As if getting acquired by your sworn enemy wasn’t a complete enough defeat, former Bang Energy maker Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX) has been dealt further injury after being denied a request for a new trial and ordered to pay an additional $43 million in damages to Monster Energy on top of the record-setting $293 million verdict already delivered, bringing the total penalty to $336 million.

😠 In this new ruling, the judge cited former VPX CEO Jack Owoc’s “disrespect for the judicial process,” including insults against Monster’s counsel and refusing to answer straightforward questions during cross examination.

💸 This summer Monster entered a purchase agreement with VPX to acquire “all or virtually all” of its assets including the Bang brand and an Arizona production facility.

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Douglas fir, sage, juniper, saffron, hemp, wormwood, and angelica root might sound like the combination for a potion, but those ingredients are what make non-alc amaro, The Pathfinder a standout on the back bar. We chatted with one of the co-founders about the brand’s unusual launch strategy in the zero-proof category. 

Chris Abbott, co-founder of Stoli-backed The Pathfinder – and the founder of cannabis mint brand Mr. Moxey’s – says the brand focused on launching with a “Topo Chico” saturation effect, combined with a typical spirits playbook to earn on-premise traction.

With many non-alc brands emerging following lockdowns, and before bars and restaurants adopted sober menus, direct-to-consumer was a more common route.

But Nick Bodkins, founder and president of Boisson, thinks The Pathfinder’s versatility as a base spirit or modifier also gives it ample opportunity to find placement across all kinds of menus. In the case of an emerging category, does that mean some brands might win by trying to please everyone?

Read the full story on BevNET

The Yellowstone business empire continues to expand, although this time not through franchise supremo Taylor Sheridan: series star Cole Hauser today announced the launch of Free Rein Coffee Company, his new brand designed to pay tribute to the American Dream as well as the cowboys Hauser grew up around both on and off set. 

☕ The brand offers six different blends – American Dirt, Homestead, Mesteño, Prospect, Branded and Heavy Spur – at $15.99 per 12 oz. bag, plus pods. 

🐄 Last year, Hauser and co-founders Karl Pfluger, Aron Marquez, and Paul Anderson purchased a small-batch roasting facility in San Angelo, Texas. The roaster was chosen because it is “deeply rooted in the frontier.” 

🛍️Free Rein also carries a line of drinkware and apparel with hats, shirts and more.

It’s a truism so widespread that even the most casual coffee consumers recognize it: airplane coffee is bad. Alaska Airlines and Stumptown Coffee Roasters are hoping they can change that with a new blend available exclusively in-flight on Alaska Airlines flights beginning this fall.

☁️ The coffee company has developed a new custom blend intended for brewing at high altitudes. As tastebud reaction and water’s boiling process can change when flying above 30,000 feet, the new blend is designed to adapt to these hurdles.

🍫 The blend is an organic, medium body roast sourced from Latin America with tasting notes of marshmallow, browned butter and dark chocolate, the company said.

Do press-on-nails and cocktails go hand-in-hand? On the Rocks Cocktails says yes. The RTD bottled cocktail company has partnered with celebrity manicurist and New York Fashion Week veteran Sojin Oh to launch a new Cocktail Courier Kit featuring custom press-on nails.

🤑 The kit, which is available for purchase on OTR’s website for $104.99, comes with five 375ml cocktail expressions – Cosmopolitan, Old Fashioned, Espresso Martini, Jalapeño Pineapple Margarita and White Negroni Cocktail – and, of course, a set of press-on nails designed by Oh. 

📺 OTR has served as the official cocktail sponsor of NYFW: The Shows for two seasons.

🤝🏼 Though the collaboration may seem a bit out there, OTR isn’t the first CPG brand to partner with nail brands to create unique consumer offerings. Earlier this month, White Claw collaborated with British nail polish brand Nails.Inc to launch a collection of four polishes in colors matching the brand’s best-selling flavors. But what if you break a nail opening your White Claw?

One challenge of the “Alcohol-Free” lifestyle can be finding a dry bar, restaurant or bottle shop that specializes in adult non-alcoholic beverages. Sober-curious online hub Zero Proof Nation recently launched a Global Map making it easier for the sober curious in all of us to explore the world of the no- and low-alcoholic beverages.

📍 Using Google Maps, the map shows brick-and-mortar retailers, dry cocktail bars and restaurants, and non-alc pop-ups with descriptions of what they specialize in.

📫 Non-alc purveyors can fill out the submission form to have their locations added to the updated map.

The FDA has sent a warning letter to another brand that uses kratom and kava. The agency had already seized products from Feel Free kratom and kava shots maker Botanic Tonics this spring.

Last month, the agency released a warning letter sent to Shot of Joy, a brand which produces several liquid shots and gummies containing both kratom and kava as well as SKUs featuring the individual ingredients on their own.

💊 Beyond classifying Shot of Joy’s product portfolio as unapproved drugs, the letter alleges that the brand marketed its kratom products “for the treatment or cure of opioid addiction and withdrawal symptoms.”

✍️ The letter cited blog posts on the brand’s website, which suggested that kratom can cure opioid addiction alongside issues like PTSD and hypertension and that kava can treat ADHD and depression symptoms among other ailments.

⚠️ The FDA has repeatedly targeted companies marketing kratom products in food, beverage and supplements for years, going back to at least 2014. However, several states have adopted kratom consumer protection laws legalizing and regulating the sale of the drug to individuals over 21. Kratom remains illegal in other states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and select counties and regions elsewhere.

Bronya Shillo, the founder of pioneering RTD cocktail brand Fishers Island Lemonade, spoke about why quality of ingredients matters when meeting with retail buyers, how the adage “inch wide, mile deep” guided the brand’s distribution strategy for years and how she built and maintained a relationship with leadership executives at E. & J. Gallo, which acquired her company in May.

Listen to the full episode on BevNET