The Drinkpreneur Event held at London’s Urbanest was full of fresh, exciting entrepreneurs all keen to chat about the merits of their drink brand. From cayenne pepper sparkling beverages to coconut vodka and green tea cocktails with names like Livo and Lovo, there was plenty to be enthusiastic about including more than one tree water drink. FoodBev managing editor Claire Phoenix went along to check out the rising stars in the beverage industry and look for last minute entries to the World Beverage Innovation Awards.
Harriet Moore and Jess Titcumb of Lovo drinks launched their sparkling coconut water with premium vodka earlier this year and have already had plenty of interest from the big retailers. Another popular launch is that of ready to drink Kingbloom Cocktails served in sealed PET or glass jam jars and blended with innovative flavours such as gin with green tea, or white cranberry and vodka using fun names such as Tea Party, Blizzard and – the most popular – the pink Ladybird of vodka, raspberry and kiwi.
Lovo Drinks managing director Harriet Moore and commercial director Jess Titcumb.
Similarly named, the Livo energy drink from Limitless Nature Ltd is watermelon-flavoured and sweetened with natural fruit extracts. There were no grimaces around here as this was a taste liked by all those who sampled it. Love the premium ring pull closure too!
Rahi Daneshmand, founder of Virtue Drinks, extolled the benefits of Virtue natural iced tea – a low-calorie drink packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. It’s packaged in a velvet matt metalised finish can from Rexam.
Kerstin and Julia with Nix & Kik’s cayenne pepper drinks.
Kerstin Heider, co-founder of Nix & Kix, talked about these fruity refreshing cayenne pepper drinks balanced to be under 80 calories a bottle, saying “cayenne gets you going and leaves you glowing – we call it #cayennehappy”.
Tree waters are big news right now – we had Nature on Tap with Tapped in cute tree trunk packaging from ex-innocent employee Paul Lederer, and BelSeva birch water with its own birch tree plantation in France.
And the prettiest bottle? Well that has to go to Vitness beauty vitamin drink with its simple frosted sleeve and minimalist Swedish-style graphics. Many of these have entered the World Beverage Innovation Awards – can you rival this level of innovation? If so there is just time to get your entry in at foodbevawards.com, thanks to the deadline extension til 30 September. Whether your passion is new products, ingredients, packaging or marketing for the beverage industry, it’s time to pour your heart out!
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