Business of Drinks

Modern soda isn’t a trend — it’s one of the fastest-growing segments in beverage. Now a $1.8B U.S. category, up 83% YOY, according to Circana, modern soda is redefining the carbonated space with functional benefits, low sugar, and health-forward positioning.

Two brands were instrumental in creating this market: OLIPOP and Poppi. Together, they introduced consumers to gut-health sodas long before the category had a name — and they helped transform what was once a stagnant soft drink landscape into one of the hottest growth stories in CPG.

Today, OLIPOP stands as the category’s largest independent player, following Poppi’s 2025 acquisition by PepsiCo for roughly $1.95B. OLIPOP is now sold in 50,000+ doors, staffed with 200+ employees, and approaching a $2B valuation. 

In this episode, OLIPOP Co-Founder, CEO and Formulator Ben Goodwin breaks down how OLIPOP carved out its own lane with a deeper scientific foundation and a product-first ethos that helped propel the entire modern soda movement.

🔶 Why modern soda emergedConsumers are shifting away from traditional soda toward gut-health rituals and low-calorie indulgence. OLIPOP meets those needs with 2–5g sugar, 6–9g fiber, and a proprietary microbiome-focused blend developed long before mainstream awareness caught up.

🔶 A scientific moat that drives real differentiationEvery OLIPOP formula goes through an in-vitro validation pipeline with academic partners, measuring fermentation, microbial shifts, and short-chain fatty acid production. The brand’s first human trial showed meaningful glucose stability versus full-sugar sodas — a cornerstone of its credibility.

🔶 Nostalgia as an acquisition strategyOLIPOP’s “modern nostalgia” flavors—root beer, grape, vintage cola—tap into emotional memory pathways, bringing lapsed soda drinkers back into the category with healthier versions of flavors they love.

🔶 Takeaways for all beverage founders• Why science is the ultimate competitive moat in beverage, creating defensibility that competitors can’t copy • How to tap into emotional relevance to unlock staying power• Why it’s essential to lead without ego, and how to do it so your organization can scale quickly

This is an essential listen for founders building in functional beverage, better-for-you categories, or the next wave of drinks.

Don’t miss our next episode, dropping on Dec. 17.

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Business of Drinks:

Aplós is one of the quickest-growing craft brands in the non-alc space — a premium functional spirit designed not to mimic tequila or gin, but to redefine what a cocktail experience can be without alcohol. 

Founded in 2018 and launched in 2020, the brand is now breaking out: Approaching 100K case sales annually, their wholesale is up more than 500% YOY, and they’re ​​on pace to double their wholesale volume in 2026. In the last 12 months, Aplós has added 1,300+ chain retail doors, and on-premise placements have climbed to 750+ cocktails across 550 accounts. The company also just announced a $5 million funding round to grow production and expand its hospitality and retail footprint.

In this episode, David Fudge, Co-Founder & CEO of Aplós, shares how the company is scaling through long-game brand building, deep bartender collaboration, and disciplined distribution strategy.

🔶 A new category, not a proxy: Aplós started with two original functional NA spirits — Ease for relaxation and Arise for social energy — each with meaningful levels of Lion’s mane and magnesium. Then they built out NA RTDs based on familiar cocktail templates. 

🔶 Crafted with bartenders: Years of development with hundreds of bartenders (including mixology legend Lynette Marrero) ensured the spirits could perform like true leads in classic cocktails — neat, on the rocks, or mixed.

🔶 Brand-first architecture: David invested early in a timeless aesthetic and distinctive tone, building a brand world meant to feel established from Day One. That foundation now fuels premium pricing and cultural relevance.

🔶 Evolving from DTC to wholesale: Aplós began online to learn quickly, but its current breakout year comes from wholesale — and from learning that you cannot outsource your story. Even in non-alc, distributor management is table stakes.

🔶 On-premise momentum: From Michelin-starred programs to luxury hotels, Aplós is winning multiple menu placements per account. One Miami restaurant sells 10 cases/month of a single Aplós cocktail — a model the team now replicates in key markets.

🔶 Chain retail acceleration: Starting small with partners like Total Wine, Aplós refined velocity drivers — tastings, staff education, merchandising — before expanding nationally. Today, the brand sits in more than 1,300 chain doors and counting.

🔶 Founder lessons: David talks about intuition vs. testing, navigating functional compliance, building a craveable product, and why conviction matters in a category still finding its identity.

Don’t miss our next episode, dropping on December 10.

Business of Drinks:

FRE is one of the most quietly powerful brands in American wine. Launched in 1992, it now holds 48% dollar share of the U.S. non-alcoholic wine market, sells ~439,000 cases a year, and is growing nearly 16% in volume YOY — all while the broader wine category softens.

In this episode, Brie Wohld, Vice President of Marketing at Trinchero Family Estates, breaks down how a 30-year-old NA brand is driving double-digit growth and helping keep wine culturally relevant for flexi-drinkers.

🔶 Legacy innovation: Why Trinchero invested early in spinning cone technology in 1992, spending more than $1M to build a quality-first NA wine more than two decades before “sober curious” entered the cultural vocabulary.

🔶 Strategic hedge: How FRE acts as both a business hedge against wine headwinds and a cultural hedge that keeps consumers walking the wine aisle and maintaining wine rituals — even on non-drinking days.

🔶 Portfolio architecture: How the team maps varietals and formats (sparkling, reds/whites, minis, new Pinot Grigio) to specific occasions without overwhelming shoppers.

🔶 Brand evolution for younger drinkers: Updating design, tone, and partnerships to speak to Millennial and Gen Z lifestyles, without alienating loyal Boomers.

🔶 Data-driven growth: Expanding to 28,000+ accounts, adding 4,000 new points of distribution YOY, leaning into grocery and mass, and using social (especially TikTok) to deliver real value — recipes, pairings, and city guides, not just bottle shots.

🔶 Moderation, not morality: Why 93% of NA buyers also purchase alcohol, and how FRE leads with a message of “choice over judgment” to support everything from Dry January to zebra striping.

If you’re building a legacy brand — or trying to future-proof one — this episode is a playbook on staying relevant, expanding occasions, and using non-alc as a growth engine rather than a threat.

Don’t miss our next episode, dropping on December 3.

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Business of Drinks:

Rebranding a beloved, 29-year-old beverage is one of the riskiest moves a CEO can make. But in this episode, Ben Mand, CEO of Yerba Madre, walks us through how he pulled off what most leaders avoid: renaming and relaunching a legacy brand — with full community support — and reigniting growth in the process.

Under 4% of Americans even know what yerba mate is, yet Yerba Madre (formerly Guayakí) generates nearly $200 million in annual sales and dominates a fast-emerging category. When Ben took over in 2024, the business wasn’t growing, innovation had stalled, and profitability was strained. Within a year, he streamlined the supply chain, rebuilt the route to market, launched new innovation, and guided a high-stakes rebrand that consumers embraced — thanks to months of groundwork with the brand’s 10,000+ loyal ambassadors.

For drinks entrepreneurs, this episode breaks down the tactics, sequencing, and frameworks behind one of the most successful rebrands in beverage.

Top Takeaways for Drinks Entrepreneurs

🔶 How to rebrand without losing your base. 

Ben shares the playbook: deeply engage your most loyal consumers, treat the new name as an “empty vessel,” and build meaning through community participation. (It worked — consumers helped evangelize the launch.)

🔶 Why SKU breadth drives velocity. 

Yerba Madre sees the whole line lift once they hit 6–8 facings in a refrigerator case. Half their consumers drink 3–7 flavors, making variety a core velocity driver.

🔶 Packaging changes that actually matter. 

Navigation upgrades — like white lids for low-sugar SKUs — help shoppers instantly find the right product in-set.

🔶 How to scale responsibly. 

Yerba Madre is investing 8× more in regenerative agriculture and community partnerships this year — while improving profitability through supply-chain redesign.

This episode is a blueprint for modernizing a legacy brand, managing risk during a major transformation, and building a category that 96% of Americans have yet to discover.

If you’re thinking about evolving your brand, expanding nationally, or taking on a category dominated by billion-dollar incumbents — this conversation is packed with actionable insights.

Don’t miss our next episode, dropping on Nov. 26.

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Business of Drinks:

In just four years, the premium alcohol-free wine French Bloom has become a global luxury brand — sold in 60+ countries, producing 500K bottles in 2024, and on track to double sales in 2025. It also became the first non-alcoholic brand backed by LVMH, signaling a new era for luxury drinks without alcohol.

Co-founder Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger, formerly of the Michelin Guide, shares how she turned a personal need into a brand — and made moderation aspirational.

🔶 From Need to Innovation 

While pregnant with twins, Maggie saw the gap for an alcohol-free wine that delivered the emotion and depth of Champagne. With her husband, a Champagne maker, and co-founder Constance Jablonski, she created a 0.0%, organic, sugar- and sulfite-free sparkling wine that could stand beside a grand cru.

🔶 Scaling Through Selectivity 

Launched at Le Bon Marché and Selfridges, French Bloom sold out in weeks. Growth came through luxury retail, Michelin-star restaurants, and five-star hotels — not mass channels. Today it partners with 500+ Michelin venues and global events like Coachella, Roland Garros, and Formula 1, where it’s the official non-alcoholic sparkling partner for the next decade.

🔶 The Growth Formula • Credibility through awards — “World’s Best NA Sparkling Wine” three years running. • Premium positioning — priced around 80% of house Champagne. • DTC strength — 20–25% of global sales online. • Core audience — “flexi-drinkers” (80% of customers still drink alcohol).

🔶 Founder LessonMaggie cites The Empathy Edge by Maria Ross: “Empathy isn’t soft — it’s a business advantage.”

Why Listen:This is a concise playbook in category creation and premiumization — how French Bloom built cultural relevance, scaled fast, and made moderation synonymous with modern luxury.

Don’t miss our next episode, dropping on Nov. 19.

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Business of Drinks: