• 🍸 Bev-Alc Sales Tick Down 
• 🆕 This Week’s Notable New Sips
• 🍯 Jenny Craig Lives On In Hard Honey
• 🥊 KetoneIQ Taps UFC Champ
• 🪴 Hemp Co.'s Push Back On NJ Law

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BevAlc sales softened slightly in the two-week period before November 2, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs Equity Research. Here’s the overview: 

📉 Sales dipped slightly to 1% for the two-week period, compared to 1.4% in the four-week period and flat sales in the 12-weeks. Volume was down 0.3% versus 0.1% in the four-weeks and decreased 1.9% in the 12-weeks up against steady pricing growth.

🥃 Volume across all categories softened a bit, but sales of spirits-based RTDs are still going strong, up 23.3% in the two-week period, versus an 18.8% increase in the 12-weeks. Wine RTDs are also up 32%. In recent years, RTDs have continued to do well over the holidays, we'll see after Thanksgiving if that trend looks like it will keep up through December.

Of those spirits-based RTDs, High Noon, Cutwater, and Nutrl are showing double-digit sales, while Jack Daniel’s is up 8% with its share contracting year-over-year but holding flat sequentially. 

🏄 The hard tea wars also rage on: Surfside is gaining share (2%) over Boston Beer’s vodka-based iced tea Sun Cruiser (1.5%), despite the latter's ACV gain of 16% over Surfside's 11%. 

Go deeper: New-to-World Brands at Forefront of Spirits RTD Growth.

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 into a neat array. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

👀 BODYARMOR is diving deeper into the powdered category with the release of Flash I.V. Caffeine Sticks. The brand’s latest on-the-go offering contains 95 mg of caffeine and 2,220 mg of electrolytes per serving. 

🎄 Cann has expanded its portfolio of THC-infused beverages with the launch of Cranberry Sage. The limited edition flavor is available online and in-store in two formats: 8 oz. Canns (2 mg of THC and 4 mg CBD) and 12 oz. Hi Boys (5 mg of THC and 10 mg of CBD).

☕ With the holiday season right around the corner, Dunkin’ has unveiled a new collection of at-home products, including Merry Mint Bark Iced Coffee, Winter White Razz Iced Coffee, and Gingerbread Flavored Coffee. 

Check out the full gallery on BevNET later today. 

Collin McKenna, the grandson of Sidney Craig (founder of the weight loss company Jenny Craig), has put his own spin on better-for-you products with LIXIR, a canned cocktail line made with mead. This week, the company announced the launch of its first public stock offering as well as the addition of a few big names to the team. 

💰 With over $500,000 raised pre-launch, new backers include James Watt, founder of BrewDog; Jack Sinclair, CEO of Sprouts Farmers Market; Jeff Church, founder of Suja Juice; and Michael Bedrosian COO of Fasttrack.

☑️ The brand is aiming to check all the wellness boxes by positioning itself to consumers as a low-sugar, 100-calorie canned cocktail made from regenerative organic honey, fruits, and herbs. 

🎥 According to Watt in the brand’s new pitch video, LIXIR is not just a new company, “but a new category.” Anyone who spends time in Ethiopian restaurants or caught Bee D’Vine’s appearance on Shark Tank might disagree about calling hard honey “new” but we’ll be watching to see how the brand modernizes the format of this historic drink.

🧠 Ketone shot maker KetoneIQ has partnered with UFC heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones on a new marketing campaign that includes social media posts and a Hot Ones-esque Q&A show on Youtube called “Fast Ones.” On the show, Brandt (a marathon runner) and Jones run on treadmills that increase in speed as the MMA fighter is barraged with questions.

🎅🏽 Holiday season is upon us and modern soda brand Olipop unveiled a seasonal ad featuring claymation yetis trying to embrace the Christmas spirit.

🤖 Coke has started its holiday ad blitz with a familiar campaign showing Coca-Cola trucks delivering Christmas cheer but using Coca-Cola’s AI software, Real Magic AI. Some critics are less than impressed calling it a “dystopian nightmare.”

💦 Pharrell Williams has teamed up with evian on a “Fountain of Youth” LTO bottle. The partnership is the second campaign between the premium water company and Williams’ lifestyle brand Humanrace.

New Jersey-based Loki Brands, alongside a group of hemp manufacturing companies, is asking a New Jersey appeals panel to take another look at an order blocking the state’s regulation of intoxicating hemp products and requested that the Third Circuit amend the bill, which was signed into law in September.

• The group claims the law narrows the definition of hemp, which was legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill, to exclude products it deems as intoxicating.
• The law originally restricted intoxicating products sold in state and criminalized intoxicating products coming in from out-of-state, but the latter portion was struck down following a lawsuit in October.  
• The appeal notice filed this week doesn’t make any requests for remedial actions.