Starbucks' Evolution Fresh juice brand has added pair of new citrus-inflected flavors to its 15.2-oz single-serve lineup. On organic side it's added Organic Vital Berry with apple base, berries like strawberry, raspberry and acerola, along with orange and mango for what's described as a punch-like flavor. It's breaking nationally at Whole Foods and Sprouts chains, as well as at some Starbucks stores. SRP is $4.95-5.99. Also new in mix is Carrot Citrus Radiance with carrot, citrus juices pineapple, orange and lemon, plus spicy note from ginger, going out nationally at Sprouts at $5.99.

Interesting food-tech play in Chicago called Nature's Fynd has pulled in $80 mil Series B funding round led by sustainability-focused Generation Investment Management and Breakthrough Energy Ventures VCs and commenced production of fermented microbial protein, per reports in Forbes and CrunchBase. Then operating under name Sustainable Bioproducts, co had pulled in $33 mil Series A back in 2018. This month it "has begun to produce protein from microbes originally discovered in the geothermal springs of Yellowstone's ancient volcano" at 35K-sq-ft Chicago plant in one-time old-protein hub, the Union Stock Yards. Also participating in round were 1955 Capital, Mousse Partners, ADM Ventures and Danone Manifesto Ventures. Besides being highly sustainable way of producing protein, Nature's Fynd also argues that its ingredient offers complete protein compared to alternatives like peas that are being deployed in widening range of food/bevs. It also contains fiber, calcium and vitamins. Rather than working on its own suite of consumer products or allying with ingredients player, Nature's Fynd is aiming to sell its microbial protein directly to CPG customers for both food and bev applications. Co was founded in 2015 by Thomas Jonas and Mark Kozubal after they spotted NASA-backed research about how certain organisms thrive in the extreme environmental conditions, creating efficiency that turns into high yield relative to feedstock. "Yellowstone National Park turned out to be one of the few places on Earth that enable such study, which led to the discovery of a complete protein that contains essential amino acids," mag reported. "This is fermented microbial protein," Jonas said. "The fermentation category was non-existent not so long ago in food. Look at the market size of kombucha now."

What once seemed impossible, then inevitable, happened officially yesterday when Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo were postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 crisis. Now "advertisers, already dealing with the loss of March Madness" as well as pause (so far) in NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS "must now scramble to fill an Olympic-sized hole in their marketing programs," wrote Ad Age. Coca-Cola is among 14 global sponsors for games that are taking biggest hit. "This is a big deal for advertising because it represents over $1.2 billion in advertising," said Fred Chasse, svp at Analytic Partners. "It's going to be impossible for advertisers to take that Olympics money and spend it, last minute, to have anywhere the kind of reach, brand and sales impact that the Olympics buy would deliver for them - especially in an election year," he added.

Consumers may tell pollsters they want sugar out of their lives, but for a coupla decades Calypso Lemonade has thrived by offering fully sweetened entries, with founder and former owner Tim Kezman brooking little discussion of compromising bold palate impact with low- or no-sugar versions. In that, he was no different than other bev founders, like Reed's creator Chris Reed and Bruce Cost Ginger Ale creator Cost, who refused to suffer that flavor tradeoff. Now, as at Reed's and BCGA, it's taken new team under ceo David Klavsons to finally devise offering for sugar- and carb-conscious consumers, via 4-flavor Calypso Light subline that's set to debut at Kroger in early Apr, with other retailers to be added as 2020 progresses. New line debuts in 4-flavor lineup of Original Lemonade, Ocean Blue Lemonade, Strawberry Lemonade and Southern Peach Lemonade, that retain the lemon fruit bits of core line but contain zero grams of sugar and only 5 calories per 16-oz bottle. Sweetener is sucralose. Milwaukee-based King Juice was acquired by private-equity shop Mason Wells in summer 2017, with Kezman moving on and Milwaukee-based co operating under largely new team.

Clean Cause, Austin-based canned yerba mate energizer that supports substance-abuse recovery efforts, is augmenting lightly sweetened core line with zero-sugar Zero Calorie extension that's rolling out thru Whole Foods next month - just weeks after natural retailer itself went nationwide with core line this month. New entries employ erythritol/stevia blend but carry same caffeine payload of 160 mg as core line, in Cherry Lime, Orange Ginger and Berry Mint flavors. Core line contains 60 calories per 16-oz can, about half the calorie count of market leader Guayaki. Founder Wes Hurt said addition of Zero Calorie doesn't presage any move away from Original line, which is adding Watermelon Mint flavor to lineup of Lemon Lime, Raspberry, Peach and Blackberry.

The expanding coronavirus has prompted another wave of event postponements or cancellations. Canceled has been KombuchaKon 20, which had been set for Long Beach, Calif, on Apr 1-3. "Sending love, light and healing vibes for safety and good health to everyone on the planet," organizer Kombucha Brewers Int'l posted on website. "May this virus provide an opportunity for us to grow in ways we couldn't have imagined." Among postponements is Beverage Forum conference that has been bumped from May 12-13 to Oct 15-16, at same venue, Swissotel in Chicago. That's sponsored by Beverage Marketing Corp and Beverage Industry magazine. Also postponed has been Nightclub & Bar Show, moved from Mar 30-Apr 1 to June 22-24 (including expo on last 2 days) at Las Vegas Convention Center. Natl Restaurant Association conference and expo in Chicago in May, so far is holding their date.

NY Times was mourning death of colorful character named Eli Miller who as "a sultan of seltzer" represented vanishing part of city's bev history. Miller, who died at his Brooklyn home on Mar 12 at age 86, was among hundreds of old-fashioned seltzer men who once plied city's neighborhoods bearing 70-lb wooden racks containing pewter-topped glass siphon bottles of triple-filtered municipal water that was pressurized to 60-80 lbs per square inch - unlike the store-bought plastic-bottle fizz Miller used to deride for coming in at just 5 lbs per square inch. "Gregarious, well read and engaging, Mr Miller was welcomed by his customers as enthusiastically as the seltzer, and he enjoyed close friendships with many of them," the Times reported. "'I'm the product," Mr Miller was quoted as saying in 'Seltzertopia: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Drink' (2018), by Barry Joseph. 'It's not the seltzer. It's all about Eli.'" By 2017, when he was 84, the racks had finally become too heavy, so Miller sold his route to Alex Gomberg, then 29, whose family operates last seltzer plant in city, Gomberg Seltzer Works, which services both old-line delis and hip taverns. "Before his retirement," article goes on, "Mr Miller often reassured his customers by saying, 'Old seltzer men never die — they just lose their spritzer.'" Obit can be accessed here.

It already seems quaint to be reporting on a trade show, but week before last we'd stopped in at trio of shows co-located at NY's Javits Centers that proceeded even as organizers were pulling plug on others like massive Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. The events put on by Clarion Events in conjunction with NY State Restaurant Assn were Coffee Fest, Healthy Food Expo NY and Int'l Restaurant & Foodservice Show of NY, with most interesting exhibitors to BBI inhabiting Coffee Fest aisles. We're catching our breath a moment from coronavirus coverage to let you know what we spotted.