What’s piquing the attention of BeverageDaily readers? From new RTD cocktail innovations to ideas for boosting beverage can recycling, here’s a round-up of our most-read articles from July.
What’s piquing the attention of BeverageDaily readers? From new RTD cocktail innovations to ideas for boosting beverage can recycling, here’s a round-up of our most-read articles from July.
Diageo and The Vita Coco Company are partnering to launch a line of premium canned cocktails: using Captain Morgan rum and Vita Coco coconut water.
The duo are just the latest to launch in the thriving RTD alcohol category, hoping their leading positions in their respective sectors can put them ahead of the competition.
“With Captain Morgan having the #1 selling spiced rum brand and Vita Coco as the #1 selling coconut water, this relationship brings together two category-leading brands,” say the companies.
Vita Coco Spiked with Captain Morgan cocktails will be 5% ABV and sold in 12oz cans for a suggested retail price of $14.99 per 4-pack.
Three flavors are due to hit shelves in early 2023:
- Piña Colada – finished with the flavor of fresh ripe pineapple, creamy coconut and dark rum notes
- Strawberry Daiquiri – finished with the flavor of fresh picked strawberries, ripe juicy lime and fruity rum notes
- Lime Mojito – finished with the flavor of fresh muddled garden mint, ripe juicy lime, and a touch of simple syrup
Never far from the headlines, the issue of microplastics in food and beverages has been highlighted by a new report from French NGO Agir pour l’Environment (Act for the Environment).
The report found 78% of bottled waters analyzed in the country are contaminated with microplastics: including those from Danone and Nestle.
Microplastics – small fragments of plastic less than 5 millimeters in length – are of concern over the potential (and largely unknown) effects within organisms.
Trade Association Natural Mineral Waters Europe (NMWE), however, said the study is ‘very limited’ in nature: highlighting the lack of knowledge about microplastics and noting that regular testing and monitoring done on bottled water products.
Diageo has acquired Vivanda, the owner of the technology behind Diageo’s digital ‘What’s Your Whisky’ online platform as well as the ‘Journey of Flavour’ experience at Johnnie Walker Princes Street in Edinburgh.
Powered by artificial intelligence, FlavorPrint technology, through a series of simple questions, analyses and maps consumers’ flavor preferences against a large proprietary sensory database of foods and aromas, to generate a digital representation of their unique ‘Flavor Print’.
It then recommends brands and variants whose flavor profiles consumers are most likely to enjoy.
Diageo will use the acquisition to expand the use of the FlavorPrint technology in other areas of its business.
A shocking statistics: less than half of beverage cans in the US are currently recycled. But US can manufacturers reckon this can be turned around: they want to see 80% recycled by 2040 and 90% by 2050. So how can this be achieved?
Can manufacturers champion the circular economy potential of the metal can: with each can having the potential to be recycled repeatedly - without loss of quality - into new cans or other products. Recycling also saves energy compared to making cans from virgin material.
But the problem is that not enough cans are currently recycled: meaning they don’t complete this circular journey.
The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) has published a roadmap for reaching the above targets: calling for well-designed deposit systems; increased recycling both in home and out of home; improved sorting at recycling centers, and increased consumer awareness.
Swire Coca-Cola Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific Limited, will acquire Coca-Cola subsidiaries with bottling businesses in Vietnam and Cambodia.
With young demographics, increasing urbanization and pre-pandemic GDP growth of over 7% per year, Vietnam and Cambodia open up ‘significant opportunities’ for Swire Coca-Cola, says the company.
Swire Coca-Cola – which is the fifth largest bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company by global volume with a portfolio of 62 brands – already covers Greater China and the western US. In making its first investments in South East Asia, it will gain a strong position in one of the world’s fastest growing beverage markets.
As a result, Swire Coca-Cola's franchise population will expand by 15% to around 876 million people.
