• 👕 Poppi, Target Collab On Apparel
• 🐄 Bird Flu Dairy Testing Expands
• 💰 How Today’s Leaders Are Building Tomorrow’s Billion-Dollar Brands

Rumors, lawsuits and celebrities seized the headlines this year, and your attention.

From Snoop and Dre’s new RTD cocktail to word of Coke & Pepsi’s new prebiotic soda plays, it was an eventful year in the beverage business, and as is tradition here at BevNET we’re closing out 2024 by tallying up the most read stories of the last 12 months. Here’s a quick trip down memory lane, and here’s to 2025!

#5 Dr. Andrew Huberman Takes Majority Stake in Mateína

Wellness influencer Andrew Huberman commands attention, and his investment in canned yerba mate maker Mateína put a lot of eyes on the Canadian startup. Huberman made the investment in coordination with his firm Tiny. The brand is now working to build on that momentum and make its own name better known while expanding in the U.S.

#4 Lawsuit Takes Aim at Poppi’s Gut Health Claims

Lawsuits made big news this year. So did prebiotic soda. The two coming together was, it seems, inevitable as Poppi faced a class action complaint alleging its claims around gut health are misleading. The brand was actually on the receiving end of two class action cases this year, the first in May and the second in September. Both happened to come as the brand has sought to de-emphasize health claims from its messaging and focus more on flavor as the selling point.

#3 Rowdy Energy to Shut Down

It was the end of the road for Rowdy Energy this year. The brand, co-founded by former Suja head Jeff Church and NASCAR star Kyle Busch, officially closed up shop as “challenges in securing funding and difficulties in achieving the necessary turnover at the shelf” forced the company to shut down, Church told us in January.

#2 Casa Azul Wins Trademark Case Against Clase Azul

Lance Collins got a big win in court this year as a judge ruled that his tequila brand Casa Azul was not in violation of fellow tequila maker Clase Azul’s trademarks. The court found that there were enough distinctions between the two brands to make the likelihood of confusion low, marking a legal victory for the entrepreneur’s spirits play.

Curious to know what story took the top spot? Insiders can read the full list on BevNET.

Trendsetting functional CSD producer Poppi launched a limited edition apparel collection in collaboration with Target this week, reported Women’s Wear Daily, further cementing its status as a lifestyle brand. The merch release coincides with a new limited edition Poppi flavor, Cream Soda.

🧢 The 20-piece “Ultimate Serve” collection was designed in-house and includes sweatsuits, t-shirts, and accessories like socks and baseball caps featuring a vibrant color palette similar to that of the brand’s soda cans. 

💭 “By launching our first apparel collaboration at scale with this powerhouse retailer, we can share our mission of revolutionizing soda for the next generation with even more people. Whether you enter our community by reaching for a can or a piece from our new limited edition Target collection, we’re excited to welcome you into our world,” Allison Ellsworth, founder of Poppi, told WWD. 

As cases of avian flu (H5N1) in dairy cattle continue to rise, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun collecting and testing aged raw cow’s milk cheese for the virus.

🧀 Raw milk cheese is made with unpasteurized milk. In the U.S., cheese produced from raw milk must be aged for a minimum of 60 days to mitigate the risk from any pathogens. The FDA will collect 300 samples (and label information) from warehouses and distribution hubs nationwide between now and March 2025. 

⚠️ Any samples that test positive for viable HPAI will be evaluated case-by-case, according to the agency. The next steps may include actions needed to address contaminated products, such as a recall, follow-up inspection or other responses to protect public health. 

⏪ The news comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last month announced a new federal order requiring the testing of the nation’s milk supply for the bird flu virus. The order requires that raw (unpasteurized) milk samples be collected and shared with the agency for testing, facilitating comprehensive H5N1 surveillance. 

In this special edition of the podcast, we feature highlights from interviews with seven innovators, leaders and disruptors who joined us on the show during the second half of 2024.

Tune in here.