This year’s Expo West featured more category expansion from both traditional (oat, almond) and less common (banana, sunflower seed) ingredients, driven by new releases from brands including Three Trees, REBBL, Harmless Harvest, Natural Bliss, Kunana, Mooala, Elmhurst, Lattini and New Barn Organics.
Despite being longtime specialists in organic plant-based milks, Three Trees has not released a barista-specific product until now. At Expo, we had a look at testers of the brand’s first barista edition: an unsweetened blend of oat and almond milk in 28 oz. refrigerated PET.
Spotted at the Australian macadamia milk brand’s booth: a protein-enhanced (8 grams per serving) version of its flagship product in 32 oz. cartons.
Mooala’s family of organic banana milks have been around for a while in multiple sizes and formats, the latest being single serve 8 oz. TetraPak cartons, as seen at Expo West.
Mission-driven, organic plant-based beverage brand REBBL continues to revamp its portfolio in both look and feel. At Expo West, the brand showcased a pair of new SKUs in its Wellness sub-line – Tropical Greens and Berry Roots, each with around 35% juice – which feature 4700 mg of marine mineral complex Aquamin per 12 oz. bottle. REBBL’s core line of protein drinks are also sporting a new design aimed at highlighting functional ingredients and dosage levels.
The “animal-free” milk alternative, which is made via precision fermentation, has been upgraded to a larger one gallon serving size for its original flavor; meanwhile, stevia has been replaced by cane sugar as the sweetener. Bored Cow is set to launch the product nationwide with Sprouts in April.
Milk isn’t the only category that Elmhurst is playing in: at this year’s Expo West, the plant-based dairy maker not only showcased a new barista edition (Walnut Maple) and Oat & Cashew Botanical Blend (Vanilla Lavender, a LTO), but also a dairy-free sour cream alternative.
Moving beyond creamers for the first time, Nestle’s Natural Bliss is now marketing a pair of oat milks (Original and Unsweetened) in 64 oz. cartons. Each claims to offer twice the protein (oat and fava) of the leading oat milk brand and up to 90% less sugar than dairy milk.
Launched as an offshoot to its core line of coconut waters, Harmless Harvest’s organic coconut smoothie line has grown and developed a following of its own. The latest addition – Radiant Greens, featuring mango and pineapple – is launching this month at select Whole Foods stores for a suggested retail price of $3.99 per 10 oz. bottle.
Plant-based milk brand Lattini, which markets sustainably grown sunflower seed milk, showcased a larger 59 oz. (1.8 quart) carton format.
New Barn has been a longtime player in the organic almond milk space, but its new packaging highlights its sourcing partnership with California-based Burroughs Family Farms, the only Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) almond grower in the U.S.
New brand sighting in plant-based milk: Kunana banana milk, made with upcycled bananas from Ecuador along with a proprietary chickpea protein from ingredient supplier InnovoPro.