![The standout drinks at Expo East? Beverages that sparkle The standout drinks at Expo East? Beverages that sparkle](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/blt4f48439e9f7ed010/64ff1d3d11e7d666564e6d3b/ee18-beverages-gallery-promo_2.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Seasons Sparkling is a new mission-driven, independent beverage company that makes organic sparkling botanical waters and tonics. The company works directly with artists and art organizations to use their CPG platform to expand artistic forums in their packaging, labels and marketing. Seasons Sparkling newest soon-to-be-released flavor is Grapefruit Rose.
This is sparkling water designed by a mom just for the kiddos, containing no artificial sweeteners or flavors. Living in South America, where everyone drinks “agua con gas”, founder Heather McDowell gave her 2-year-old son a sip of her bubbly water and explained that it would “tickle” his tongue. He giggled and loved the sensation. Thus, her company was born to remove sugar-sweetened beverages from kid’s hands and get them excited about simple bubbly water. Available in five kid-friendly flavors, such as grape and orange mango.
The entrepreneurs at Sap! make seltzer and soda from maple sap, and now have expanded into sparkling water made from the sap of birch trees. Birch sap has more of a tart raspberry taste to it than maple sap and blends well with other infused flavors such as ginger and lemongrass and tangerine and chamomile for an upscale drinking experience without the alcohol or sugar.
Getting kids to drink boring ol’ water can be a challenge. But giving them a juice box is not the answer. Wonder+Well water boxes are designed to replace juice boxes in your kid’s lunch—which can contain a whopping 9 to 25 grams of sugar—with water that is spiked with natural extracts and essential oils derived from organic fruit and no sugar. Apple is the newest addition to their line of peach, strawberry and watermelon-flavored water boxes.
North Carolina-based Tribucha boasts a 10-stage kombucha production process that was inspired by the precision of the craft brewing industry. The four current booch SKUs are anything but boring, with wildly brilliant cans designed to match the super fizzed flavors that combine a multitude of carefully chosen herbs, spices, flowers and citrus peels. The Café Con Bucha is based on a blend of green and black tea plus coffee, cacao nibs, elderberries, cinnamon chips, dandelion and more. Ditch the cold-brew and sip one of these to start your day instead.
Neither is this your calming cup of tea nor your jitter-inducing cup o’ joe. Zest Tea’s high octane RTD teas contain 150 mg caffeine (the amount in approximately 1.5 cups of home-brewed coffee) plus B vitamins and amino acids aimed to tantalize your taste buds and awaken your senses in exchange for just 25-35 calories and 5 grams of sugar per can. The cans contain 100 mg of L-theanine, an amino acid, that supposedly reduces the jitters and crash of the caffeine for an effect of steady alertness.
What do you get when you combine organic green tea, guarana berries and yerba mate? An antioxidant-rich, B-vitamin infused, natural energy drink. This new line from Steaz expands their green-tea based product line into energy beverages, where natural and organic solutions have potential to clean up the category.
Blurring the lines of supplement and beverage, individual drink packets of Performance Tea tea powders include functional mushrooms (such as cordyceps and reishi) and adaptogenic plants and herbs (such as codonopsis, atractylodes and astragalus) chosen for potential body benefits, such as stress relief, digestive health and muscle tissue repair. The company will soon be adding a CBD-infused option. The tea powders are dissolvable in hot or cold water.
Created by two professional hockey player brothers, Nooma is a sports recovery drink based on coconut water (which provides 330 mg potassium) and a touch of sea salt (contributing 110 mg sodium) plus organic fruit flavors and stevia leaf extract. The drinks are packaged in eco-friendly Tetra Pak bottles, which also eliminates the need for added acid as a preservative.
Ocean’s Halo recognized that more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface is ocean, but only 2 percent of that contributes to our food system. Ocean Halo creates snacks, sauces and noodles made from sea vegetables, such as seaweed and kelp, and now they’re moving into new territory with a line of kelp and fruit-flavored superfood beverages in four flavors: Kiwi Aloe, Honey Ginger, Watermelon Lime and Hibiscus Cinnamon.
New Zealand-based Manuka Honey leaders Wedderspoon now offers an unpasteurized, unfiltered, raw ACV made from cold-pressed apples and naturally fermentation to preserve the “mother.” Wedderspoon adds Manuka and Beechwood honeys to create a slightly sweet-tart taste to sip daily or add to salad dressings, soups and smoothies.
The Barista Edition oat creams from Sweden-based Oatly! are designed to spruce up your coffee with a new plant-based option. Just as exciting to home brewers as it is to latte-designing baristas, this line of fully foamable, hard-to-get-your-hands-on oat milk creamers come in Original, Vanilla and Mocha. We’re anxiously awaiting this product to hit U.S. stores and coffee shops and keeping our eyes peeled for their other internationally available oat milk innovations, such as oatgurt.
You may know Sound for the unsweetened, USDA-certified organic sparkling teas. New at Expo East 2018, the Sound team revealed their new line of four tea-infused canned sparkling waters. All four are unsweetened and contain no to some caffeine, depending on the type of tea the water is infused with.
Earlier this year Vermont-based Drink Maple rebranded as Drink Simple, allowing the company to better expand its identity to non-maple-based products. Founded by two dedicated triathletes, Drink Simple is a beautifully clean drinking experience made for natural hydration-seeking athletes and people who want a drink that isn’t sweetened with stevia or erythritol. The company currently sells three flavors of maple water and two flavors of watermelon water.
This woman-owned, Florida-based kombucha company wants to make you smile. And that’s exactly what we did as we sipped our way through their USDA-certified organic, unique flavor line at Expo East 2018. Their 'buch is based on organic green or black tea (or coffee beans!) and comes in captivating flavors such as Mint Matcha Honey, Grapefruit Bee Pollen Basil and Moringa Lavender. The company also offers a 32-ounce refillable eco-vessel growler, which is currently only available at Publix stores.
This brand-new company aims to clean up your fitness hydration routine with a line of better-for-you electrolyte drinks. The company is releasing three flavors—Original Lemon, Pink Grapefruit and Lime—of USDA-certified organic, 10-calorie, low-sugar drinks designed to hydrate the body and quench thirst efficiently. Each bottle contains 5 to 15 percent of the Daily Value for sodium, potassium and magnesium, as well as vitamins A, C and E.
Bitter Love describes their line of RTD bitter beverages as “an unforgetting moment that bites a little yet leaves you wanting more.” And we don’t disagree. This beverage is intriguing, tart and dare we say, refreshing? It’s a slow sipper that contains just 40 calories per bottle and an herbal blend of extracts from ashwagandha, artichoke, gentian, ginger and artemisia.
What do you get when you cold-press an almond? Almond juice, of course. Almond juice—the liquid essence extracted from sprouted, organic almonds that are never heated—is the base of this new line of NEXTY finalist SKUs from Origin Almond. The company then adds functional ingredients such as cayenne (capsaicin), coconut oil (MCTs) and turmeric (curcumin) for a truly unique beverage line that is low in sugar (just 1 to 4 grams per bottle) and crisp.
Using green coffee beans, Limitless infuses their new line of canned sparkling waters with flavor extracts and a touch of caffeine to bridge the gap between hydration and energy. Limitless only works with coffee bean farmers that employ organic farming practices and sources coffee beans that are wet-washed right at the source to remove contaminants. Look for six flavors of this caffeinated sparkling water to be available soon.
Beverage brand hellowater aims to solve the nutrition problems we all face: drink more water, consumer more fiber, reduce sugar. In one drink, they’ve accomplished all three. Their new line of kid-formulated drinks come in enticing natural flavors, such as Mixed Berry and Wild Grape. Each bottle is sweetened with erythritol, a low-calorie sugar alcohol, and contains 5 grams of soluble fiber.
Beverage brand hellowater aims to solve the nutrition problems we all face: drink more water, consumer more fiber, reduce sugar. In one drink, they’ve accomplished all three. Their new line of kid-formulated drinks come in enticing natural flavors, such as Mixed Berry and Wild Grape. Each bottle is sweetened with erythritol, a low-calorie sugar alcohol, and contains 5 grams of soluble fiber.
We’ve got water for kids and adults; water with vitamins and fiber; water with caffeine and electrolytes; water made from sap and nuts; and oh boy, sparkling water. What was missing in the aisles of Natural Products Expo East 2018? Beverages containing any type of caloric sweetener, even those sweetened with honey, agave or just recently re-welcomed natural cane sugar. They’re fading fast in favor of fizz. You’ll still find drinks that contain zero- or low-calorie sweeteners such as fruit extract, stevia, monkfruit and erithrytol, but what you’ll strain to find is flat water. Expo East 2018 is proof that we’re a carbonation nation and everyone wants in on the LaCroix action.
In addition to all the new sparkling water innovations, we’re also jazzed about a new wave of tea-based RTD offerings, from highly flavored kombuchas to functional teas designed to help us stress less, recover faster and balance our lives from the inside out.
Check out the 20 thirst-quenchers that caught our eyes at the show.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like