SHOW REVIEW BY BRAD AVERY
Summer Fancy Food Show 2017: Examining Trends and Innovation While the 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show may not have included any apparent major revelations, it did further define the paths of many beverage brands as fastgrowing trends continue to evolve.
Cold Brew Coffee & Tea It’s getting increasingly difficult to find a RTD coffee company that hasn’t launched a cold brew offering, and the style is gaining some footing in the tea world. Perhaps the biggest category takeaway from Summer Fancy Food Show is not necessarily in the way cold brew is growing, but rather the way it is refining itself as brands compete in an increasingly saturated sector. “Cold brew is getting to the point that it’s mass market, it is now the de facto cold coffee,” said David Belanich, CEO and co-founder of Joyride Coffee Distributors, which provides kegerator distribution for several prominent coffee companies including Rise, Grady’s, and Stumptown. “Most people making cold brew right now are saying that is Starbucks is doing it, then we’ve made a good decision.” The convention was a showcase for two fast-growing cold brew companies that debuted their first RTD offerings. Grady’s Cold Brew, which previously made its name with a concentrate and bean bags, and Wandering Bear, known for its bagin-box approach, both unveiled new lines of black single-serve options. Grady’s “Lil’ Easy” lines comes in 8 oz. glass bottles while Wandering Bear has opted for an 11 oz. Tetra Pak carton. Wandering Bear co-founder Matthew Bachmann told BevNET that Tetra Pak’s edged design fit neatly into the company’s cardboard bag-in-box aesthetic. It compliments a new packaging redesign that adds more imagery the company’s previously minimalist box design by increasing the logo and adding more brand story text to its packaging. The new product will launch in August in Target. Grady’s Lil’ Easy is slated for release later this year. As these multi-serve coffee companies unveiled single-serve options stalwart
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cold brew brand Chameleon Cold-Brew is now offering bean bag kits for consumers, akin to those that Grady’s offers. The company also recently added bagged ground beans to its portfolio. Several new coffee companies are also looking to make an impact in the market. Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Coffee Co., which launched in January 2016, sells single-serve, bag-in-box, and kegs. The company exhibited rebranded bottles and announced a pilot program to sell its coffee at Harvard University.
DRINKmaple, the Vermont-based maker of a maple water and a watermelon water, released three new flavors; a grapefruit maple water, tart cherry watermelon water, and lime watermelon water. The company also recently picked up nearly $4 million in investments and added placement in several major retailers, including CVS. But while DRINKmaple has been making early gains to potentially headline the nascent maple water category, Asarasi, which brands itself as tree water is similarly using maple trees as a beverage
While not a cold brew coffee brand, Sunup Green Coffee offered a fresh take on the cold coffee sector with its unroasted bean blends, relaunching the brand in 16 oz. cans with unsweetened and stevia-sweetened varieties. It previously had a single, sweetened variety packaged in a 9 oz. glass bottle. “We’re not riding the coffee trends; we’re lighter than cold brew,” Sunup founder Nate Pealer told BevNET. “We don’t think that we need to be roasting the coffee bean.”
source. CEO Adam North Lazar, says the brand is purely hydration-focused and is not presenting the drink as a functional beverage. The beverage is more similar in flavor and consistency to plain water and instead is making its play on being an environmentally friendly alternative to ground-sourced bottled waters. As maple water is trending, however, it may find itself in competition with birch water. Several companies exhibiting at the show , including Sapp and TREO are backing their brands on birch-specific functional ingredients, namely manganese and chaga. Sapp debuted two new flavors, strawberry lavender and apple orange. TREO, which launched in September 2016, announced new distribution deals with KeHE and UNFI.
Plant and Enhanced Waters Getting water from ground sources never goes out of style, but it’s becoming clear that tree-based waters are gaining traction in the hydration realm.