• 🆕 Gallery: This Week’s Hot New Sips
• 🩺 Brew Dr.’s Refreshing New Prescription
• 🛍️ In the Mix: Bobelo Takes Powers to Retail
• 🤯 Lucky F*ck Harnesses Liquid Death Energy With New Ad
• 👨🏼‍⚖️ Health-Ade Sued Over “Forever Chemicals”

What’s the secret to staying ahead in the CPG industry? A trusted partner that understands the importance of innovation and strategic growth. Join powerhouse brands like Liquid Death, Perfect Snacks, and Lesser Evil to see how Vividly can revolutionize your trade promotion strategy. Learn more

What do Atari 2600+-themed energy drink products and fruit-flavored probiotic sodas have in common? No, it’s not a trick question! They’re both featured in the latest edition of BevNET’s weekly New Products Gallery. Here’s a brief overview of what to expect:

🎮 G FUEL is evoking nostalgia with its new Atari 2600+ collection. The G FUEL Atari 2600+ Collector’s box ($99.99) includes a 40-serving tub of the themed flavor, an Atari x CX40+ joystick tumbler, an Atari keychain, and three 15-serving tubs of some of the vintage console’s most-played cartridges.

🥤Brew Dr. (more below) expands its gut-friendly drink portfolio with the release of Sipjoy, a line of “low sugar probiotic refreshers” available in Grapefruit, Orange, Lemonade + Tea and Lime flavors. 

🍊Tropicana introduces “Tropcn,” a new limited-edition packaging removing “AI” from its name to celebrate the brand’s natural ingredients and highlight the fact there’s nothing artificial inside. The brand has hidden bottles of “Tropcn” across participating Kroger banners nationwide

See the full NPG on BevNET.

Brew Dr. is the latest kombucha maker to embrace the gut health trend in a new format, debuting a “probiotic refresher” line this month called Sipjoy.

😂 Packaged in 12 oz. cans, the line promises consumers “No Fake Stuff” and touts an ingredient panel of brewed tea, kombucha culture, organic fruit juice, organic licorice root, 5 grams of organic cane sugar and probiotics.

📈 With Sipjoy, Brew Dr joins fellow kombucha makers like Health-Ade, Humm and Cove (to name a few) who have introduced functional gut health lines in order to reach new consumers.

🍃 Unlike the functional soda and seltzer segment, Sipjoy is still made with tea and kombucha culture. However, CEO Dan Stangler said in a press release that in action, the drink goes down more “like your favorite sparkling water” than a vinegar-heavy kombucha.

Bobelo, a functional powdered drink mix brand which creates carbonated beverages when poured into still water, is making a big push into brick-and-mortar retail after years solely selling online.

✨ Based in Utah, Bobelo is partnered with consumer brands portfolio company Spark Innovation which has spearheaded the brand’s expansion into the conventional grocery channel, managing distribution and buyer negotiations.

🛒 Bobelo is now available in accounts like Harmons, King Soopers and Associated Foods around Utah and the Rocky Mountain region.

☀️ The brand is aiming to be in 1,200 doors by this summer, with new flavor innovations set to launch later this year as well.

Read the full story on BevNET.

In a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign, energy drink brand Lucky F*ck has taken an approach that might feel reminiscent of Liquid Death’s humorous and at-times abrasive ads. Lucky F*ck’s new ad features a variety of people from many demographics explaining how having a “f*ck” helps them get through the day.

💸 Lucky F*ck hit the market last summer and quickly secured a $4 million seed investment in November from Imaginary Ventures that has helped the brand expand its distribution.

💪 Launched by the founder of Kate Farms, Richard Laver, the move into the energy category was driven by a number of tragedies and challenges Laver faced in his life with the beverage intending to be part of his philosophy of perseverance in the face of adversity.

🥤 The beverage is available in five flavors and positions itself as a better-for-you energy drink with zero sugar and five calories. It is made with only five ingredients, including maca (which the company adds is known to boost sex drive) and beta-alanine.

As the bottled water business faces questions over tiny particles called nanoplastics, Health-Ade kombucha has been drawn into the growing uproar over PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, being found in beverages. A class action lawsuit has been filed against the kombucha company in the Southern District of New York alleging false advertising from Health-Ade which markets “health” products with “natural” and “organic” ingredients. According to the suit, it also contains “dangerously high levels of PFAS chemicals” which are believed to be carcinogenic and harmful to human health.

💰 The lead plaintiff, Alanna Morton, is seeking financial reparations of more than $5 million due to “economic injuries” as a result of purchasing Health-Ade because “no reasonable consumer would expect that a product marketed for one’s health would contain dangerous PFAS,” Morton’s attorneys said in the court document.

🧪 “Forever chemicals” have become a rising pain point in the beverage industry as drink makers are continuing to draw the ire of consumers concerned with the levels of PFAS being found in drinks. A growing list of brands has come under fire recently over PFAS, from Coca-Cola’s Simply Tropical to Congo Brands PRIME beverage.