• 🆕 This Week’s Hot New Sips
• ✍️ New Hemp Adult-Use Certification
• 💰 JPalmer Collective's $72M Raise
• 🙋 People Moves: Zico’s New Athlete 
• ☃️ Fancy Food Show's 'First Taste'
• 📰 What We’re Reading: Battles for Shelf Space, Chicken Farmers’ Struggles to Feed Flocks

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It’s already mid-way through October and 2025 will be here before we know it. With the new year coming up fast, Whole Foods Market has released its annual top 10 food and beverage forecast for 2025, including a few big things to watch out for in the beverage category. Here’s some of the highlights.

Hydration Amps Up: Hydration beverages have been a fast-growing space, whether through the diversification of the traditional sports drink category or in other formats like coconut water, powdered mixes and electrolyte-enhanced energy drinks. And Whole Foods believes it's just warming up.

“Reusable water bottle culture is upon us, but consumers want more from their H2O these days,” the retailer said in its report, calling out brands like Skratch Labs as those benefiting from the demand for customizable enhanced waters. Beyond powders, however, RTDs such as Local Weather and KOR Hydrate, as well as plant-based hydration such as Pricklee, True Nopal, Harmless Harvest and Once Upon a Coconut are all feeling the lift.

Teas a-Brewing: New innovations in tea, from RTDs and bagged varieties to tea as a flavor in foods and desserts, are on the rise. Caffeinated yerba mate and yaupon drinks continue to build momentum with natural channel shoppers, while products such as Twrl Jasmine Pu’erh Milk Tea and Kola Goodies Sri Lankan Milk Tea Latte bring new flavors and textures to ready-to-drink.

It’s also seeing a big boost in ice cream, as Van Leeuwen and Bubbies both offer up some frozen tea-flavored treats in retail.

Eco-Friendly Booze: Alcohol and NA adult beverages are becoming greener, “embracing regenerative practices and lower-impact packaging,” Whole Foods reported. The Sustainable Wine Roundtable is aiming to reduce its bottle weights by 25% by 2026 to lower the carbon footprint, while beers and whiskeys are using more ingredients like “drought-resistant fonio or regeneratively farmed Kernza.”

Brewers like New Belgium, Brooklyn Brewery, Allagash, Firestone Walker and Athletic Brewing are some of those highlighted in the report, alongside wine producers Bonny Doon Vineyard, Harthill Farms and Tablas Creek Vineyard.

🍴 What Else?: Outside of beverage, some of Whole Foods highlights for 2025 include crunchier snacks, dumplings, international snack brands, next level compostables and “stepped up” sourdough products.

Check out the full report rundown from a food industry angle.

From apple crisp pudding-inspired sparkling water to plant-based nutrition shakes for kids, the latest edition of BevNET’s weekly new products gallery features innovations spanning all sides of the industry. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

🥤 Koia announced the launch of Koia Kids, a line of organic plant-based nutrition shakes specifically created to meet kids’ unique nutritional needs. The drinks are exclusively available on Amazon in Chocolate Shake, Vanilla Shake and Fruity Cereal flavors.

🍎 Aura Bora joined forces with Magnolia Bakery to unveil its latest sparkling water variety, Apple Cinnamon, inspired by the bakery’s Apple Crisp Pudding. As its name suggests, the new offering combines tart, juicy apples with cinnamon bark extract. 

🏪 Jones Soda dropped a new line of sodas tailored to c-stores. The new collection, named Fiesta Jones, features four Latin-inspired flavors: Watermelon Strawberry, Mango Passion Fruit, Coconut Lime and Guava Berry. 

Check out the full gallery on BevNET later today.

The U.S. Hemp Authority (USHA) has launched an Adult Hemp Product certification program to provide self-regulation of hemp-derived delta-9 and delta-8 THC. In 2018, USHA launched a certification program to help educate and guide consumers, retailers, policymakers and law enforcement in standards and best practices for self-regulating non-intoxicating hemp and CBD products.

💭 The new Adult Use certification program attempts to address the rise of intoxicating hemp products by promoting “safe products and standardized labeling while restricting access by minors.”

❌ The new certification comes as various states have passed regulations and implemented restrictions on intoxicating hemp products; alongside that, industry groups have increased lobbying efforts for clearer federal guidelines.

🥤 Earlier this year, AFicioNAdo launched its own Cannabis Beverage Certified (CBC) platform to address the lack of education available to distributors, lawmakers and retailers on suggested labeling standards and regulation of the fast-moving cannabev industry.

Stay ahead with our comprehensive report on innovative thirst. Learn about the latest trends, consumer needs, and product opportunities shaping the future of functional beverages. Get your free report and personalized recommendations for your brand. Learn more

Asset-based lending company JPalmer Collective, created to fund high-growth, women-led and natural product companies, announced a raise of $72 million. The new capital will be used to accelerate growth and fund new loans to JPC borrower clients.

💸 The raise consists of a combination of financing, including a senior revolving credit facility provided by Texas Capital Bank, a mezzanine credit facility from an unnamed New York-based institutional alternative asset manager and an infusion of common equity, according to the announcement.

👀 The transactions mark the first time JPC has raised outside capital since its founding in 2023 by ABL-industry veteran Jennifer Palmer.   

🥥 Coconut water maker Zico is no stranger to athlete investors, counting tennis star Naomi Osaka, NBA player Malik Monk and professional baseball pitcher Taijuan Walker among its brand ambassadors. Earlier this month, the company added Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf to the cap table. The news comes just a month after former Chamberlain Coffee CEO Chris Gallant was appointed CEO.

🔴 Swire Coca-Cola has appointed Andrea Kendell as its new president and CEO and Marc Hempstead as CFO of the Coke bottler which serves a 13-state region in the U.S. Kendall has served as Swire CFO since January.

📺 The Coca-Cola Company has appointed Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria to its 12-member board of directors. Bajaria oversees all television and film for Netflix.

The Specialty Food Association (SFA) announced new features for the upcoming 49th Winter Fancy Food Show, taking place in Las Vegas from January 19-21, and will bring new ways to sample the latest innovations and experience emerging food trends. 

🆕 This year, the show will feature a First Taste Experience meaning that one hall will feature the “newest products in the market;” each day of the show the theme of the hall and all of the products will rotate including Global Flavors, Holiday and Top Trends of 2025. 

✨ The show will also feature a new educational center dubbed Spark Showcase, an Ask the Experts space for small group and 1:1 discussions, co-location with the Tastemaker Conference and more. 

🗣️ What they said: "Every year, the Winter Fancy Food Show helps kickstart the trends, connections, and ideas that shape the year in food—and in 2025, we're going to take some of the most impactful aspects of the Show and make them even better through these new experiences." – Bill Lynch, SFA President 

🛒 ‘Stress on Shelves’— the Battle for Space in Store Aisles: As grocers continue trimming the number of items they stock and their overall physical footprint, the battle over shelf space between brands and private label items is heating up, according to a recent deep dive in the WSJ. 

🥛What a Crackdown on Immigration Could Mean for Cheap Milk: The New York Times interviewed a dairy owner in Idaho who revealed that the productivity of his operation – and of almost every successful dairy in America – now depends overwhelmingly on immigrants. The cost of labor is one of the inputs a company can control, but with a serious crackdown on undocumented immigrants, cheap dairy may become a thing of the past. 

🐔 Midwest Chicken Farmers Struggle To Feed Flocks: Dozens of farmers across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are struggling to feed their flocks after broiler chicken producer Pure Prairie Poultry abruptly closed its processing facility and filed for bankruptcy. The event has caused a serious hardship for nearby poultry farmers and others, the Associated Press reported.