With all the RTD infusions flooding the market these days, you\u2019d think that people are imbibing a lot more these days. But according to a top CEO in the beverage industry, consumers are drinking the same amount as they always did. Now they\u2019re way more demanding about what\u2019s in the mix.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s consumers are looking for products with \u201cclean labels,\u201d that offer a more natural, healthful, organic and functional drink. Based on the course both established and new companies are taking, they\u2019re quickly heeding the consumer\u2019s call for healthier choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow everyone wants not only low calorie, but also natural flavor and sweeteners,\u201d says Rabbi Eli Eleff, OU Kosher Rabbinic Coordinator. “This is going on throughout the food industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2007, Coca-Cola Company purchased Glaceau, the maker of Vitaminwater,<\/em> Fruitwater<\/em>, energy drink called Vitaminenergy<\/em>, as well as Smartwater<\/em>, enhanced with electrolytes.<\/p>\n Another key player in carbonated beverages, Shasta, the company that introduced ready-to-drink soda in a can back in the 1950\u2019s, has added Rip It<\/em>\u00a0energy drink,\u00a0Clear Fruit <\/em>fruit-flavored water beverage, Everfresh <\/em>juice drinks, LaCroix<\/em>\u00a0sparkling water,\u00a0and Mega Sport<\/em>\u00a0to its production roster.<\/p>\n All these health-promoting recipes are keeping copackers across the country in a word \u2013 \u00a0beverage-busy.<\/p>\n \u201cNearly everyone makes their product in one of 30 U.S. co-packing plants,\u201d says Rabbi Yitzchok Mincer, OU Kosher RC. \u201cOU Kosher supervision has a presence in almost all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Will that be Apple Cider or Veggies on the Rocks?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mayer Brothers, headquartered in West Seneca, New York, produces brand name<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0private label<\/a>\u00a0products for leading national brands including fresh pack apple ciders, lemonades, teas, juices and spring water.<\/p>\n Now in its fifth generation, the 100-year-old family-owned operation began when patriarch Jacob Mayer launched an apple pressing mill to service local farmers who brought fresh apples from their orchards to be rendered into cider. By the 1920\u2019s, the company produced its own brand of apple cider and in the 1980\u2019s it acquired Gerber Baby Foods facility in Barker, New York, adding hot filled juices, drinks and additional apple cider to its product lineup.<\/p>\n Keeping an ear to the ground for the latest liquid trends, Mayer Brothers introduced spring water to its line, derived from spring sources rich in minerals in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. Although the main product continues to be its signature apple cider, the company currently produces ice tea, lemonade, cranberry juice, cranberry raspberry juice, sports drinks and organic flavor waters \u2013 sold at Stop & Shop, Sam\u2019s Club, BJ\u2019s among others.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always upgrading the product formulation,\u201d says Loretta Hasler, QA manager. \u201cPeople call us asking if we\u2019re allergen free, gluten free, what kind of sweetener we use, and if we\u2019re kosher. I say, yes, there\u2019s an OU on the label. Everyone recognizes the OU.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the most popular trends to hit the market has Americans happily and healthfully drinking their fruits and vegetables. In fact, SUJA, the nation\u2019s leading organic and cold-pressed juice brand, was recently bought out by Coca cola.<\/p>\n SUJA began with two friends, Annie Lawless and Eric Ethans, who decided to create their own healthful juices. Relying on store-bought produce and repurposed coconut water bottles, they started a home-delivery service, much like the long-ago milkman.\u00a0With the addition of James Brennan and Jeff Church, two experienced entrepreneurs, they created a wildly successful healthful juice venture.<\/p>\n Using a breakthrough displacement technology called High Pressure Processing (HPP) a heatless form of pasteurization that involves directing a huge amount of pressure onto a plastic bottle, they were able to offer a product that lasts up to roughly nine times longer than freshly made cold-pressed juice.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n Proud to be what it calls \u201cjuice without the junk,\u201d SUJA currently produces three pressed juice lines \u2013 Classic, Elements & Suja, as well as its functional beverages \u2013 Probiotic Waters, Drinking Vinegars & Kombuchas sold by national retailers such as Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway, Costco, Publix, Target and Albertson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe go from farm to bottle in eight days,\u201d says Bella Tamimi, senior brand manager at SUJA. \u201cWe don\u2019t use additives, preservatives, or emulsifiers. What you see is what you get.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the rush for RTD good-for-you drinks, most entrepreneurial attempts to cash in on the trend don\u2019t make it past the first year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe beverage industry has more startups than any other industry,\u201d says Rabbi Yisroel Blitz, OU RFR who supervises Gatorade, Coke facilities, Treetop Apple Juice, Kroger\u2019s Apple Juice, V8 for Campbells among others. \u201cOf the 20 different bottling companies over the years, half of them are no longer around.\u201d<\/p>\n According to business experts, once a product catches on with the top fifteen percent of income earners, then its set. Though coffee and tea manufacturers sit safely in that category, they too have jumped onto the wholesome drinking wagon.<\/p>\n Mother Parkers, a 100-year-old specialty coffee roasting facility established the first organic-certified coffee plant in North America. Involved in hot fill and cold fill production, the company also turns out coffee and tea capsules.<\/p>\n \u201cOur capsules are a big hit,\u201d says Nancy Madamombe, QA manager at Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee. \u201cPeople want the easiest way to make a small amount of coffee and tea, without waste.\u201d<\/p>\n The fourth largest roaster in North America, the Mother Parkers\u2019 liquid-dispensed beverage solutions include iced cappuccinos, iced coffees, fruit smoothies and slush concentrate. The vast majority of the products are OU certified. [Kosher consumers are encouraged to look for the OU symbol.]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AriZona Tees Up!<\/strong><\/p>\n For over two decades, AriZona<\/strong>\u00a0Beverage Company has made<\/strong> toting a large Aztec-designed can of exotic-flavored ice tea fashionable. Mike Kutner, vice president of procurement and manufacturing, attributes the company\u2019s continued success to not only its unique packaging, but also to high-quality ingredients\u00a0and aggressive pricing. AriZona is the second-largest ready-to-drink tea brand in America, behind only Lipton \u2013 the longtime tea-staple that now offers a Wellness line of herbal blends, as well as Organic Black tea and KeurigHotcups.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t hurt to keep up with the trends.<\/p>\n AriZona tea enthusiasts are enjoying vitamin-enhanced Green Tea Energy Shot drinks, a variety of fruit-flavored Sparkling Water with Minerals, CocoZona coconut water, AriZona Vapor Water with electrolytes, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cIf coconut water is doing well, we come out with a coconut water. If vitamin water is doing well, we come up with a vitamin water,\u201d says Kutner. \u201cWe\u2019ve also come out with original products that have become extremely popular.\u201d<\/p>\n AriZona\u2019s Arnold Palmer line of drinks, for instance. A refreshing mixture of lemonade and ice tea, the recipe was invented by one of America\u2019s greatest professional golfers. Palmer, who passed away last year, aced Professional Golf Association (PGA) tournaments throughout the 1950\u2019s, \u201860\u2019s, and \u201870\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we first came out with it, we thought it would appeal to the older crowd,\u201d says Kutner. \u201cTurns out the high school and college kids are also buying it.\u201d<\/p>\n One serious tea-aficionado-turned-entrepreneur travels the globe in search of the finest tea leaves.<\/p>\n Steve Schwartz, founder and CEO of Art of Tea, a tea importer and wholesaler based in Los Angeles, California, blends and custom crafts organic teas and botanicals for the hospitality industry, restaurants, hotels and cafes. Known in the tea industry as a Master Tea Blender, Schwartz generated a company that has become a primary purveyor of high end organic and specialty teas. Its blends have won awards offered under Art of Tea\u2019s private label program for tea companies around the world. Due to public demand, they\u2019ve jumped from hospitality to retail.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople started asking the establishments where they could buy the teas,\u201d says Madison Way, marketing coordinator.<\/p>\n All of Art of Tea\u2019s teas \u2013 tisanes, flavored or unflavored are OU Kosher.<\/p>\n To think it all started when Schwartz decided to backpack to tea farms in China and Japan to witness how the world\u2019s finest tea leaves were grown and processed. His family and friends thought it a bit eccentric. They no longer do.<\/p>\n More and more beverage labels boast organic, natural, low sugar, non-GMO, vitamin-enhanced ingredients. But, which of these trends and their accompanying explosion of products will secure market-longevity?<\/p>\n Rabbi Blitz states it simply. \u201cIf consumers like it, they\u2019ll buy it again.\u201d<\/p>\n [1]<\/a>HPP has been used in the United States since the mid-1990\u2019s, when companies began using intense pressure (sometimes up to\u00a0120,000 pounds per square inch<\/a>, or 10 times greater than the pressure at the bottom of the deepest ocean) to preserve guacamole, vegetable purees, meats and seafood. Juice companies, such as SUJA, have learned how to harness HPP for their own products.<\/p>\n Bayla Sheva Brenner is a freelance writer and frequent contributor\u00a0<\/em>to Behind the Union Symbol. Baylashevabrenner@outlook.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With all the RTD infusions flooding the market these days, you\u2019d think that people are imbibing a lot more these days. But according to a top CEO in the beverage industry, consumers are drinking the same amount as they always did. Now they\u2019re way more demanding about what\u2019s in the mix. Today\u2019s consumers are looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-btus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n