We just announced our first confirmed speaker for this year’s Future Smarts conference, and we’re announcing a second speaker tomorrow. Both will bring the heat on Dec. 14 in New York.
The first is Coca-Cola’s Nancy Quan. In her role as global technical, innovation and supply chain chief, Nancy influences just about every corner of the Coke system. She and her vast team lead innovation across the value chain, from product and packaging to distribution and retail.
At Future Smarts, Nancy will discuss this work at a time when fragmentation and instability add new challenges that effective companies will turn into competitive advantages. What is the future of ready-to-drink packaging? How will fountain beverage equipment evolve? What ingredients and product attributes will consumers demand? What new ways will Coke get products to market, and how will the company’s supply chain remain both efficient and flexible? We’ll explore issues like these, and more, with Nancy.
Tomorrow’s speaker announcement, which you get to read about here first,...
Two products landed on my desk recently that share an unlikely common thread. Both are reimagining something ordinary as something premium. One capitalizes on purple corn. The other wants to elevate beverage ice to an art form.
Let's start with the ice. Founded in 2018 by three former Lagunitas Brewing executives, Abstract Ice has differentiated itself in the craft ice space with suspended flowers, etched cubes, spheres, and most recently soccer balls timed for the World Cup. The company says its ice is "crystal clear, slow-melting and made from deliciously pure water." The ice is also a canvas. Etchings can be custom designed for Abstract Ice's target hospitality and upscale retail customers with anything from a company logo to a drawing or monogram.
Cocktail culture has spurred companies like Fever-Tree to create craft mixers with a promise that they won't contaminate fine spirits with cheap ingredients. The proposition changed the mixer category entirely and opened the door to a new kind of consumer who thinks carefully about every element in the glass. Companies like Abstract Ice are making the same argument for the frozen rock that goes in that Old Fashioned. If the bourbon is craft and the mixer is craft, why not the ice?
Another start-up that caught my attention markets a drink called Purple Drop. The plant-based drink is rooted in chicha morada, a traditional Peruvian beverage made from purple corn simmered with pineapple and cinnamon and finished with lime. Despite centuries of cultural history, the drink...
When it comes to the transition from artificial food and beverage colors to natural colors, the US is 15 years behind Europe. And there is a concerted, even frantic effort now to catch up.
That was my biggest takeaway from this month's BevTech conference, an annual gathering hosted by the International Society of Beverage Technologists. This is where the nation's beverage scientists go to discuss "The Science of the Sip," as this year's event was themed. The 350 professionals in attendance engineer and manage everything from ingredients to PET blow molding needed to get a drink from formula to shelf. I opened the conference with an overview of industry trends before taking in several presentations and a few extremely technical breakout sessions.
Right now, there isn't a major food and beverage company that isn't working on the shift...
This special issue of the BD newsletter is a high-level overview of our comprehensive 31st Edition of the Beverage Digest Fact Book, which we released today. The Fact Book details all-channel sales results across the US non-alcoholic beverage industry for 2025, offering a look at the intense competition within the U.S. non-alcoholic beverage business...
Beverage Digest's enterprise license is becoming a popular option for organizations — including bottlers — that need to stay current on the beverage industry. It's the most efficient way to ensure intelligence flows to everyone in a company who can use it.
A single license can cover unlimited users across BD's core premium products: the BD Newsletter, the Coke and Pepsi Systems, the Keurig Dr Pepper System, and the Fact Book. Each subscriber gets an individual login and round-the-clock access. Onboarding is straightforward through a custom company page, so professionals can sign up and start reading immediately. Billing is simple: one invoice at annual renewal, no per-seat juggling.
For companies where beverage industry intelligence is a competitive input, an enterprise license converts it from a line-item expense into an institutional resource — making it easy to share BD's market insights and data with every colleague who needs them.
Some bottlers even extend access to frontline sales associates as a professional benefit, giving those associates a wider industry view. BD becomes a tool that helps create richer, more contextual customer conversations up and down the street.
For more information on enterprise licensing options, email HERE to start the conversation.
Buc-ee's has up to 120 gas pumps, bans big rigs, and has cleaner bathrooms than your house. If you haven't visited, it’s one of the wildest, most customer-friendly convenience stores you’ll ever encounter.
Inside, you can buy anything from clothes to packaged snacks and ...
Liquid Youth, a brand highlighted in today's Noteworthy Launches, is part of a spate of health and wellness beverages seemingly—or explicitly—aimed at women. The collagen water is “designed to nourish your skin, hair, nails, and joints, empowering your beauty from the inside out." The drink, packed in...
During a recent trip to see family in Louisville, Kentucky, I saw firsthand the rapid rise of drive-thru-only coffee shops.
Cruising around the suburb where I spent many summers as a kid, I ran across a 7 Brew and a Scooter's within a half-mile of each other.
Since my last visit several years ago, 7 Brew has opened at least 10 locations and Scooter's at least eight in Louisville. Yet another fast-growing drive-thru chain, Dutch Bros, started moving into the city just last year.
My immediate family spent Christmas week in San Diego — biking, whale watching, talking around a beach bonfire. We played cards, shared meals, and took time to unwind. The twist? Four of us also work together — just like many of the beverage bottlers we serve.
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