Jessica Jacobsen

At the risk of placing a jinx on this warmer weather in the Midwest, it looks as though spring might be around the corner. With temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s, the snow and ice that Mother Nature shared with us in February might soon be a thing of the past.

In Beverage Industry’s 2015 New Product Development Outlook study, 18 percent of respondents named cinnamon as a top-selling flavor for2015. Although we are early into the new year, it seems as those the readers of the magazine are carrying that assessment in their voting records.

On HGTV’s “Flea Market Flip,” contestants get a chance to purchase items at suburban or rural flea markets for the chance to revitalize and reimage them in order to resell them. Some contestants might get very artistic in their transformations, while others are just looking to restore a classic piece.

With a call-out in a phrase like “as American as apple pie,” it is not a surprise that apple has become a staple in the American diet. However, apple’s popularity does not end with food selections. The fruit also has found a home within the beverage space.

Aside from the Valentine’s Day candy and treats on the store shelves, the first quarter of a new year tends to be filled with diet- and exercise-related products to appeal to those consumers who resolved to lose weight or eat healthier in the new year.

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.

On award show night, many celebrities seem to sparkle as they walk the red carpet. In the U.S. wine market, sparkling wines also seem to be garnering consumer attention.

The readers of Beverage Industry see a future for liquid concentrates in the alcohol market. In the magazine’s Readers’ Choice New Product of the Year poll for 2014, Seismix LLC’s ZMix instant cocktail mixes captured the title of Favorite New Product of 2014 by garnering 40 percent of votes.

Readers must have brains on their brain. In Beverage Industry’s December Readers’ Choice Product of the Month poll, Fairfield, Conn.-based Focus Now Solutions LLC’s Focus+ took home the honor after garnering 31 percent of the vote. 

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch (AB), a division of AB InBev, hosted media members at its headquarters during the fourth quarter of 2014.