Plant-based milk maker Ripple Foods has raised $49 million, according to an SEC filing this week. First reported by Forbes, the funding is part of a round seeking a total $55.3 million and adds to the brand’s roughly $268 million in past financing, the most recent tranche being a $60 million Series E round in 2021.

💸 Information on investors in the round was not immediately available. Past investors in the brand include S2G Ventures, Ajax Strategies, Bloom8, GroundForce Capital, Siddhi Capital and Prelude Ventures, among others.

🥛 Ripple’s portfolio includes multi- and single-serve plant-based milks for adults and kids, as well as protein shakes. Though it previously sold frozen desserts, the company’s current offerings are focused solely on beverages.

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The eternal battle between Coke and Pepsi has shifted to a new theater: electrolytes. Earlier this week, Coke won an appeal through the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) overturning a prior ruling that advised them to cease making the claim that Powerade has “50% more electrolytes vs. the leading sports drink.”

🧂While an initial review found that the “50% more electrolyte” claim “overstated the significance of the nutrient difference” between Powerade and its chief competitor, the NARB panel found that Powerade’s recent reformulation – adding addition sodium and potassium – did, in fact, prove the claim true.

💪🏼 So yes, Powerade can now safely tout its superior electrolyte payload, but it must call out the competition by name: the new recommended phrasing is “50% more electrolytes vs. Gatorade Thirst Quencher.”

For more details on the ruling and comment from BodyArmor’s CEO, read the full story on BevNET.

Oh you want spirits distribution news? We have spirits distribution news. 

☕ After Diageo acquired premium cold brew coffee liqueur brand Mr Black last year, the Australian brand is now revving up for nationwide distribution in the U.S., its largest market. Founder Tom Baker said the brand “point blank wants to win” the espresso martini spot, to do that it has armed its on-prem focus with top notch brand ambassadors and an in-bar education program. 

🇲🇽 Lo Siento Tequila, which has built hubs in Tennessee and California, has now moved into all Pavilions across Southern California. The LA-based brand has approached the saturated tequila category by working with beer distributors and by getting a foothold in a growing market like Nashville before too many more tequila players flood the scene.

🌊 Speaking of flooding: ocean-aged spirits are nothing new, for centuries that’s how barrels of spirit moved from one place to another, but Never Say Die Bourbon has blazed an interesting trail as the first Kentucky Bourbon to be ocean-aged on a six-week trip across the Atlantic, then further matured in barrels in England, and now headed back to test the waters in the U.S. 

Read the full story on BevNET

Sunday attendees of BevNET Live have a chance to take part in Beverage School, BevNET’s traditional entry curriculum for new brands, employees, and other parties who are starting their journey into the beverage business.

From 12-3:00 P.M.. in the Bayview Ballroom at the Marriott Marina del Rey, Beverage School attendees will be treated to a series of presentations and chats designed by hand-chosen experts who are bringing deep knowledge and experience around key disciplines in the business.

See the full Beverage School agenda here

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