ATLANTA -- During the NACS Show in October, Coca-Cola Co. unveiled a new, on-trend take on sparkling water: Minute Maid Sparkling.
With the strong branding and healthy-halo of Minute Maid and the on-point extension into flavored sparkling water/juice, Coca-Cola could have a well-received new product line on its hands.
What Coke executives didn’t tell us at the time was that Minute Maid Sparkling will specifically take the place of fruitwater, a holdover sparkling water from Glacéau, the company that brought us smartwater and vitaminwater.
Fruitwater, a zero-calorie flavored sparkling water sweetened with sucralose, has seen three generations of packaging in the eight years since Coca-Cola bought Glacéau in 2007 in an attempt to find a niche. But the black raspberry, orange mango, watermelon punch and other flavors never clicked.
What to do? Replace it!
“Fruitwater is going away (discontinued),” Coca-Cola Co. confirmed this week, “and Minute Maid Sparkling is coming in.”
Minute Maid Sparkling is made with 6% juice. It will launch in March in 16.9-ounce slim bottles, 35 calories per bottle. Flavors will include fizzy lemonade, mixed berry, tropical citrus and fruit punch.
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