Jessica Jacobsen

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.

On the drive through Crenshaw County in Alabama, motorists will see a number of small towns, vast woodlands and maybe a few deer. But as drivers pass the handful of restaurants and general stores throughout the county, they might also notice something else: the Pepsi logo.

If the groundhog’s ability to predict the end of winter held true on an annual basis, it would make planning the last six weeks of winter much easier for many people. Although not as temperamental as the weather, many beverage-makers probably wish they had an ability to see into the beverage market future to predict the latest trends.

A trip to the local retail store can be an enlightening experience. Because of the considerable amount of SKU proliferation, a retail shelf might look quite different from one month to the next.

U.S. consumers have shown how enthusiastic they are about Blue Chair Bay Coconut Spiced Rum Cream. The import brand of Rochester, N.Y.-based Fishbowl Spirits that was created and owned by country music star Kenny Chesney announced that the limited-edition variety sold out nationwide.