The pandemic put a temporary chill on choice as CPG companies waded through supply shortages and retail disruption to keep core products on the shelf. As we move further away from crisis mode, expect to see a return to the kinds of customization and personalization that was growing prior to the global upheaval.

Here are a couple of examples that have come across my desk in recent months:

Dream Tea NYC — A consumer answers a few basic questions so the company can create a personalized small batch tea blend for them. BD’s Laura Stanford, a hot tea drinker, gave the program a try. She chose loose leaf chamomile tea with added lavender, bergamot, and vanilla. The can, which she selected in green, was printed with her first name and a list of tasting notes: honey, smoke, citrus, vanilla, and “inspiration.”

Pax — The product is sold in a resealable pouch containing drink mix packets — three each of Cranberry Cosmo, Margarita, Pineapple Paloma, and Moscow Mule. The flavor mixes can...

The US energy drink category at retail grew dollar sales by +12% in 2023 as volume jumped +5.1%, according to BD data. As shown in the Green Sheet with this story, market leaders...

For years, juice has been off limits for consumers who avoid sugar. Juice drinks, which generally contain very little actual juice and high sugar content, were certainly a no-no for these consumers. Then even 100% juice fell out of favor, despite a health halo, as warnings about sugar mounted, especially when it came to children. Sales of 100% OJ have declined for almost two decades, before the Covid pandemic brought a short reprieve. PepsiCo even sold off a majority stake of its Tropicana business to private equity firm PAI partners in 2021 to focus on higher growth products.

But there is now some innovation to keep an eye on, with major juice brand Tropicana recently launching a Zero Sugar line of lemonade and fruit punch juice drinks with no artificial sweeteners. The products contain either 3% or 5% juice and are sweetened with stevia instead of sugar. Tropicana marketers pitch the new Zero Sugar line as “guilt-free.”

I don’t usually review products, but I’ve tried the new Tropicana Zero Sugar line and the drinks are good. This is surely due to advancements in no-calorie sweetener technology.

Tropicana is no stranger to stevia, having launched a stevia-sweetened product called Trop50 way back in 2009 just after the FDA made no objection to the natural sweetener’s use in food. The lower-sugar product (50% less than pure OJ) became a bright spot for the brand’s OJ lineup — but it still contained sugar. Trop50 addressed not only the sugar barrier, but also an aversion to artificial sweeteners expressed by some consumers (whether justified or not).

Stevia technology — and sweetener systems in general — have come a long way since. Tropicana’s line of ...

Sales of Coca-Cola’s sparkling water brand, AHA, have deteriorated amid competition with PepsiCo’s growing sparkling water brand, Bubly, according to new BD data. Both brands were created to take on ... Table included:

Sparkling Water Brand Performance: Q1 2023

The following is transcript of Beverage Digest's podcast, The Breeze, Episode 4. Duane Stanford invites beverage industry expert (and former Beverage Digest publisher) John Sicher to discuss soda pricing power.

For decades, Coca-Cola’s Powerade existed to fight off US sports drink leader Gatorade, which created what is now at least a $12 billion category, according to BD all-channel data. In more recent years, Powerade all but faded into the background, overshadowed by a challenger called BodyArmor that pledged to displace PepsiCo-owned Gatorade with claims of better-for-you ingredients and an in-your-face marketing voice. That may now change. A year after acquiring BodyArmor and merging it into a standalone unit with Powerade, Coca-Cola is ready to get...