Happy New Year! To kickoff 2025, I’ll tell you about a few emerging brands that intrigued me in 2024. I don’t review or endorse products, and I won’t now. But I do taste lots of new drinks annually, so standouts jump out at me. Foremost, that means delivering on taste, which these products do. While each promises functionality, I won’t vouch for their efficacy or eventual market success. I also won’t judge their pricing, which can be rich. In short, these products offered an interesting proposition and ended up tasting surprisingly good — to me at least. So, here we go:

Coca-Cola’s North America Operating Unit hosted executives and associates from its franchised bottling system in Las Vegas recently to discuss marketing, commercial and sales plans for 2025. The theme for the meeting was, “Above and Beyond,” as the system looks to...

Coca-Cola’s new holiday ads that pay tribute to a 1995 campaign called, “Holidays Are Coming,” have generated lots of attention this week over the company’s use of “Real Magic AI” to produce the spots.

The New York Times ran the headline, “Coca-Cola’s Holiday Ads Trade the ‘Real Thing’ for Generative A.I..” Commenters on social media said the ads look artificial, pointing out inconsistencies like truck tires that don’t spin. Others called the...

This is one dynamic beverage industry.

Our lead story (pg. 3) uncovers how Olipop Cofounder Ben Goodwin intends to pursue $1 billion brand status — and he says he can do it without direct store delivery, at least for now. This digestive health drink, or gut soda as some refer to it, didn’t exist before six years ago. And Olipop helped spawn a formidable competitor in Poppi. Many alternative sodas have marketed themselves at the expense of traditional sodas. Olipop has been among the most successful so far. I’ll note, as well, that in an era when barriers to entry in non-alcoholic beverages are lower than ever, Olipop is a brand built on function, R&D, and efficacy. That’s worth watching.

The second story in today’s issue (pg. 6) features a conversation with former Coca-Cola Venturing and Emerging Brands executive Matt Hughes. He is a well-known and respected industry voice whose expertise bridges the gap between mainstream and emerging brands. Now with private equity firm Franchise Equity Partners, Hughes is tracking the winds of change within

Green Sheet: 1H Sports Drinks, Bottled Water, and Sparkling Water Retail Performance.

After a trailblazing 2023, influencer-driven sports drink Prime Hydration has moved into a sales decline at US retail for the