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Pacific Foods expanded its non-dairy beverages portfolio with the release of its Organic Coconut line.

Kalaheo, Hawaii-based KonaRed Corp. reported an 80 percent increase in consumer product sales plus delivery revenues to nearly $1.1 million for 2014, compared with nearly $605,000 the previous year. Net sales for the company, which includes consumer product sales, delivery fees and raw material ingredient sales, increased 39 percent to nearly $1.3 million, compared with nearly $906 million in 2013.

Coconuts, which are the fruit of a special type of palm tree found in the tropical zone, previously could be found primarily as a flavor complement in numerous beverage categories.

Usually when people think about a disruption, it comes with a negative connotation: the neighbors upstairs who sounds like they have a personal bowling alley, the fire alarm testing in the middle of the workday, or the road construction that takes a major roadway down to one lane.

In the past year, Life Up LLC’s Foco 100% Pure Coconut Water line has added 10 distributors, secured distribution in major supermarket chains and more than doubled its sales, according to Contessa Foconut Donna Bimbo, chief executive officer of the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company.

In the sea of beverages on the retail shelves, consumers definitely have no shortage of options from which to choose. When you take into account the number of new SKUs out there, it can get even more intriguing.

The readers of Beverage Industry must have an interest in mixology. Based on the results of the publication’s Readers’ Choice Product of the Month poll for October, Seismix LLC’s ZMix instant cocktail mixes were a crowd pleaser, garnering 31 percent of the vote.

If you ask Janie Hoffman how chia has impacted her life, you’ll notice her face light up with excitement as she shares what those little seeds have done for her health and well-being and why she wanted to share that same passion with a broader community.

If major coffee chains are any indication, plant-based dairy alternatives such as almond milk and coconut milk are taking their success mainstream.