One bright spot in today’s economy is the $119 billion (and growing!) non-alcoholic beverage market. The demand for sodas, waters, juices, teas, etc. is increasing, and so is the variety. Innovations in both product and packaging mean changes and enhancements for beverage processing, packaging systems, and related machines.  Here are a few recent innovations that we’ve found intriguing — just imagine the impact on equipment and processing these have had:

• Ramune soda – a popular Japanese soda sealed with a marble that is opened by dismantling the cap and using part of it to force the marble down into the bottle.  (Beverage packaging historians will recognize this technology as the Codd Stopper, patented in 1873.)
• Dasani water and Odwalla juice – as we shared on our Facebook page, Coca-Cola is now distributing product in PlantBottleTM packaging, made from 30-100% plant-based materials.  Dasani comes in PET bottles made with up to 30% plant-based materials, and Odwalla single-serving juice bottles are made from up to 100% plant-based materials.
• Tea of a Kind – This product’s unique “twist” is a nitrogen-pressurized cap that, when twisted open, brews tea instantly in what originally appears to be a bottle of clear liquid.
• Coobo bubble tea (tapioca balls suspended in tea) – this German company explains on its website, “To make Bubble Tea work, we needed to find a way of getting the Bobos (Bubbles) into the bottle, which is not an easy job, as we came to find out!”

As a designer and manufacturer of hygienic process skids and modules for over 20 years, Holland Applied Technologies has worked on a wide variety of beverage projects.  We are also one of the largest distributors of sanitary stainless steel process components in the U.S., including lines by Waukesha, APV, Graco, ITT,  Saint Gobain.  We also offer repair services for sanitary process components and fabricate  custom sanitary proces components.
Contact us at 800-800-8464 for assistance with design, supply, or manufacture of your beverage processing systems and equipment needs.