Red Bull North America seems to have converted another major US metro to self-distribution model, this time Boston.  Effective Jun, Santa Monica, Calif-based co is terminating Burke Distributing in Boston, along with MillerCoors house Atlas in Worcester and Bud house Williams in Chicopee in order to pursue self-distribution model in the off-premise, while teaming with Martignetti for the on-premise, we hear.  The departing houses would be among earliest Red Bull partners in US, dating back to late 90s, from what we can recall, and therefore playing pivotal role in flourishing of what then was viewed as weird Austrian brand with cough-syrupy taste and oddball cartoon ads.  Moves come at time that RBNA has been relatively quiet on distribution front, with metros in areas like LA and Miami already converted to self-distribution model, but co seeming to back off from similar moves in secondary markets, that have proved more of a slog.  Burke, based in Randolph, is MillerCoors, Corona, Sam Adams and Guinness house that briefly launched NA distribution arm apart from Red Bull operation but ultimately cut it back to handful of bottled waters.  Asked about moves, RBNA declined to go into specifics but offered statement that noted that it “continues to focus on providing the most effective and efficient route to market in every geography.  We are committed to the three-tier distribution model, optimizing all elements of the value chain and continuing to elevate the entire network’s capability.  Route-to-market changes in recent years have included awarding territory to independently owned third-party distributors in some markets and launching RBDC in others,” referring to company-owned Red Bull distribution cos.   

It’s modest deal in co’s own backyard, but it’s what Jones Soda envisions the future to hold: Seattle-based altsoda brand has ousted Coca-Cola for pouring rights at 16-unit Zeeks Pizza chain in western Wash State. Deal for unspecified duration includes several natural entries from JSDA: Jones Cane Sugar on fountain and in 12-oz cans, as well as co’s Lemoncocco Italian-style canned refresher. Deal represents measured progress toward goal many of boutique soda brands have been pursuing: finding home for their indie brands in eatery accounts that put a premium on natural ingredients and artisanal recipes on food side but have yet to make big commitment to echoing that stance on bev side. In case of 26-year-old Zeeks, founders Tom Vial and Doug McClure have carved out rep for using high-quality local ingredients in atmosphere redolent out of outdoorsy regional culture, as Jones noted. Chain tilted entirely toward craft beers some years back and now it’s echoing move on soda side. “About 7 years ago, our team began the replacement of mainstream beers with craft beers, ultimately transforming our entire beer offering to one of only high-quality local beers which has been extremely successful and well received by our guests,” Black said. “Replacing our current portfolio of Coke beverages with Jones’ craft products that contain high-quality ingredients is a significant upgrade for our dedicated consumers and a continuation of this path to better quality, authentic, independent and local brands.” So it joins ranks of other modest-size regional chains like Great State Burgers, Sizzle Pie Pizza and Katsu Burger that have adopted Jones as go-to brand, tho so far the major chains continue to elude it and rivals like Reed’s beyond modest tests.

New Age Beverages formally launched its global CBD blitz yesterday, starting with non-edibles offered by its Health Sciences div under ’Nhanced brand name. Denver-based co is moving out creams, lotions and oils into 60 markets worked by its recently acquired Morinda multilevel marketing unit, while working with retailers and other partners in US, Japan and select other markets to get CBD bevs such as Marley+CBD out to retail, too . . . Kombucha Brewers International trade group said it’s received $1 mil endowment from GT’s Kombucha founder GT Dave to promote legislative initiatives and to foster standard of identity that kombucha marketers can adhere to.

Foodtech play outside Richmond, Va, called Nutriati that’s backed by Tate & Lyle venture arm has moved into market with suite of chickpea ingredients under Artesa brand name that aim to elevate what food/bev marketers and consumers expect of their plant-based proteins.  It’s pushing its ingredients to makers of bevs (including some testing chickpea milk), plant-based meats, snacks, pasta (including recent trial of single-ingredient pasta line) and tortillas.  Among first bev applications to be publicly identified is chickpea protein as base of GTX Protein powders marketed by mental wellness supplement co Amare Global.  Co is currently undertaking Series C round, to tune of about $10 mil.

Based in Richmond suburb of Henrico, Nutriati was cofounded by longtime food exec Michael Spinelli, who serves as chief innovation officer, with former Archer Daniels Midland and SunOpta exec Michael Todd enlisted as new ceo last year.  As SunOpta vp, Todd had managed soybean and sunflower biz.  “Nutrition.  Taste.  Wellness” is Nutriati’s mantra.

R&D phase took 3 years, from bench to scale-up, Spinelli indicated in recent conversation, using iso-electric precipitation process to break down protein structures in pulses and grains as better way to use plant starches and fibers to enhance flavors and avoid gritty texture of other plant-based proteins.  Recent trial at Univ of Minnesota for chickpea milk found it eliminated beany, earthy note and came closer to dairy milk in viscosity.  Ideally, Nutriati team would like to develop Artesa as “Intel Inside” kind of ingredient play, tho co won’t insist that customers employ Artesa logo on their packs.

Among key offerings is Artesa Chickpea Protein, which is claimed to match dairy for taste, texture and mouthfeel, while offering unusually high fiber content.  Thanks to small, consistent particle size, it eases formulation, averting sedimentation problems that can plague plant-based ingredients.  Recently released Artesa Chickpea Flour similarly claims to match key characteristics of conventional wheat flours with gluten-free alternative, allowing, say, for tortillas that don’t fracture when rolled into tacos and burritos.  A few weeks ago Nutriati enlisted snack marketer Biena as first publicly identified customer of the flour, for use in revamped puffs line.  Fibers and oils also are in array of items being offered.  Chickpeas, familiar to many Americans via burgeoning hummus space, require low amounts of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides to grow, as Nutriati stresses in promoting sustainability benefits.

Nutriati board includes former Snapple and Ben & Jerry’s exec Michael Sands, whose Fenway LLC is investor, as well as Tate & Lyle Ventures managing ptnrs Michael Golembieski and David Atkinson and TK Pillan, managing dir at Powerplant Ventures, PE shop set up by Zico founder Mark Rampolla.  Those entities likewise are investors, as are Blueberry Ventures, Stray Dog Capital and NRV, all of them involved in $8 mil round in 2017 led by Tate & Lyle.  Info at Nutriati.com.

St Louis craft brewer and coffee roaster said they’re collaborating on broad suite of RTD cold-brews and coffee-focused cocktails and mocktails. Sump Coffee and 4 Hands Brewing will start with cold-brew using beans from Colombia’s Huila region later this month, but they’re anticipating moving on to nitrogenated version, mocktails and cocktails under brand of 1220 Artisan Spirits gin and vodka distillery spun off from 4 Hands last year. (Its offerings included canned gin & tonic line using house tonic recipe.) Plans may even include stand-alone microbrewery and tap room exclusively for cold brew coffee, say Sump Coffee founder Scott Carey and 4 Hands founder Kevin Lemp. “The possibilities are endless, but we hope to extend our single origin, seasonal coffee sourcing model we’ve employed at Sump over the last 8 years, to brewing these same coffees as cold brewed, ready to serve, canned coffees,” said Carey, who operates coffee shops in St Louis and Nashville.

Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid unit has unleashed a raft of innovations, including smoothie mix concentrates, antioxidant-infused OJ and fruit & veggie juice boxes. Smoothie Makers debuts in Tropical, Strawberry Banana and Peach flavors, packed in 32-oz cartons that declare “just add ice and blend.” They run 90-100 calories per 8-oz serving. Minute Maid Plus+ Antioxidants comes in 6-packs of 10-oz bottles in Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical Lemonade and Cherry Lemonade, with 25% boost in vitamin A and E and 120 calories per bottle. And Minute Maid Fruit & Veggies juice boxes offer combined serving of fruits and vegetables in 8-packs of 6-oz boxes in Watermelon Blend and Tropical Blend. Those are 60 calories per box . . . Keurig Dr Pepper has launched limited-time Dr Pepper Dark Berry flavor on May 1 as part of promo buildup to Spider-Man: Far From Home, which opens Jul 5. Entry features package graphic depicting Mysterio villain character against iconic Big Ben tower . . . With cold-brewed coffee finding a consistent role in Americans’ brunching habits, Campari America is launching a limited-time vodka called Skyy Infusions Cold Brew Coffee that’s infused with Arabica beans. It’s 70 proof and goes out at $13.99 per 750-ml bottle. Decade-old Skyy Infusions lines offers “natural, infused products that elevate the flavors and experience” in broad range of flavors like Sun-Ripened Watermelon, Bartlett Pear and Texas Grapefruit.

 Anheuser-Busch InBev offered deep dive into its innovation process yesterday, including Bud Light Lemon Tea that’s debuting today as follow-on to successful Lime and Orange extensions and still-piloting spiked coconut water and green tea that we first brought word about last fall (BBI, Oct 11).  Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer is getting an unflavored Original extension in Jul, including a draft version, as a cocktail base so bartenders can spend their time crafting special cocktails rather than slaving over vodka sodas.  And unusual honey-based 3.5% ABV entry called simply “b” that’s testing in New England offers short ingredient list of just honey, water and fruit, with some proceeds supporting beekeeping efforts.  Everything discussed here is alcoholic product, a divergence from BBI’s core NA mandate but covered because it offers interesting look at how one growth-challenged CPG is opening up the creative spigot while also highlighting increasing blurring of category lines.

A few themes emerged over 2 hours of discussion and sampling yesterday at ABI’s offices in NY’s Flatiron District (a few doors down from Goose Island-dispensing faux dive called One Star Bar – “raters gonna rate” is its slogan).  For one, co is giving close scrutiny to what’s working in non-alc bevs – from coconut water to aguas frescas to La Croix flavored sparkling waters to Bai Antioxidant Infusions - and appropriating those concepts for beer and “beyond beer” launches.  For another, ABI seems resigned to consumers relentlessly flavor-hopping rather than basing purchases on brand loyalty and is whole-heartedly playing game.  Also, what we’ve referred to as consumers’ Great Sugar Freakout on NA side is having increasing impact on alc side, too, for instance, in cleanup of Spiked Seltzer pack to herald its zero grams of sugar.  And for all its talk of how everything is driven by consumer insights, ABI seems to be taking pains to foster channels that let ideas bubble up organically from all corners of the enterprise rather than thru rigorous adherence to set innovation scheme.  Bud Light Lemon Tea, for instance, was brainstorm of bunch of youthful new hires.  “When we started down this path, the idea of beer and tea was not obvious,” as innovation vp Jake Kirsch readily allowed.  But iced tea is a massive category, and all the growth these days is in better-for-you tier like PepsiCo’s Pure Leaf and ABI’s own Teavana collab with Starbucks.  So idea was to borrow that idea and bring it to beer, Jake said.

Among more off-the-beaten-path entries we saw was that honey-based b drink (can we just call it B from now on?).  Devised at prompting of scientists at Univ of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, B falls into category of “melomels,” ancient brewing technique that avoid heavy connotations of more familiar mead style.  “Dry and light,” package copy reassures, flagging 100-calorie contents.  It’s packed in 12-oz slim cans in Cherry and Blueberry flavors and derives alcohol entirely from honey, not from malt or vodka base.  It’s testing in New England metros of Boston and Worcester, Mass, and Portland, Maine, backed by what seems considerable amount of local media.  ABI send $1 per case to Healthy Bee Fund.

Also in mix were Hard Coconut Water and Hard Green Tea we spotted at NACS c-store show last fall under LQD Custom Liquids brand name that Beyond Beer vp Chelsea Phillips said might just be a placeholder for now.  Out of innovation crew at 10 Barrel in Ore, it’s attempt to flip formulation stance from “give me less of the bad” to basing entries on good-for-you ingredients, in this case coconut water and green tea.  The coconut water, at 4.2% and brewed directly from coconut water and sugar, is offered in Original and Pineapple flavors, while the green tea, at 5.2%, is out in Passion Fruit and Peach.   They’re piloting in Calif.

Broader idea, per A-B cmo Marcel Marcondes, is that it’s not enough to be leader in $$ sales, but ABI needs to drive category’s growth.  That means being more “consumer-centric,” which in turn required radically changing all internal processes, broadening sources of ideas and lessening stigma of failure.  Under rubric of Project Apollo 11 piloting process named for space program (we suppose the mission here is to conquer shelf space), co has reduced new product development cycle from 2 years to as little as 3 mos.  That speed hasn't hindered quality of innovation: 3 out of top 10 share gainers last year were new ABI items, including Bud Light Orange as #1, along with Michelob Ultra Pure Gold and Bud Reserve Series (2 others were existing ABI brands).  Crucially, Marcondes said, the innovations seem to be sourcing their volume not just from other beer brands: 20% of their volume is to newcomers to category.

Everything is driven by “endless runs” of consumer insights, including tech-enabled contacts with 5K consumers per week to suss out trends and usage occasions down to regional level, as Kirsch noted.  Hundreds of ideas are winnowed down to manageable # that can be piloted at small scale, much like VCs’ view that lotsa portfolio bets will yield 1 or 2 big winners that outweigh the failures.  Lessons learned from the failures can, of course, yield the next winners.  That said, once discussion moved on to the new entries themselves, it seemed this is far from mechanical process, with ideas bubbling up from all over, whether experimental group sited at 10 Barrel’s Bend, Ore, brewery or youthful new hires who came up with idea of Bud Light Tea.  Innovation engine is stoked via activities like annual iWeek, offsite gathering of 100 innovation-focused people from within and outside ABI, including bev entrepreneurs.  (This year’s was held a month ago at Brooklyn site.)

All the entries in some way participated in 1 or more of 3 broader trends dominated food/bev space these days: premiumization, health & wellness and purpose-driven brands. Here’s rundown of the others:

At premium end, Michelob Ultra Pure Gold was developed in just 9 months, despite challenge of finding sources of organic barley, launching last Feb and dialing up effort this year with full USDA organic certification.  To comply with organic regs, ABI has to maintain 2-3 brewers on-site manually adding ingredients . . . Under same trademark, brand-new Michelob Ultra Infusions drew direct inspiration from Bai Antioxidant Infusions and legion of flavored waters on NA side, maintaining low-carb credo of brand but accommodating consumers’ desire for taste of real, exotic fruits.  (We just featured another alc line called Infusions on Wed, from Skyy Vodka.)  We sampled lime & prickly pear cactus flavor . . . In similar vein, Bud Light Orange uses real orange peels, offering rich mouth feel (at robust 142 calories that’s just a hair’s breadth behind Budweiser’s 145 calories – nothin’ light about this entry).  It launched last Apr and, as noted, was #1 innovation last year, with 20% of its consumers new to beer category . . . Bud Light Lemon Tea employs real black tea and real lemon peels, brought challenge of balancing tea notes with beer, seeking alternative to spiked teas containing 3X the sugar.  With 8 g of sugar, it contains less even than many premium NA teas, Jake noted.  But it’s caffeine-free, perhaps to avert any lingering controversies over caffeinated alc bevs (tho gov’t seems OK with those containing natural sources of caffeine, as this one would have via use of real tea).  It’s also 142 calories . . . Budweiser Discovery Reserve last week added 4th entry since lineup’s debut in fall 2017, American Red Lager inspired by all-malt entry dating back to 1969, year of Apollo moonshot.  (It’s brewing project of Cartersville, Ga, brewmaster Karissa Norrington, who’s former AF captain, Kirsch noted.)  It builds off prior Copper Lager, a collab with Jim Beam . . . Below superpremium tier, Beyond Beer vp Phillips – still wearing sash heralding celebration of her 30th birthday – had further innovations to show.  Out in late Feb, Natural Light Naturdays is avowed “lawn mower beer” in 12-oz cans adorned with pink flamingos (via in-house agency Draft Line) that brings sweeter strawberry lemonade flavor.  Counterintuitively, pink-hued packs seem to be no turnoff to the guys who’re doing much of the beer purchasing in early-20s cohort, Chelsea noted . . . Update last Jul of Spiked Seltzers line under Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzers moniker won’t be surprise to any who watched Super Bowl.  ABV has been dialed down from 6% to more sessionable 4.5% and package has been given cleaner look to signal its zero-sugar recipe, cold-pressed-fruit essence and botanicals.  Flavors and mouthfeel are inspired in part by La Croix sparkling waters.  Idea is to source volume from wine & spirits segment by giving partygoers an alternative to schlepping bottles of vodka and club soda . . . Under Stella Artois banner, hibiscus-flavored Stella Spritzer piloted in Feb in Washington DC, where it seemed to work well in luring older female drinkers from wine, so it goes out more broadly this summer . . . Wine-cocktail-inspired Ritas Spritz, out in Feb and brewed by all-female team, targets lapsed drinkers who felt core Ritas line was too sweet with lower-sugar line at 6% ABV in flavors like White Peach Rose, Strawberry Blueberry Sangria and Pear Orange Sangria . . . Since Golden Road Brewing founder Meg Gill views fruit beers as being her wheelhouse, she got nod to create Golden Road Aguas Frescas, 4% ABV entries with 10% fruit juice in Mango, Strawberry Pineapple and Cucumber Lime flavors . . . ABI also highlight restaged Kombrewcha hard kombucha brand we’ve covered in some detail, now a canned entry at more elevated 4.4% ABV and extended from NY to more kombucha-involved Pac NW region.