Pair of NY bev events are looming on calendar next week. On Wed and Thurs BevNet Live conference and Showdown competition bring to Metropolitan Pavilion a speaker roster that includes Lemon Perfect CEO Yanni Hufnagel, Icelandic Glacial CEO Reza Mirza, Barcode founder Mubarak Malik, KDP chief commercial officer Eric Gorli and Gopuff merchandising chief Max Crowley .

Publix has returned with a BOGO on Monster Energy, one of our contacts has reported to us. Photo we were sent shows array of Monster and Ultra entries on dry shelf of Florida store sporting BOGO tags for $2.79 single-can price, echoing move we spotted at that retailer in Apr (BBI, Apr 19). It's not clear to us which party is funding the deep discount. There are other energy bargains to be had, photo shows. Monster's performance extension Reign and its rival C4 both are offered at 2 for $5 in that shelf set. But those are more conventional deals; BOGOs have been rare among leading energy players.

New coconut water brand called Strange Water is riding in Liquid Death's wake by offering a more badgeworthy hydration option for clubs, event spaces and other socializing venues. Offered in 12-oz conventional cans with loud pop-art design in still and sparkling versions sourced in Vietnam, Strange Water is brainchild of someone who lives in that world, Tal Ohana, who operates live events co called Stranger Than and is working in partnership with the promoter TCE Presents.

It's that familiar story: founder endures arduous process of building his concept, then finally enjoys dreamed-of exit. And then? That's also becoming a familiar story: a few years later founder is back to arduously building out concept, just as in the early days. That's been true of Mark Rampolla, with his reclaimed Zico Coconut Water brand after acquirer Coca-Cola's move to deep six it, and Seth Goldman, building Just Ice Tea as a successor to his Honest Tea, also deep sixed by Coke. Lately, it's also true of Trent Moffat with his Gotham Brands incubation and merchandising firm in NY. (Nope, Coke wasn't involved in that one.)

Brooklyn-based Q Mixers has garnered starring role in summer refreshers that just broke in Peet's Coffee stores, with its Club Soda anchoring Sparkling Grapefruit Cold Brew, Sparkling Passion Fruit Black Tea and Sparkling Lemonade entries. The grapefruit entry riffs on paloma cocktails and aims to inspire Instagrammers via "pink ombre" effect obtained by layering cold brew concentrate, Q Club Soda and ruby red grapefruit flavors into "coffee-forward mocktail." Q's marketing vp, Jocelyn Hurley, attributed success of recipes to the club soda's "max carbonation" and Himalayan salt . . . Coca-Cola's Costa Coffee has teamed up with fast-growing Y7 Studio to offer yoga experiences dubbed Sip & Flow, both digitally and in-person. Partners are giving away 1,000 digital memberships thru end of month to those who enter "CostaCoffee" code, and inviting Costa fans to sign up for in-person experiences each Fri at 3 clubs located in NY, LA and Austin on first-come, first-served basis. And for entire month, free cans of Costa will be offered at all nine Y7 Studio locations . . . Shaka Tea has partnered with Barry's (formerly Barry's Boot Camp) elite gym chain to offer visitors free samples of its herbal iced tea every Sat and Sun this month at Barry's 9 locations in Southern Calif and its Denver location.

As summer gets under way you may be worried about potential shark attacks at the beach or wildfires near the country home, but there are plenty of warnings coming out to keep bevcos on their toes, too - even if that mainly means responding to consumers' concerns after they hear about the warnings. Here's a smattering.

Much-reported inventory adjustments in US spirits biz that impacted most major players last yr and so far in 2024 hit cognac particularly hard. So yesterday, big cognac player Rémy Cointreau reported tuff 19.2% decline in organic sales for its fiscal yr ended Mar 31. Cognac sales fell a steeper 25.1% with volume off almost 30%. Its liqueurs (including namesake Cointreau) and other spirits fared better, volume off 6.4% and organic sales -4.6%, co reported. But softer topline trends for cognac slashed co's operating profit by almost a third, -27.8% organically. That's in-line with expectations co set and actually slightly better than financial analysts expected. Co cut costs to keep oper margin from being hit too hard, off 3 pts organically to 25.5%.

MC execs continue to express confidence in co's progress over the last 4-5 yrs and ability to hit guidance both this yr and over the medium-term amid the wild ride of trend swings vs crazy comps since Apr. Indeed, ceo Gavin Hattersley remains "very optimistic about our business," he told Deutsche Bank's Steve Powers at its Global Consumer Conference earlier this week alongside cfo Tracey Joubert. Co's made "tremendous progress" coming off a "record" qtr in Q1 2024, on track to grow top and bottom line for the 3d consecutive year, he reiterated.