• Beverage Review Roundup
• Gold Bar Goes Long With Joe Montana
• Agrify Finds Its ‘Rythm’
• Inside Walmart’s New Marketplace Capabilities
• Spirits Tech Outfit Voodoo Scientific Adds Investor
• Danone’s Multi-Million Dollar Manufacturing Investment
• CPG Week: KDP's Plans For Peet's

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We’re exactly one week out from kickoff on opening night of the NFL season, and beverage brands are debuting their starting ambassador lineups.

Recover 180, the latest hydration beverage brand from serial entrepreneur Lance Collins, has brought on Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby as an investor. 

• After its initial 2018 launch, Recover 180 made a big push in 2024 showcasing a refreshed look and quickly adding big name partnerships with San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy and Los Angeles Lakers star Austin Reaves.
• As one of many recent entrants into the hydration category (be they Barcode, Leisure or Unwell… to name far too few), standing out has become harder with functional callouts no longer enough of a differentiator.
• Locking in star power early and tying the brand to the athletic world it’s pitching to seems to have become an integral part of the playbook.

Incidentally, Crosby this week also announced he’s joining Monster Energy as a brand ambassador, showing athletes can build beverage rosters of their own.

The move may just be another example of rising table stakes in hydration brand and athlete deals, with companies increasingly building out full rosters of players to capture new audiences. 

NIL in the NCAA has opened the floodgates for sports partnerships and startups increasingly appear to be in an arms race to recruit new talent as early as possible (just look at Barcode’s coup signing Victor Wembanyama ahead of his rookie NBA season).

Celsius named four new NCAA college football stars to its own NIL roster including…

• Jeremiyah Love (Running Back, Notre Dame), Caleb Downs (Safety, Ohio State), Bryce Underwood (Quarterback, Michigan) and Cade Klubnik (Quarterback, Clemson) for the 2025-26 season.

Startup hydration and energy drink brand PHX also came out the gate fiercely naming a whopping 100+ college athletes, alongside Barstool Sports head Dave Portnoy, as partners.

But for older consumers, adding a Hall of Famer can be just as sweet. Just take a look at Gold Bar Whiskey, which rolled out its first RTD cocktail line with help from 49ers legend Joe Montana this week (more on that below).

Check out more of the latest marketing moves on BevNET.

It’s a good week for reviews if you are looking for a buzz — take your pick from THC (Plift), caffeine (Naked Sparkling Energy) or the bees themselves, i.e. Beekeeper Coffee’s honey-kissed horchata latte. 

See how many stars we gave each sip, and scour our suggestions for improvements.

To submit your beverage product to BevNET for review, click here. And to browse past reviews, check the archive here.

San Francisco-based distillery Gold Bar launched its first RTD in partnership with Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. The 8% ABV “Double Gold” uses fresh orange, ginger and lime juices to make a whiskey-based take on the Moscow Mule.

• The Bay Area distillery has a long history of partnering with Montana’s former team, the San Francisco 49ers as well as the team’s stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
• The distillery is also commemorating the 49ers’ 1985 championship with the release of Gold Bar Whiskey Retro Edition – an 85-proof straight bourbon finished in wine casks.

Read the full report on BevNET.

Cannabis brand Rythm’s beverage ambitions are still high (forgive the pun), but they won’t be achieved at Green Thumb Industries. 

Rythm, a recent entrant to the Delta 9-THC stakes with a solid pair of flavored seltzers, is now part of Agrify Corp. after being included in Green Thumb’s $50 million selloff of its brand portfolio, announced on Wednesday. 

While dumping its brands – Beboe, Dogwalkers, Doctor’s Solomon’s, &Shine and Good Green – to Agrify, Green Thumb will continue to manufacture and distribute them through a licensing deal. 

Catch Up: RYTHM Expands into THC-Infused Drinks

In what is likely its latest effort to compete with Amazon, Walmart this week introduced new tools and seller incentives for Walmart Marketplace, its ecommerce platform that connects third-party sellers to its customer base. Updates include…

• AI-powered listing tool to help sellers reduce time to market and increase conversion rates
• A brand portal that flags fraudulent activity
• Next day shipping to major metros like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta, through Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
• Access to reach customers across multiple marketplaces, including the U.S., Mexico and Chile

Most notable: Expanded omnichannel presence through in-store digital discovery with a pilot test allowing consumers to scan QR codes throughout a Texas store to shop an extended online assortment. 

What did an ecommerce expert have to say about the changes? Read the full story.

Distilling technology company Voodoo Scientific has created a new, innovative process called “Viriato” which it claims removes “the harsh bite and burn in spirits.” (Isn’t the burn part of the point of drinking spirits?) 

The precision enzyme system can work with most distillation equipment and processes to make a spirit smoother, the company claims. This week, that proprietary process got a vote of confidence from Jeff Hopmayer, founder of whiskey sourcing, managing and investing company Brindiamo Group, who joined as an investor and new board member.

Read the full press release on our Newswire. 

Have news of your own to share? Submit it here.

Yogurt is having a little moment in the high-protein era, and so is scaling in-house manufacturing capacity. French dairy conglomerate Danone is not getting left out as it pumps millions of dollars into its Minister, Ohio production plant.

• A 48,000 sq. ft. expansion will bring a new production line and upgrades to existing lines 
• The investment will also create 30 new full-time jobs 
• Danone’s milk purchases will increase by 60% in the coming years as capacity ramps up

Category Context: Chobani recently broke ground on an expansion to its Idaho facility and announced plans for a $1.2 billion new facility in New York, signaling that the demand for yogurt will continue. Danone highlighted in its most recent investor earnings call that high-protein yogurt products have shown high-demand across the company’s geographic footprint.

Catch Up: Danone Agrees Deal for Plant-Based Nutrition Brand Kate Farms

Looking to make more data-based decisions for your business? The Nombase Data Hub is your centralized resource for food, beverage, and beer industry reports, available exclusively to Insiders.

📊 Gain access to reports built from consumer insights, social listening, scan data, and on-premise surveys.

Unlock the full archive here.

In this episode of CPG Week, Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous and senior reporter Lukas Southard discuss Keurig Dr Pepper’s post-acquisition plans for the JDE Peet’s business, new funding for yogurt maker Painterland Sisters and alt-protein producer The Better Meat Co., and the decision behind Spindrift’s exit from the beverage alcohol category.

Click here to listen to this week’s episode. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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