Beverage Launch Roundup

Vegan Latte

Following the success of its original cold-brew coffees, High Brew Coffee recently announced an upcoming line of dairy-free vegan lattes. Like the coffee products that came before it, the lattes will be made available in a ready-to-drink, shelf-stable format, enabling easy transport of a caffeine fix that can be had at any time. The addition of trendy plant-based milks makes the launch all the more interesting.


Photo from High Brew

Maple-Water Coffee

Coffee products are mixing it up, and now a leading maple water company is in the mix. Happy Tree, the self-proclaimed inventor of cold-pressed maple water, recently unveiled a combination product marrying its signature maple water and cold-brew coffee.

Happy Tree says cold-brewing the coffee reduces bitter coffee notes that would otherwise interfere with the sweet maple notes. Thanks to the maple, each bottle of maple-coffee water also provides 46% of your daily magnesium requirement. Oh, and also? It has a clean label of just two ingredients: maple water and coffee beans.


Photo from Happy Tree

Energy Plus Protein

The drinks category is full of products making energy and protein claims, so why not combine the two? San Francisco company Hiball Energy has launched a protein-fortified energy drink. Each can contains 20 g of protein from grass-fed cow milk, plus B vitamins and other purified ingredients intended to support workouts and regular daily activities.

Photo from Hiball Energy

Energy from Guayusa

Although it’s still a relative newcomer to the North American market, the South American plant guayusa continues to appear in energy drinks and ready-to-drink teas as a source of caffeine. The notion that guayusa doesn’t cause jitters like coffee does makes this leaf especially appealing.

Garden of Flavor features guayusa in its new Cold-Pressed Energy line. As the brand tells it, its company founder preferred guayusa’s taste over green coffee beans. The new products contain cold-brewed guayusa plus other healthful ingredients-wheat grass, ginger, and aronia berries.


Photo from Garden of Flavor

Sparkling Waters

Consumers avoiding sugary sodas will find a healthier source of carbonation in sparkling waters. Bottled-water giant Aquafina banked on this idea earlier this year when it unveiled Sparkling Aquafina, which the brand says contains just “the tiniest pinch of fair-trade sugar.” Taking sparkling water to the next level, Avitae mixes it with caffeine. Each caffeine water from Avitae is available in a range of caffeine doses, anywhere from 45 mg to 125 mg per bottle, with its latest launch clocking in at 90 mg of caffeine.


Photo from Aquafina

Antioxidant-Infused Tea

Tea is a good source of antioxidants in and of itself, but how about taking those antioxidant levels even higher? Bai’s new Superteas get an antioxidant boost from polyphenols, coffee fruit extract, and white tea extract. According to the company, it is the only nationally distributed line of real-brewed teas that is low in calories and sweetened without artificial sweeteners.


Photo from Bai

Energy and Focus in a Stick Pack

Energy and brain health are two very strong performers right now. Right on trend, Älsa debuted an energy and focus supplement mix earlier this year containing citicoline, pterostilbene, white tea leaf extract, yerba maté leaf extract, L-carnitine, taurine, B vitamins, ginkgo leaf powder, and caffeine-all packaged nicely in a convenient-to-use stick pack.


Photo from Älsa

Turmeric Tea

Tea bags get an exciting boost in Numi’s latest turmeric teas. The teas combine turmeric with a host of other flavors complementary to the golden root. Three Roots is a ginger and licorice mix; Golden Tonic combines lemon verbena and dried lime; Fields of Gold melds chamomile with lemon myrtle zest; and Amber Sun imparts a spicy and sweet flavor with rooibos, vanilla, and cinnamon.


Photo from Numi

Cold-Pressed

And, finally, the cold-pressed juice trend shows no sign of slowing. Recent launches from Bolthouse Farms and Naked Juice are just some of those banking on nature’s great variety of juiceable ingredients. Chard, watercress, dandelion, and avocado are all featured in current cold-press juices. Alongside cold-pressing, there’s a tendency to highlight clean and simple ingredients.


Photo from Naked Juice