the pond, Sprout Beverage, InvestBev’s invite-only, start-up accelerator for emerging adult beverage brands has selected 12 founders to receive education, mentoring, and resources. The program culminates in a pitch competition where graduating brands compete to secure $100,000 in investments and join the InvestBev brand portfolio. The brands range from craft cocktails, to honey-based liqueurs, to quite a few agave spirits. Category pioneer Absinthia is in the mix too— btw here’s a fun dive we did last year on the green fairy.

In this episode, the team is keeping tabs on the gut soda category, with senior reporter Brad Avery unpacking Poppi acquisition rumors and pondering the possibilities of Big Beverage entering the space. Editor-in-Chief Jeff Klineman discusses the current investment climate, and Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous questions the mainstream appeal of medicinal mushrooms.

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