• 🍸 Live From DISCUS
• ☕ Keurig Tests K-Rounds
• 🔴 Coke’s Plastic Problem
• 📝 Kroger/Albertsons Appeal Deal
• 🔀 Monday Moves

Fitness influencer Ashton Hall’s morning routine has turned into a huge boost for Saratoga Spring Water, and after a viral video last month turbo-charged the brand’s sales, we’re watching for their next move.

In early February, Hall posted a minute-by-minute video of his morning routine to Instagram and TikTok. It continued to gain traction throughout March thanks to the shareable absurdity of his regimen.

The video begins at 3:50 a.m. and includes multiple instances of dunking his head in ice water and rubbing a banana peel on his face. Most notably, Hall seems to be a big fan of Saratoga’s bottled water, given how often he shows off the brand’s distinctive blue glass bottle.

Now, Saratoga is being hailed as the “latest TikTok craze,” in the words of MarketWatch, and the stock of its parent company Primo Brands (formerly BlueTriton) is booming, as are retail sales.

Saratoga’s viral fame is just the latest in a long line of brands unexpectedly blowing up online for an out-of-left-field post; recall Ocean Spray’s “Vibin’ to Fleetwood Mac” moment, Poppi’s founder story breakout, or the entire phenomenon of WaterTok. 

Flexible Creative founder Kendall Dickieson told BevNET “the brands that benefit most from viral moments are the ones that act quickly and lean authentically into the trend,” which Saratoga looks so far to be doing well.

Ocean Spray’s ‘Vibin’ video, which was posted in 2021 by TikTok user Nathan Apodaca without involvement from the brand, is a prime case study for how to successfully build on an organic viral trend, she said.

Ocean Spray won by 1) Publicly acknowledging the moment and 2) Keeping the spotlight on the creator and “not trying to hijack the narrative and make it about themselves.”

“This playbook works because it feels natural and earns goodwill,” Dickieson said. “Once the initial buzz fades, smart brands build layered content or campaigns around the moment — remixing the vibe into future posts, ads, or even product launches. It makes it feel like a ‘moment we all waited for’.”

What matters most is that the brand’s presence in Hall’s morning routine feels organic (and cold!) to consumers. Now, the ball is in Saratoga’s court to capitalize.

Go Deeper: ‘WaterTok’ Spiked Jel Sert’s Sales, Now it’s Building Around the Trend

Many were advocating for the federal government to untangle distilled spirits from tariff policy during the annual Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) conference in Washington D.C. last week. Here’s our notes from the conference floor:

DISCUS is “working hard” with other trade associations and North American trading partners to carve out a tariff exception for bev-alc, according to the group’s president and CEO Chris Swonger.

• Nearly 150 attendees met with congressional representatives on Thursday to lobby for the continuation of zero-for-zero tariffs on distilled spirits, as well as for transparency about the process to determine the next set of Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

Also DISCUS’d: The Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

• An updated DGA is published every five years, and a new process to evaluate alcohol’s place in the DGA this round has drawn ire from industry trade groups.
• The two reports that will inform the guidelines reached different conclusions about the impact of alcohol consumption on health. 
• DISCUS leadership and panelists argued that one of the reports involved scientists biased against alcohol, and with expertise in the prevention of underage drinking, but not adult alcohol consumption.

💬 “I think what you see is us continuing to demand the best science, to continue to demand the best transparency, the best expertise on this, and hopefully we see HHS [Health and Human Services] come to the right conclusions, because this is a big deal,” said Kentucky congressman Morgan McGarvey.

Insiders can access all of our notes and top takeaways.

Could this be the cure to Keurig’s coffee crisis? We may know after beta testing of the brewing machine’s new tech, rolling out in prototype machines starting today.

♻️ All eyes are on the K-Rounds (first announced this time last year) which are now compostable and plastic-and-aluminum-free (unlike its first-gen predecessor).

🇮🇹 When used with the variable pressure system inside the new Keurig Alta brewer, the pods can produce cold coffee, hot drip brews and, for the first time, “authentic espressos” with “golden velvety crema.”

👷🏼‍♂️ K-Rounds will be produced in Massachusetts during beta testing while a new dedicated manufacturing plant in South Carolina is under construction.

📉 KDP is hoping the new tech will help to arrest declining coffee sales; Q4 2024 sales dropped 2.4% to $1.1 billion, despite a 1.1% volume increase.

Go Deeper: KDP’s U.S. Refreshment Bevs Boost Earnings Amid Coffee Declines

The Coca-Cola Company is under fire for exacerbating plastic pollution and abandoning its goals to reduce its reliance on single-use plastics in a 50-page report published by conservation nonprofit Oceana. 

↗️ Coke’s annual plastic packaging use has increased from 6.53 billion pounds in 2018 to nearly 7.61 billion pounds in 2023, Oceana calculated. 

🌊 If nothing changes, Coke’s annual plastic use will be over 9.12 billion pounds by 2030 with about 1.33 billion pounds ending up in the world’s oceans and waterways, the report states.

😤 Coke stepped away from its goal to reach 25% reusable packaging by 2030 and weakened its aim to increase recyclable plastic use 30% to 35% instead of its previous goal of 50% back in December.

🤷 The soda giant responded to a shareholder letter chiding its environmental goal cuts by announcing it would disclose its investments in reusable bottles.

Catch Up: Coke Updates Environmental Goals

Will this deal ever truly be dead? The tone between Kroger and Albertsons has shifted from complete animosity (read: lawsuits flying between the two as recently as two weeks ago and ever since the $24.6 billion mega-merger was blocked in December), to some semblance of common ground.

🧑‍⚖️ The duo filed an appeal on March 27 against a Washington state judge’s ruling that permanently blocked the deal, per Law360, as they look to free themselves from having to cover even more legal fees. 

🍴 The move won’t revive the transaction (Remember: an Oregon federal judge also blocked the deal in the Federal Trade Commission case) but comes after both Albertsons and the deal’s divestiture plan partner C&S sued Kroger for not forking over termination free payments.

💰 The Washington ruling stipulated that the state was also entitled to recover attorney fees, to a tune of about $32.4 million, since it was the prevailing party.

Catch Up: C&S Sues Kroger

Here’s a taste of the people and products moving around the industry to start off your week.

⚡ All Phenoms has landed a distribution deal at GNC, as it takes its recent packaging refresh and functional mushroom-based sparkling beverage beyond its roots in SoCal natural channel stores.

🥥 Once Upon A Coconut is bringing its canned coconut water (in Pure, Pineapple, Chocolate and Watermelon flavors) to all 70 Fresh Thyme Market locations.

🌱 Cannabis infusion technand ingredient supplier Vertosa appointed Diana Eberlin, the current chair of industry group the Coalition of Adult Beverage Alternatives, as its chief external affairs officer where she will continue to lobby for hemp beverages in state and federal legislatures.