Starbucks is confronting class action suit in NY that hinges on familiar issue in food/bev: whether consumers can reasonably expect that drink called Mango Dragonfruit contains actual mango ingredient. In action in US District Court for Southern District of NY, plaintiffs Joan Kominis, of Astoria, NY, and Jason McAllister, of Fairfield, Calif, say the main ingredients in Starbucks' Mango Dragonfruit, Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade, Pineapple Passionfruit, Pineapple Passionfruit Lemonade, Strawberry Açai and Strawberry Açai Lemonade Refreshers were water, grape juice concentrate and sugar, "and that Starbucks' misleading names caused them to be overcharged," in violation of the states' consumer protection laws, as Reuters reported.

Taco Bell and its bev partner PepsiCo have begun modest test of energy drinks under Mtn Dew brand on fountain and in cans at 3 eateries in SoCal and Tucson, Ariz, Nation's Restaurant News reported. The 2 bevs - Baja Blast Charged Berry and Mtn Dew Energy Baja Blast -are available thru Sep 28. Served only in large size, 27.2-oz, the fountain versions include citicoline and caffeine to tune of 180 mg from Mountain Dew Energy Baja Blast, at 70 calories for $4.59-4.99. Customers can also order a Mountain Dew Energy Baja Blast in cans for $2.50 to $2.99. NRN notes that the partners earlier this month collaborated on gelato test at Taco Bell unit in Irvine, Calif.

Austin-based entrepreneur with successful beekeeping biz has just gone live with brand called Good + Ready that inaugurates a new format for yaupon, the domestically grown tea: iced-tea concentrates. Frustrated with headache of making homemade iced tea, Tara Chapman figured she'd incorporate caffeinated yaupon plant in bottled cold-brew concentrate line that makes it a cinch to produce a glass or a half gallon of iced tea in seconds. So she sources her yaupon from Texas grower Cat Spring, sweetens some versions with combo of cane sugar and yaupon honey, and packs it in small glass bottles each good for 8 servings at $16. It's out initially in Original Unsweet, Ginger & Juniper and Half & Half Lemonade. Yaupon, of course, is species of holly that's only caffeinated tea native to US, long used by Native Americans and colonists, but key players like Cat Spring in Texas and Yaupon Bros in Florida have focused on loose and bagged forms rather than RTDs and other convenient formats. So Good + Ready offers new avenue, both for home users and for the restaurants in foodie centers like Austin that have been incorporating yaupon into their bev menus. Founder Chapman is West Texas native who ended up spending a decade working for CIA before returning to Lone Star State and starting Two Hives Honey.

Its alliance with La Colombe Coffee didn't pan out but Molson Coors now is venturing into an even bigger category, iced tea, with a canned line called Sunny Provisions that offers a tea-forward but lower-sugar approach. New line is packed in 16-oz cans in trio of approachable black-tea-based flavors, Black Tea, Peach Black Tea and Raspberry Black Tea. Developed with MC's incubation partner LA Libations, the new line is undertaking a deliberate buildout, not riding beer fleet trucks yet but moving into retail in Calif via broadliner UNFI. It keeps sugar modest at 15 g (60 calories) per can and goes out at $2.19 SRP, said marketing exec Kelly Youngstrom. Some 2% of sales go to One Tree Planted org, which is helping to reforest 12,700 acres in Calif's Plumas National Forest that were decimated in 2007 Moonlight Fire. She was speaking at Harvest Fest booth at Expo East where MC was sampling its Golden Wing barleymilk but not showing the tea. (So contrary to sitcom title, it's not always Sunny in Philadelphia.) But in conversation coupla weeks ago, MC's NA chief, Kevin Nitz, had pointed to it as signal that brewing giant intends to keep on innovating in NA space.

Entrepreneur from team that successfully nurtured Nutrl vodka RTD to exit to Anheuser-Busch now is doing a turn on healthier side of bevs under Centr name (styled CENTR). At Expo East's Harvest Fest yesterday, cofounder/ceo Arjan Chima was pushing first non-CBD items in portfolio, pair of mood-enhancing canned bevs, one with caffeine and the other without. The publicly traded Centr Brands, based in Vancouver, pulled in $5 mil private placement in Feb and followed that with capital from filmmaker/producer George Stroumboulopoulos

Just as yet another prominent article took aim at Bud Light (see above), Wall St Jnl dropped a new piece highlighting Modelo's momentum. The brand's "disciplined" marketing strategy helped it "beat Bud Light," article headlined. "Shifting demographics and Bud Light's decline are only part of the reason that Modelo Especial has risen to the top," WSJ added, as the brand's mktg "also propelled it ahead of other, heritage Mexican lagers."

AB continues to take shots from both sides, as lengthy article published yesterday by left-leaning UK paper The Guardian offered platform to former Bud Light employees to complain about co's handling of backlash against the brand's sponsored posts by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Even before the saga, the co "was operating always from a position of fear," one unnamed ex-employee said. In the immediate aftermath, "there was a lot of panic and rash decision-making," they added. The piece also provides a bit more detail about how the partnership with Mulvaney came about, including estimating the 4 or 5-figure fee she was paid. Tho unsurprising, the damning comments dismiss the co's leadership as "just old white men," while praising the former brand veep Alissa Heinerscheid, who "was blamed for all this when she had nothing to do with it."

"A genuine Texas original," and also one of best known and most highly regarded wholesalers, Barry Andrews, died yesterday. Back in 1976, "at 29 years old, Barry was the youngest ever awarded a Miller distributorship," noted Andrews Distributing Co obituary. Andrews Distributing started in a small warehouse in Corpus Christi before expanding into Dallas in 80s. After "close to 20 acquisitions," Barry's biz has grown to become one of the largest distributors in the United States, at over 40 mil cases out of 5 locations in Texas, servicing 1,000 brands with ~2,000 employees. Among notable developments on non-alcoholic side, Andrews is believed to have been rare Red Bull house to fire its supplier as opposed to being terminated as energy titan moved from 3d-party partners to self-distribution model in much of country, in the process sweeping away even respected partners (BBI, Jan 10 2017). At the time, moved marked its exit from NAs after losing Muscle Milk to Pepsi system, tho it's since brought in smattering of beer-adjacent NAs like Hop WTR, Abita Root Beer and NA beers.