Imagine having the ability to pick up a beverage and examine it without ever touching it. Thanks to next-generation vending machines, this idea of virtual selection is becoming a reality.

It’s amazing how much can change in a year’s time. As our staff began compiling Beverage Industry’s list of the Top 100 beverage companies (page 24), I realized the magnitude of changes that have taken place in the beverage realm within the last year.

When the MillerCoors facility in Golden, Colo., experienced a small flood in its basement a few years ago, little did the company know what it was about to stumble upon.

Representing the “Tenth” reference in Tenth and Blake Beer Co., the 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee is one of the company’s smallest, most experimental breweries, says Tom Cardella, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago-based MillerCoors division of craft and import brands.

If life were a game of Monopoly, many marketers would be preparing to “go back to go,” according to a report by The Nielsen Co. and BoomAgers LLC titled “Boomers: Marketing’s Most Valuable Generation.” Once a generation reaches the cut-off age of 49, marketers typically turn their focus to a younger group in the 18- to 49-year-old range, the report states. However, this shift in attention is not such a great idea, it suggests.

Across the globe, consumers continue to seek more nutritional foods, beverages and supplements in order to improve their digestive health, according to a report by DuPont Nutrition & Health, Reigate, United Kingdom. As a result, digestive health is the largest segment of the functional foods market in Europe, Japan and South America, and it is on its way to becoming the largest functional segment in the United States as well, the report states.

Like companies across all categories within the beverage industry, players in the tea category are fighting for consumers’ attention.

As consumers’ taste preferences shift away from intensely sweet and toward tarter flavor profiles, cherries have an opportunity to fill the flavor gap, according to experts.

Since its founding in 1969 by a group of entrepreneurs, Celestial Seasonings has remained situated against a backdrop of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colo.

Just before the end of 2012, The Hain Celestial Group, Melville, N.Y., acquired BluePrint, a raw juice brand based in New York.