In Brief . . .
Coffee and Tea…
Senseo, owned by
Chicago-based Sara Lee Coffee and Tea, will be celebrating its European
heritage with three new flavor blends: Paris Vanilla Bistro, Killarney
Irish Creamery and Vienna Hazelnut Waltz. The single-serve coffee blends
will come in packs of 16 pods for a suggested retail price of $3.99 to
$4.99.
Juice Drinks…
Izze Beverage Co.,
Boulder, Colo., launched its seventh flavor, Sparkling Pomegranate, to its
sparkling juice line. Available in a 12-ounce glass bottle, Izze Sparkling
Pomegranate joins existing Izze flavors Sparkling Blackberry, Blueberry,
Clementine, Grapefruit, Lemon and Pear.
Pepsi-Cola North America,
Purchase, N.Y., added a new juice to its portfolio of Dole 100 percent
juices – Ruby Red Grapefruit. The newly reformulated product contains
100 percent juice and no added sugar, and joins Orange, Apple and Grape in
the 100 percent juice lineup.
Wild Fruitz Beverages Inc.,
Ambler, Pa., now offers Pomegranate/Black Currant to its list of flavors
– Raspberry, Huckleberry/Blueberry, Apricot/Peach, Watermelon,
Cranberry, Lemondade and Orange/Mango. The Wild Fruitz brand contains 25-38
percent juice and is comprised of sparkling water, sugar cane to sweeten
and natural flavoring to enhance the fruit. Pomegranate/Black Currant
retails for $1.59 to $2.19.
Soft Drinks…
Pepsi-Cola North America,
Purchase, N.Y., will relaunch Pepsi One with Splenda, giving the product only one calorie. Full national distribution in the
United States is expected by the end of April.
Pepsi also plans to begin
selling its apple-flavored Mexican soft drink, Manzanita Sol, in heavily
Hispanic U.S. markets this summer. The company will rollout the
orange-flavored Mirinda, which it had been test-marketing in a few cities.
Manzanita Sol and Mirinda already are well known in Mexico, where they are
PepsiCo’s No. 2 and 3 brands, ranking behind only Pepsi-Cola in
sales.
Jones Soda Co., Seattle,
entered into a licensing agreement with The
Kroger Co. to manufacture and sell a newly
created item, Jones Frozen Soda Pops, frozen novelties based on popular Jones Soda flavors.
Beer…
Uinta Brewing Co., Salt
Lake City, created a new development division, Four + Brewing to focus on
resurrecting Old World-styles of classic beers and modernizing them with an
American twist. Their initial product rollout, Monkshine Belgian Pale Ale,
contains faint suggestions of spices and is available locally.
Wine and Spirits…
Jacob’s Creek Australian wines, introduces its
2004 Riesling to the U.S. market. The 2004 vintage possesses flavors of
fresh lemon citrus with an underlying hint of
lime spice. The dry Riesling, with a crisp, clean finish, complements a
wide variety of light food dishes. Produced by Orlando
Wyndham, Jacob’s Creek is imported by Pernod Ricard in White
Plains, N.Y.
Spirits Marque One LLC,
brand owner of Svedka vodka, launched Citron, the newest flavor to its
portfolio, which also includes Clementine, Raspberry and Vanilla. Made from
a blend of California lemons and Mexican limes, Svedka Citron’s fruit
essences and wheat-based recipe are fused in a five-column, 40-hour
distillation process.
Schieffelin Co., a New
York-based spirits importer and subsidiary of LVMH
Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, recently
launched Navan, a new vanilla-tinged Cognac from the House of Grand
Marnier. The product’s label design of black, silver and gold
metallic was inspired by the product’s fusion of natural black
vanilla from Madagascar with refined French Cognac.
Alternative Drinks…
G.I. Energy Drinks Corp., Montreal, unveils Guru Lite, a low-calorie version of its original formula
that contains a botanical complex made from standardized herbal extracts of
guarana, ginseng, ginkgo biloba and echinacea and no preservatives to the
Canadian market. Guru Lite follows the same proprietary formula as regular
Guru, which is now available in U.S. markets.