Consumables

NEW YORK — New York-based specialty food retailer Gourmet Garage is debuting a new line of vegetable juice smoothies aimed at children.

Green Mustache announced Thursday that its line of organic fruit and green vegetable juice smoothies would be available at all Gourmet Garage locations.

The company, founded by CEO VanTrang Manges, makes 10-oz. juices with spinach, kale, chia and coconut water, as well as such fruit flavors as strawberry-banana, orange-mango, "Tropical Twist" and mixed berry.

ST. LOUIS — Anheuser-Busch is continuing to blur the line between beer and cocktails. The brewer’s latest addition to the popular Ritas family is Bud Light Lime Cran-Brrr-Rita, a limited-edition winter offering. Cran-Brrr-Rita hits store shelves in November, and will be available in 12-packs, 8-oz. cans and 25-oz. cans. Straw-Ber-Rita has been a huge hit this summer and is the largest share gainer in the beer industry this year, according to A-B.   

ST. LOUIS — Anheuser-Busch on Tuesday announced the return of Budweiser's Project 12 — the brewmaster platform that introduced Budweiser Black Crown — with three new beers, beginning Oct. 28.

For Project 12, Budweiser's team of brewmasters develop new beer recipes featuring the signature yeast first used by Adolphus Busch in 1876. The three small-batch Budweisers named for the ZIP code where the beer is brewed include:

Higher-end products are where the beer category is headed. “We’re seeing a lot of high-end segments continuing to steer the ship,” said Dan Wandel, SVP at IRI. “We’re seeing higher-priced products driving the category.”

(For the full category review, including sales data, click here.)

GLENDALE, Calif. — Nestlé USA Confections and Snacks on Thursday introduced its new sweets selection from Nerds, SweeTarts, Laffy Taffy, Butterfinger, Nestlé Crunch and more. The company also is offering three new Halloween candy variety packs.

ATLANTA — In its first flavor innovation since 2005, Sprite is launching all-new flavor Sprite Cranberry and Sprite Cranberry Zero.

The new products will be available for a limited time through the holidays. Both products take the taste of traditional Sprite and combine it with a splash of sweet and tart cranberry notes.

LOS ANGELES — Soft drink maker Neuro is launching new flavors in 2014, the company said.

Neuro, which calls its products "functional beverages," said it would launch six new flavors — two each for its Sonic, Bliss and Sleep drinks — that will include new labels for the bottles. The six new flavors were refined based on a series of consumer tests and include blood orange, raspberry, mango and other flavors. The new flavors will hit shelves in January.

NEENAH, Wis. — A company that makes packaging for manufacturers ranging from food companies to drug makers has received more than a dozen awards at a marketing exposition in Chicago.

Menasha Packaging announced that it won 13 Design of the Time Awards at the 2013 Shopper Marketing Expo, including three gold, two silver and eight bronze awards in the drug store, mass-merchandise, specialty and supermarket channels. The DOT Awards recognize creative in-store activation tactics and campaigns.