Beverage Digest is walking the show floor along with about 65,000 other attendees at Expo West in California this week. We'll investigate natural ingredient trends that could one day drive the growing and profitable functional packaged beverage market. We're also looking for what's new within existing ready-to-drink segments and product lines, and talking to the founders and leaders who propel the sector.

We'll share our observations in live updates here, so check back through the next couple of days.

Subscribers can email us if there is something specific you'd like to ask about. For those attending the show, feel free to send any noteworthy observations as well.

Brand Backed By Former Hedge Fund Owner, Major League Pickleball Founder

Richard’s Rainwater has spent the last couple of years making sure the brand won’t be ignored. Fresh off a 2021 Series A funding round that was north of $10 million, the Austin, Texas-based packager of actual rainwater has been expanding shelf presence at retailers including Kroger, Albertson’s and HEB, adding production capacity, and executing an aggressive publicity campaign. If you hadn’t heard of the still nascent brand previously, you’d be...

Darren Rovell, the journalist, investor, and social media influencer who wrote the literal book on Gatorade, is bringing heat to the fast-growing canned cocktail market. Rovell, who has 2 million Twitter followers and is credited with introducing the late Kobe Bryant to BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole, had his lightbulb moment 10 months ago while drinking spicy cocktails. That inspiration has since led to a brand called KickStand Cocktails and a newly landed $2 million investment round. The ready-to-drink cocktail blends vodka and fruit juice with artisanal spice, which Rovell says is the key differentiator. KickStand enters a canned cocktail market that is expected to grow by an average of +11.6% through 2032, according to researcher Future Market Insights. As consumers move on from the hard seltzer craze to...

Argo Tea Co-founder Arsen Avakian was struck by how often consumers in store aisles pulled out a cell phone while browsing a drink cooler. When he asked why, he learned they were researching brands to understand everything from ingredients to provenance. With a background in technology, Avakian had a...

BD recently wrote about the U.S. launch of Air Up, the German maker of a refillable bottle that uses pods to flavor plain water by smell instead of taste. PepsiCo is an investor in the company, which describes its technology, based on a scientific concept called “retronasal smell,” this way: “The flavored air travels from your mouth up to your olfactory center, where it’s perceived as flavor.” From packaging to materials, Air Up embodies an assortment of beverage trends that resonate with Gen Z and Millennial consumers: Healthfulness, design, personalization, technology, and sustainability. To better understand the Air Up offering, BD bought and used the product, which the...

Nestled in Winchester, Kentucky just outside Lexington and less than three miles from the Bluegrass Heritage Museum, craft soda maker Ale-8-One Bottling is a microcosm of the complex...