• 🥃 Brothers Bond Bourbon Nabs $7.5M
• 📖 The Latest BevNET Magazine Issue
• 📣 Basemakers Pivots On Brokerage
• 🥇 Suntory Eyes “Gold Medal” of RTDs
• 🐄 Mars Spends $27M To Cut Dairy Carbon
• 🔍 How Emily Griffith Transformed An Overlooked Superfood Into A Beloved Brand

Fifteen-year-old GT Dave began brewing kombucha in his childhood bedroom back in 1995. Flash forward 30 years, and his homemade brew is now the face of a multimillion dollar category that has helped to establish health and wellness as the guiding M.O. of modern beverage innovation. 

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, GT’s Living Foods is launching a new flavor – Wildflower – made with “mocktail-inspired flavor notes” that are “crisp yet refreshing,” Dave told us via email.

• The new SKU arrives in an embossed bottle with the “sacred geometry ‘seed of life’ which is intended to be a visual reminder of our belief that the food we ingest should be sacred and a catalyst for positive growth,” he added.
• The anniversary year will be packed with activations to celebrate the brand, including an event at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. on Wednesday, March 5 featuring “a brief retrospective of our journey and a glimpse to the future.”

When Dave started his company, kombucha was effectively unknown in America. Today,the refrigerated kombucha set is worth over $758.1 million, growing 3% in U.S. MULO and c-store in the 52-weeks ending December 29, 2024, per market research firm Circana. GT’s holds a 46.8% market share with $355 million in dollar sales.

It’s not all linear though. The category has gone through big ups and big downs over the last decade, and Dave believes kombucha remains in an “identity crisis,” as competing brands have positioned the liquid as a CSD alternative and developed shelf-stable varieties to open up new distribution opportunities.

“When something becomes popular, companies rush in to capitalize, often diluting authenticity,” he said. “Many brands cut corners –pasteurizing their products or relying on exclusively added lab-grown probiotics – stripping away the very life that makes kombucha what it is.”

And what of the rising functional soda segment, which fellow kombucha leaders like Health-Ade and Humm have fully embraced? Well, don’t expect GT’s to be hopping on the trend anytime soon.

“We’re not here to compete with functional soda,” he said. “We’re here to offer alternative choices – living foods that nourish, heal, and truly make a difference.”

Check BevNET this afternoon for the full story.

Investors have sunk their teeth into Brother's Bond Bourbon as it announces the close of a $7.5 million funding round today. 

📸 The whiskey brand was founded by co-stars of the teen TV drama series Vampire Diaries, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, during pandemic lockdowns. They tapped the show’s following ahead of the releasing their flagship bourbon in what became the most successful pre-sale launch on ReserveBar. 

💰 New funds will fuel the brand’s growth strategy including innovation “sustainable craftsmanship, and a commitment to redefining the future of ultra-premium whiskey,” according to a release. 

🌎 You may know Somerhalder from his other work: Netflix documentary Kiss the Ground, which unpacks the ways in which the earth's soil may be the key to combating climate change. 

• The bourbon brand has occasionally used regenerative grains and donates a portion of profits to support regenerative agriculture.

Need an extra caffeine kick to start the year? BevNET Magazine’s January/February is here to help, highlighted by a deep plunge into the RTD coffee space.

☕ Can functional coffee tame the category’s insatiable sweet tooth? Lukas Southard explores how the two are living in balance, and how innovative releases like Throne are building on either side of the trend.

🍸 What does a “dry” world mean for mixer brands? As Brad Avery reports… opportunities and obstacles abound.

🔮 Our annual Flavor & Ingredients Preview is in, with nostalgic and comforting flavors offering a slave during a time of geopolitical tension.

➕ Plus: Recap BevNET’s winter conferences and 2024 Best of Awards, and review the latest data from Circana.

Check out the full issue on BevNET

CPG retail strategy firm Basemakers is making some changes to its brokerage division just seven months after first erecting the new arm. According to CEO Max Baumann, the company went “too wide, too quick” and is re-strategizing with an “inch wide, mile deep” approach. 

⏪ Basemakers previously operated under the belief that a smaller brand portfolio with key account managers covering more accounts would maximize impact. As the company scaled, Baumann said that strategy failed to deliver “elite results.” 

⏩ Over the next nine months, Basemakers will start with one to two major accounts to ensure its resources and business model are sound while continuing to expand its nationwide retail coverage.

👀 Six Basemakers team members have been let go as a result of the shift. 

Suntory Global Spirits is still shooting to become a “gold medalist” in the global ready-to-drink (RTD) category, per its parent company’s FY24 earnings report last week. 

• With RTDs the fastest growing spirits category and the only one climbing double digits, the spirit company joins others putting its weight behind canned and bottled cocktails. 
• Overall sales growth from bev-alc grew 1% in the fiscal year. 
• Its flagship Jim Beam whiskey earned “low single digit sales and volume growth," while premium cocktail brand On The Rocks delivered double-digit sales and volume growth. 
• Canned cocktail -196, which launched in Europe and also expanded in the U.S. and Southeast Asia in 2024, delivered high single digit sales and volume growth. 
• Suntory Holdings revealed the creation of a new business unit, Suntory RTD Company North America, focused on malt-based, ready-to-drink (RTD) offerings, at the end of last year.

Mars is aiming to support about 165 dairy farmers with a $27 million sum as it works to shift its Fonterra-partnered dairy farmers toward climate-smart agriculture practices. 

🧑‍🌾 Dairy is Mars’ fourth-largest carbon contributor so the investment is essential for its goal to slash emissions in half by 2023, against its 2015 baseline. 

🚜 On-farm tools and tech investments will account for about half of the funds utilized by 2,000 dairy farmers in Mars’ partnership with Fonterra. 

🐮 The efforts will cover about 26,000 hectares of farmland and see up to $15,000 allocated per farm, per year, on average.  

Emily Griffith, the founder and CEO of fast-growing buckwheat-based food brand Lil Bucks, discusses the importance of clear messaging to connect with consumers and how simplicity, rather than over-innovation, led to success. She also talks about sourcing strategies, securing key retail partnerships, including Whole Foods and fundraising for the company’s Series A round.

Listen to the episode now. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.