ready-to-drink
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Ole Smoky put moonshine in a jar. Then it sold the vacation.
A Gatlinburg distillery turned tastings, live music and moonshine pickles into a national spirits business. Its next test is taking that holiday feeling beyond the mountains.
Michael Sharon Turned Coffee Into a Product You Can Text
The former Facebook mobile product leader brought software habits to the beverage aisle: ship early, listen closely, fix the strange taste, and put a phone number where the logo usually goes.
The Yellow Can Is Now Yerba Madre - and the Name Change Is the Least Interesting Part
After nearly three decades as Guayakí, America's dominant yerba mate brand changed the label, kept the yellow can and made its real product easier to see: a market for the forest left standing.
The 148-Year-Old Brewery Built for What America Drinks Next
Inside FIFCO USA, Genesee's red-eye cans share a production system with hard tea, fruit-flavored drinks and contract brands. The portfolio changes with taste; the Rochester machinery is built to keep moving.
The Beer Giant Learning to Think Local Again
Molson Coors spent two centuries getting very good at scale. Its next act depends on making that global machine move at the speed of a neighborhood bar.
The Company Behind Your Coffee Break Is Preparing to Split in Two
Keurig Dr Pepper built an unusual empire by pairing supermarket coolers with kitchen counters. Now, after buying JDE Peet's, it is integrating a global coffee business while preparing to turn one sprawling beverage company into two focused ones.
Brown-Forman
The company behind Jack Daniel's has spent 156 years turning time, wood and trademarks into a global spirits business. Now Brown-Forman must make an old advantage move at the speed of changing drinkers.
Taika
Taika is a San Francisco-based functional beverage company making ready-to-drink canned coffees and matcha lattes infused with adaptogens and functional mushrooms - ingredients like L-theanine, ashwagandha, and lion's mane - meant to deliver focused energy without the jitters or crash. Founded in 2019 by former Facebook engineer Michael Sharon and world-class barista Kalle Freese, the brand is plant-based and sweetened with monk fruit for zero added sugar. Its tagline, 'Feel Inspired, Not Wired,' captures the pitch: caffeine with calm, sold direct-to-consumer online and through retail.
Owl's Brew
Owl's Brew is a women-led, Connecticut-based beverage company that builds ready-to-drink alcoholic cocktails from real teas, botanicals and fruit juice instead of artificial flavors. Founded in 2013 by tea sommelier Jennie Ripps and Maria Littlefield, it started as a tea-based cocktail mixer, pioneered one of the first hard tea seltzers in 2020, and in 2026 pivoted its flagship line to Spiked Pop, a 'clean' hard soda. The brand's promise is simple: drink wise, with ingredients you can actually pronounce.
Jennie Ripps
Jennie Ripps is the founder and CEO of Owl's Brew, the boozy-tea company she co-built with Maria Littlefield to put real fruit, tea and botanicals back into ready-to-drink cocktails. A certified tea sommelier who started in publishing, she hand-blends every flavor base in her own kitchen before it ever reaches production. Owl's Brew has earned 40+ tasting awards and reaches shelves at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Target and Total Wine, plus stadiums from Yankee Stadium to TD Garden. Beyond the bottle, Ripps champions women in the alcohol industry through the Wise Women Collective and brings readers together with the Boozy Book Club.