Having presided over burst of innovation over past year, Hain Celestial's BluePrint Juice unit is now refining concepts, responding to retailer and consumer feedback to boost trial and at-shelf velocity. At Expo West, where corporate-wide innovation focus meant the core BluePrint juices and cleanses got no meaningful display presence, that meant efforts around 2 newer platforms: Vinegar Tonics and Energy Teas.

Maybe it was the frenzy of Expo West, but coupla brain blowouts marred Mamma Chia update yesterday. Our Mamma Chia contacts lauded accomplishments of new dir of R&D recruited from Hain Celestial, but gave us wrong last name: she's Brenda Quesada, not Brenda Wienckowski. But BBI was not blameless either: tho we correctly stated in headline that co is ending its foray into nutrition bar segment, we somehow referred to them as Granola Clusters in actual story text; it's only the bars that are gone, not the Clusters . . . Citing avid response to co's new "bottle as billboard" labeling scheme by Expo show-goers, MatchaBar cofounder Graham Fortgang wishes his colleagues at booth would have mentioned to BBI that agency collaborator on initiative was NY shop Bullish, which is also investor in brand.

Long Island Iced Tea, publicly traded co that so far has ridden just a NA bottled tea line under the Long Island brand name, has added The Original Long Island Brand Lemonade, a 9-flavor subline using cane sugar, non-GMO ingredients and with hint of tea essence. The flavor lineup is Traditional, Lime, Peach, Watermelon, Mango, Strawberry, Kiwi Strawberry, Cherry and Wildberries. They're being offered in single 18-oz bottles and 12-packs, like the Long Island Iced Tea line. With recent acquisition of Alo Juice brand, LTEA now has 3 brands in mix.

Boston-based entrepreneur Randy Shefshick launched UK's Cawston Press line of kitchen-garden-inspired soft drinks in this country on a shoestring, but still managed to pull in $1 mil in first-year sales. Now he's backed by full resources of the 20-person, $13 mil (sales) British operation, following restructuring by which Randy went from being indie US importer to integrated into co as US dir. That may have trimmed a bit of potential upside but it improves chances of driving biz thanks to influx of capital, marketing, personnel resources and expertise from team that's previously sold soup startup to Campbell Soup and chocolate biz to Cadbury.

Hiball extended its year-old Alta Palla Sparkling Fruit Juice line with Sparkling Waters entry that aims to break out from multipack morass dominated by subpremium brands like La Croix. New line is being offered in 16-oz cans that swap the brilliant color palette of the 12-oz cans used for the sparkling juices for a white background to flag the zero-calorie recipe. Initial flavor range is Wild Berry, Peach, Grapefruit and Lemon Lime, all using USDA Organic-certified flavors. Depending on retailer, they'll be priced $1.29-1.49, but promo'd at 99 cents. In c-stores, stylish look and 16-oz can format should break thru in a sparkling water set that's "not pretty," said cofounder Todd Berardi. (Like other Hiball packs, this one was designed by Berardi's wife, the graphic designer Alyssa Warnock.) Meanwhile, on distribution front, Hiball is taking further step into DSD with recruitment of Haralambos Bev in LA and Lenore in San Diego as partners, with one key retail partner, Ralph's, now being transitioned to DSD.

NY-based matcha player MatchaBar, which has used base of matcha teahouses as launching pad for RTD line, has teamed with label supplier DWS to undertake "bottle as billboard" initiative. Under campaign, each flavor will get 2 sets of copy along lines of "Apple Ginger Matcha can win an argument at 140 characters" or "Mint Matcha stays cool in hot yoga" or "Original Matcha has been gluten-free since 1204." Meanwhile, RTD line developed with help of incubator MetaBrand has pivoted to straightwall 10-oz bottle. And after building base of cafes in Bklyn and Manhattan, co was due to open first LA café this past weekend, in Silverlake District. Tho small, brand launched by Fortgang bros has made considerable noise in burgeoning category, drawing lines down block to pop-up store in Tokyo and otherwise bringing refreshing spirit to staid, ceremonial powdered-green-tea category, much as American craft brewers have done in gleefully violating European strictures on how beer is to be made.

Making its inaugural Expo West appearance under new mgmt team, crossfit mainstay Kill Cliff showed updated can graphics, new flavor and exhortation to "Kill the Quit" as part of new marketing direction. Not visible at Expo booth: the co's year-and-a-half old line of cold-brewed coffees, dropped by new team as unneeded diversion in very crowded segment.

Mamma Chia offered just a smattering of new products at Expo West, but promised far more robust innovation pipeline in near future, even as co has decided to drop Granola Clusters in brutally crowded nutrition bar segment. At Expo, co showed trio of new entries in core Chia Vitality Beverages line: Lemon Iced Tea, Blueberry Pomegranate and Ginger Lime. But that's just tip of iceberg, founders Janie and Lance Hoffman promised, now that cohesive team has been assembled to buttress expertise. Latest addition is former Hain Celestial food scientist Brenda Wienckowski, in as dir of R&D (tho Janie was quick to stress that longtime collaborator Grace Venus remains critical part of innovation activities). She joins team that was augmented last fall by Clorox vet Ken Vargha as evp sales & marketing (BBI, Sep 26). Enhanced team will be focusing on stepping up new items in all 3 remaining lines, including guayusa-based Chia Energy Beverages line and pouched Chia Squeeze line. Carlsbad, Calif-based co is proceeding, Janie emphasized, from solid financial base, generating positive cash flow and not having had to resort to capital raise for years.