Tom Hicks, who ran Monster Beverage's non-energy brands before seguing to Coca-Cola with those brands, has landed as chief operations officer at national food brokerage Impact Group Sales & Marketing. Adventurous Hicks had famously closed out his brief Coke career with internal presentation on "Top 10 Reasons to Work/Join VEB" (BBI, Sep 23) before embarking on 6-month cross-country motorcycle cruise with his wife Cathy and their dog. He's been back in a suit now, say those who saw him making rounds at Expo West. Earlier in his career he'd worked at Fantasia Juice, which merged into Naked Juice and, with acquisition by PepsiCo, made Tom a Pepsi hand for a while . . . Veteran bev analyst Caroline Levy appears to have been among those affected by abrupt decision by China's CLSA to shutter much of its Americas operations, including research function to which she lent distinctive, South African-accented voice . . . Soda lobbyist American Beverage Assn has combined its Government and Public A

Tapping range of trends from Bulletproof Coffee to calorie-burning, Cave Shake offers what in essence are drinkable coconut milks to offer sustaining bev that it can claim to check the keto, paleo and vegan boxes. USDA Organic-certified line uses organic coconut milk base as source of medium-chain tryglycerides (MCTs), and goes out at $7.99 per screw-top canister, in Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry and Coffee flavors. (They're also available in Cave Fat Packs of fat supplement powder at $4.99.) Tho the shakes must be kept refrigerated now, a booth staffer told BBI that they should have migrated to shelf-stable format within next 3-4 weeks. Launched in Oct 2015, to date they've only been available in core Southern Calif market, including Whole Foods, Erewhon, Lassens Natural Food and Clover Juice locations, as co established premise and worked out refinements. Info at CaveShake.com.

With hydrogen a $500 mil consumer category in Japan via range of sticks, generating machines and other formats, a NY-based brand called HFactor has been carefully testing out aluminum-pouch-based approach of offering hydrogen-enhanced water, with promise of fueling muscle recovery, activating peak performance and combating jetlag. The hermetically sealed pouches, sporting 52-week shelf life and priced at $2.99, must be consumed within 30 minutes of opening, said Steve Torres, longtime bev fixture in NY who's running sales effort.

NY-based entrepreneur who's new to bevs named Royce Pinkerton used Expo West to debut new plant-based RTD brand called Bonta Hydration that seeks to employ ingredients associated with Mediterranean Diet to offer anti-inflammation, immunity, longevity and radiance benefits. Packed in full-wrap half-liter bottles sporting olive tree image at top and priced at $2.99, line is offered in Blood Orange (anti-inflammation), Blueberry (immunity), Cherry (longevity) and Lemon Ginger (radiance) flavors. They're lightly sweetened with cane sugar and come in at just 30-35 calories per bottle. Operating as Pinkwater Holdings LLC, Royce told BBI that 80% of the line's ingredients are sourced from Meditarranean region, with exceptions made for key items like turmeric needed for anti-inflammation sku. She said she's focusing on East and West Coasts initially, moving now to her first friends-&-family capital round after handling seed round herself. Name Bonta simply is Italian for "goodness."

Having presided over burst of innovation over past year, Hain Celestial's BluePrint Juice unit is now refining concepts, responding to retailer and consumer feedback to boost trial and at-shelf velocity. At Expo West, where corporate-wide innovation focus meant the core BluePrint juices and cleanses got no meaningful display presence, that meant efforts around 2 newer platforms: Vinegar Tonics and Energy Teas.

Maybe it was the frenzy of Expo West, but coupla brain blowouts marred Mamma Chia update yesterday. Our Mamma Chia contacts lauded accomplishments of new dir of R&D recruited from Hain Celestial, but gave us wrong last name: she's Brenda Quesada, not Brenda Wienckowski. But BBI was not blameless either: tho we correctly stated in headline that co is ending its foray into nutrition bar segment, we somehow referred to them as Granola Clusters in actual story text; it's only the bars that are gone, not the Clusters . . . Citing avid response to co's new "bottle as billboard" labeling scheme by Expo show-goers, MatchaBar cofounder Graham Fortgang wishes his colleagues at booth would have mentioned to BBI that agency collaborator on initiative was NY shop Bullish, which is also investor in brand.

Long Island Iced Tea, publicly traded co that so far has ridden just a NA bottled tea line under the Long Island brand name, has added The Original Long Island Brand Lemonade, a 9-flavor subline using cane sugar, non-GMO ingredients and with hint of tea essence. The flavor lineup is Traditional, Lime, Peach, Watermelon, Mango, Strawberry, Kiwi Strawberry, Cherry and Wildberries. They're being offered in single 18-oz bottles and 12-packs, like the Long Island Iced Tea line. With recent acquisition of Alo Juice brand, LTEA now has 3 brands in mix.

Boston-based entrepreneur Randy Shefshick launched UK's Cawston Press line of kitchen-garden-inspired soft drinks in this country on a shoestring, but still managed to pull in $1 mil in first-year sales. Now he's backed by full resources of the 20-person, $13 mil (sales) British operation, following restructuring by which Randy went from being indie US importer to integrated into co as US dir. That may have trimmed a bit of potential upside but it improves chances of driving biz thanks to influx of capital, marketing, personnel resources and expertise from team that's previously sold soup startup to Campbell Soup and chocolate biz to Cadbury.