A big question for independent US Pepsi bottlers is whether they are in line to distribute two brands at the center of key PepsiCo-related deals this year. The newest deal is PepsiCo’s pending acquisition of prebiotic soda leader Poppi for $1.95 billion, announced on March 17 (BD sent an email news alert to subscribers). The other is the...

As Coca-Cola begins the national rollout of its Simply Pop prebiotic soda, a flood of other brands are announcing gut pops of their own. They include Popwell by Talking Rain, Bloom Pop by Keurig Dr Pepper partner brand Bloom Nutrition, and Daytrip Prebiotic Soda by the maker of CBD sodas. Meanwhile, Halfday prebiotic tea has rebranded. And, on an adjacent front, Spindrift has launched a ...

Keurig Dr Pepper has announced several launches in addition to the rollout of new permanent flavor Dr Pepper Blackberry. They are 7Up Tropical, Snapple Peach Tea & Lemonade, Bai Simbu Strawberry and Bai Shala Coconut Strawberry, A&W Ice Cream Sundae, and RC Cola Zero Sugar. (For more on brand Dr Pepper’s success in recent decades, listen to BD’s newest Episode 21 of the Breeze podcast HERE.)

Molson Coors has now launched a Simply Spiked Bold variant of the flavored malt beverage marketed under a brand license from...

As promised, Suja Life has relaunched former PepsiCo brand Slice as a functional “healthy” soda with prebiotics and probiotics. Suja enters a gut soda market lead by brands such as Olipop and Poppi and replete with incoming competition. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo also are expected to enter the segment this year. Launched by PepsiCo in 1984 as a fruit flavored soda with 10% juice, Slice was...

Coca-Cola will launch an “evolved” formula for its Costa ready-to-drink canned coffee at Target nationally by March. The restage includes a name change from “Iced Coffee Latte” to “Iced Coffee.” Costa and Target have agreed to a multi-year program to support the product, according to Coca-Cola. Direct store delivery for the reformulated product will be piloted with Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling on the West Coast and Great Lakes regions. Costa Iced Coffees will ...

Turn over a can or bottle of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar in the US and you’ll find a new ingredient — stevia. The natural sweetener is now part of a formula that already included aspartame and acesulfame potassium. The new...

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:

Nestle and celebrity podcaster Alex Cooper will launch a functional beverage in January called Unwell Hydration that is targeted at women. The drink, packed in 16.9-oz PET bottles, contains 700mg of electrolytes, a blend of B-complex vitamins, 75mg green coffee caffeine, and no artificial colors or flavors. Unwell is sweetened with stevia. Flavors are ...