• 🤫 Sanzo Adds Investment Partner
• 🏡 DoorDash: Consumers Love Drinking At-Home
• ⁉️ Why Diageo Want To Offload "Significant" Assets
• 🍸 Spirits Marketing Moves
• 🎣 ‘Reel’ Change Is Here. How Seremoni Reimagined An Industry.

Soda and energy drinks will be removed from Nebraska’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at the start of 2026 after USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins approved the first waiver to amend the state’s statutory definition of SNAP food purchases on Monday.

In effect, the order removes soda and energy drinks from the approved purchases list. More states are likely to follow suit.

• Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia have submitted similar waiver requests to take action on amending their respective states’ SNAP allowances. 
• Missouri, Idaho, Louisiana and many other states are also debating the issue in statehouses.

How SNAP cuts could impact sales of these products remains unclear, as well as how these state-by-state policies will be policed. Past efforts to restrict candy, potato chips and soda have proven difficult to implement.

• Currently under SNAP, “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol, tobacco and hot foods are allowed to be purchased. 
• In order to make changes to that broad rule, states must secure USDA approval via a waiver submission.

Many states are defining restricted beverages as fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50% natural juice. This would encompass nearly all sodas and energy drinks but could also include many juice drinks, hydration beverages and kombuchas.

The soda industry isn’t a fan of these policies, as one might imagine.

Insiders can read the full story to understand the potential impact.

We’ve been tracking Sanzo’s buzzy rise over the last couple of years, but this time the brand is making news quietly.

Sanzo has joined the portfolio of experienced investment group Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, per a LinkedIn post, joining the likes of Cure, Free Rein Coffee, Slate, G.O.A.T. Fuel and Foxtrot.  

📣 The announcement came from Morrison Seger owner and CEO Rogers Healy, who heaped praise on Sanzo as “one of my new favorite beverage discoveries over the past few years, thanks in large part to their mission to be the 1st and best Asian-inspired sparkling water.”

• On Healy’s LinkedIn profile, he lists himself as an investor in Sanzo since December 2024.
• We reached out to Sanzo boss Sandro Roco yesterday, who responded that “at this time we’re declining comment on investments.”

Go Deeper: Hear Roco talk about Sanzo’s evolution and past investors

Alcoholic beverage order frequency is up 42% in 2025 compared to this time last year, per a survey by DoorDash.

• The report comes after Uber shut down its Drizly home delivery service for alcohol last year.
• At least 40% of consumers are still looking to order bev-alc to their doorsteps for “regular nights at home” – more than any special occasion.

🍻 It’s not just hard drinking though. Non-alcoholic beer orders increased 82% on the platform from 2023 to 2024; between December 2024 to January 2025, intoxicating hemp beverages were up 19% from the year before.

🦥 You just can’t beat the convenience, it seems. Thirty-five percent of consumers said they have ordered delivery twice in one day and 22% are willing to press that button three times or more daily.

Insiders can get a complete analysis of the survey results on BevNET.

From the desk of spirits editor Ferron Salniker, here’s the latest intoxicating updates…

Diageo plans to cut $500 million in costs and is considering dumping some “significant” assets by 2028. The group believes the cuts will help add $3 billion in cash flow for FY 2026. 

💸 The company unveiled a fresh cost savings plan this week, including substantial changes to its portfolio (“versus portfolio trimmings”), but reiterated that it will hold onto Guinness, which was rumored to be on the chopping block. 

🚢 The Trump administration’s 10% tariffs on imports from the EU and Britain will deliver a $150 million hit to Diageo’s operating profit, but still lower than the forecasted $200 million. 

⚖️ Through measures already put into place, the group should be able to offset about half of the impact before any pricing action is needed.

📈 Quarterly sales came in at $4.38 billion, up 2.9% in reported terms, with more details on the asset sales to come during the full-year result call in August.

Go Deeper: What Diageo’s Distill Ventures Decision Signals For The Spirits Industry

🏁 Bacardi’s Bombay Sapphire gin is racing into sports entertainment, announcing a global partnership with the new UIM E1 World Championship, the world’s first all-electric boat race. Teams are backed by big names from both the sports and entertainment world, such as Marc Anthony and LeBron James.

🛼 Once a tough-as-nails media mogul, Succession actor Brian Cox is taking on a very different role in Malibu rum’s latest campaign, during which he roller skates out of the boardroom in pursuit of unwinding with a Malibu Piña Colada. 

💎 And Grammy-nominated musician and actor Janelle Monáe wasn’t just wearing any diamond brooch at the Met Gala, it was a one-of-a-kind tequila diamond. 

Read about the latest splashes in spirits on BevNET.

How do you build a globally scaled food company rooted in ancient Japanese techniques, humane animal treatment, and radical transparency – all before the age of 26? Meet Saif Khawaja, the founder and CEO of Seremoni.

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