We began the day with an interview with RC Cola’s Moshy Cohen and Edmund O’Keefe on their fabulous fifties diner stand complete with stage set lighting and gorgeous serving girls in polka dot dresses.
This time it wasn’t milk shakes we were tasting but Neo Cola – the new formulation of RC Cola with stevia – and there were plenty of takers. It has a mild and pleasant taste – all you want from a retro style cola.
In total contrast Mintanine, from Germany’s Alternative Beverage Company is a completely new flavour of carbonated lemon, lime, mint and guarana, with a high caffeine content of 32mg. And the coolest thing on the their stand? Well it is a promotional open top single person, gas powered branded sports car that is apparently hired out for sightseeing in Berlin and does a lot of their marketing for them.
Moving away from energy drinks but still in the beverage arena Ascania has a range of naturally flavoured soft drinks “the tree of not forbidden fruits”. In beautiful fruit shaped bottles eg apples and pears. Founded in 2010 Ascania Aqua is a new Russian company producing both mineral water and lemonades..The initial monthly production of 1m has already reached 4m bottles. Hence the construction of a new company Ascania GMT in Luxembourg. We will be featuring all three of these companies in Beverage innovation Magazine in the near future.
An interview followed with Pedro Duran, Business Director of ProChile in France. The EU is Chile’s third trading partner after China and the US, occupying 16% of Chile’s total trade. Did you know that Chile is first in the world for cranberries, grapes, plums, deydrated apples, trout, salmon and mussels – which may knocks a few of your suppositions into the ocean. What was also striking was the range of modern foods and contemporary packaging that this countryyis producing incuding Avena weight management foods and Arroz Bio-Snacks, . I heard about how Chile has such fertile soil and such great climate plus a 4,200 mile coastline. It’s not surprising then that this country has earned its name of Chile The Food Powerhouse – watch out for it.
Claire Phoenix is FoodBev Media managing editor – magazines. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
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