• 🍸 Renais Gin Raises $6M
• 🥂 TÖST Introduces New Format
• 🧼 Marketing: The First Collabs of 2025
• 🥕 Carrot Ads Platform to Foodservice
• 🫖 TreeHouse Finalizes Harris Tea Acquisition
• 🔙 What’s In Store For 2025? Let’s Run It Back.

Giving an overarching term like “soda” a more unique positioning has helped create successful sub-categories like “prebiotic soda” and “energy soda” – but what’s a “social soda”?

Josh Miller, founder of Owen’s Mixers, thinks he knows, though he initially struggled to articulate the notion while speaking on the phone with BevNET last week about Owen’s first line extension: Daizy’s Social Soda, packing 10 mg hemp-derived THC across its five fruit-flavored SKUs.

There’s talk of emphasizing “refreshment,” about a lack of education around hemp-derived THC and a commitment to play by the rules in an unregulated market, but ultimately “social soda” is about inclusivity, something his other brand knows well, he says. 

• “I think what Owen’s stands for is inclusivity and the fact that whether you want to drink alcohol or not, you can use our product in a variety of ways. That's really what led us being the first to really try to go after that [‘social’] side of the category.”

However you define it, Daizy’s appears well-poised to help Owen’s extend its reach at a time when the border between booze and non-alcoholic “functional” drinks (yes, we’re including weed here) is increasingly porous. The mixer company’s track record of balancing prominent on-premise partners (JetBlue, Chili’s, PGA Tour) with execution at retail has given Daizy’s a platform on which to expand: it’s currently in 12 states across the South and Midwest, including all 200 Spec’s stores in Texas and at all Total Wine locations where authorization is legal.  

“What this has taught me is that Owen Woods, Inc., our parent company, is truly an authority on non-alcoholic [beverages],” said Miller. “What we demonstrated here is that we can not only go into new categories that have opportunities, but we can win in them and become category leaders. That’s where I see Daisy’s headed.”

Keep an eye out on BevNET today for the full story.

Renais Gin, the brand co-founded by Harry Potter actress Emma Watson, has charmed U.S. investors as it announced the close of a $6.18 million capital raise today. 

🚚 Launched in the U.K. in May 2023, sibling founders Alex and Emma Watson secured a five-year strategic distribution partnership with Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC), and started their U.S. rollout in California and New York last summer with plans to expand to other states this year. 

🪄 The business has also cast its spell on 11 other countries, with disbursement agreements in an additional 22. The funding will aid a continued push stateside, as well as upcoming launches in France, Spain, Dubai and Canada.

💰 InvestBev and Jean-Sébastien Robicquet of French spirit group Maison Villevert lead the funding round. Renais joins a crop of higher-end gin brands (and celebrities!) aiming to capitalize on the spirit’s premiumization run in the U.S., which has shown a slightly longer life than other spirit categories. 

Go Deeper: The Next Episode: Dr. Dre and Snoop Launch Still G.I.N.

Just in time for Dry January, non-alcoholic sparkling beverage producer TÖST debuted its new 250 mL can format today which will now be available alongside the brand’s 750 mL and 250 mL bottles. The cans come in Original and Rosé varieties. 

💻 The cans are available on TÖST’s website for a SRP of $3.49 per can or $13.99 per 4-pack. Additionally, the new format will roll out to retailers nationwide throughout 2025, supported by co-branded partnerships and a social media campaign.  

🗣️ What they said: “After testing can formats at experiential events and in arenas and sporting venues like the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this past fall, we’ve found that the canned format opens up a whole new world of possibilities.” - Brooks Addington, CEO of TÖST

🧖 Personal care brand Native is doubling down on the beverage collabs, debuting two new co-branded collections – one with Mexican soda mainstay Jarritos, and another with New England’s favorite corporate coffee chain Dunkin’. Both lines feature scented shampoos, conditioners, lotions and deodorants.

🍺 Heineken is encouraging consumers to resist peer pressure in its latest NA beer Heineken 0.0 ad campaign, suggesting that going sober should be “reason free.” The campaign was inspired by a new study that despite big drop-offs in alcohol consumption, NA consumers still feel the social stigma of not drinking.

🌟 Speaking of NA, canned mocktail brand Free AF is bringing in some star power via a new partnership with Khloe and Kris Kardashian. The celebs shared a video promoting Free AF to Instagram last week.

B2B ecommerce ordering platform Cut+Dry is working to connect distributors and other foodservice providers with potential customers via a new partnership with Instacart, implementing the delivery service’s Carrot Ads platform to give foodservice companies “direct access” to CPG brands advertising on the platform.

🤝 Carrot Ads works with nearly 220 retail partners and aims to “optimize the placements” for ads on ecommerce sites and utilize AI algorithms to develop personalized advertisements. This new partnership with Cut+Dry marks an expansion for the platform’s reach within the foodservice sphere.

💬 What they said: “Foodservice distributors have been left out of the rapidly growing digital advertising space. By integrating Instacart’s market-leading advertising capabilities with Cut+Dry’s scale and influence in foodservice distribution and digital commerce, we’re creating one of the largest digital advertising opportunities in the industry.” – Mani Kulasooriya, Cut+Dry co-founder and CEO.

Private label manufacturer TreeHouse Foods completed its previously announced acquisition of Harris Tea for approximately $205 million late last week. The transaction will bring further vertical integration across TreeHouse’s tea business, giving the company an “immediate leadership position in private label tea,” according to CEO Steve Oakland. 

🏭 The deal includes Harris Tea’s manufacturing facilities in Moorestown, N.J., and Marietta, Ga., as well as 300 employees. 

What can the past inform us about the future? As we enter a new year, this special edition of the podcast revisits three headlines from 2024 that generated inspired discussion among Taste Radio’s hosts and may hint at things to come for the food and beverage industry.

Listen to the episode here.