The forward-thinking lexicographers of Oxford Dictionary recently announced the success of ‘unfriend’ as its Word of the Year 2009.

How apt considering the successful uptake of social networking in our industry this year and the bubbling rivalry of the world’s biggest chocolate brands.

To ‘unfriend’ is to remove someone as a friend from popular social networks such as Facebook. I wonder if, taking into account the waves made by Kraft, Nestlé, Hershey and Ferrero recently, a considerable amount of ‘unfriending’ isn’t going on behind closed doors.

Friends reuniting are Hershey and Ferrero, who may combine to offer a friendly bid for the Cadbury business (the share price of which looks sweeter each passing day).

Kraft Foods, on the other hand, may unfriend everybody simply out of spite, as its hostile bid for Cadbury didn’t go down too well recently. And let’s face it, hostility doesn’t work when it comes to successful social networking.

I suspect Todd Stitzer, Cadbury’s chief executive, will welcome a bid tabled by Hershey based on the fact that the two companies have, to stretch the analogy, ‘poked’ one another in the past, and have enjoyed a productive relationship since.

But Nestlé is also poking around, which may determine how quickly the long-running chocolate saga will be over once and for all. And then there’ll probably be another round of unfriending. And what a shame as Christmas approaches.

I’ve booked a Christmas trip to London – an overnight stay – and aside from ice-skating, breakfast at Smiths of Smithfield and a visit to the Apple Store, I’m going to add a trip to Starbucks to my to-do list.

You think I’m a little desperate, right? I mean, there are so many things to see and do in London other than drop in on a simple coffee shop. Yet, I work in the food and beverage industry, and there’s nothing that gets me excited more than innovation, whether it’s a new product, a new concept or a new way of thinking.

Starbucks has opened what can best be described as a ‘departure’ for the company in terms of branding. It’s still Starbucks, judging from the video, yet it’s more upmarket. I’m keen to take a look, especially as it’s clearly going for a more communal look and feel, which I’m a big fan of (check out that long table!).

I’m still a fan of Costa coffee, particularly its award-winning cappuccino, yet I’m willing to forego loyalty in this instance, even if it is for just one night in The Smoke.

See you there.

Shaun and Dario Loison

I took a trip to Vicenza recently as a guest of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and was fortunate enough to visit some of the region’s most celebrated food and beverage companies.

Their status outside of Vicenza is somewhat humbly represented, which is a great shame as the place has a lot to offer in terms of quality produce (not least exceptional hospitality).

I’ve posted a few pictures on FoodBev.com: a gallery of images from my visit to the Colle di Bugano winery, and a wonderful tour of Loison. There’s also an interview from Colle di Bugano, and two interviews from Loison.

Galleries are also available on the FoodBev.com Flickr channel, and you can subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes.

shaun

ps I just couldn’t resist the clichéd blog title – sorry.

It’s been a busy few weeks on FoodBev.com. We enjoyed great success as a company at the Beverage Innovation Awards in Munich, and we also met a lot of great people and saw some incredible innovations at Drinktec.

I thought I’d be helpful by providing a one-stop-shop for links to much of our coverage of both events, and a few extra things we’ve covered in terms of rich media content.

Drinktec coverage

IMAGES: Drinktec gallery (FoodBev.com and Flickr) – There’s a bunch of images from Drinktec in Munich, and you can take your pick from either FoodBev.com’s own gallery or our Flickr channel.

IMAGES: Husky at Drinktec – a selection of pictures from the Husky stand. Also available on Flickr.

VIDEO: Stephan Hausmanns, Beneo Palatinit – My colleague Claire Phoenix, managing editor of Beverage Innovation magazine, spoke to Stephan about Beneo’s new innovations and we filmed the lot and stuck it on our YouTube channel. You can also access our videos from FoodBev.com’s own video page.

VIDEO: Jesús Luna-López talks to Petros Diamantides about the latest product developments from Frigoglass, and about the future direction of the company.

VIDEO: In an announcement made at Drinktec 2009, Messe München and Messe Düsseldorf spoke of pooling their know-how for the packaging industry in one of the most important growth markets.

VIDEO: My colleague Bill Bruce (group editorial director, FoodBev Media Ltd) filmed a demonstration of Royal Straw by Chenjerai Mutumbi.

VIDEO: Claire Phoenix asks Vicap Systems CEO and chairman René Wilhelm to demonstrate how the Vicap active sports cap closure can add value to a water cooler business.

ARTICLE: ‘Drinktec 2009 hailed a success by industry leaders’

Beverage Innovation Awards

VIDEO: A roundup of the winners at the Beverage Innovation Awards, with gongs handed out by Claire Phoenix and Bill Bruce. Dodgy Garageband music by me (took me hours, but it was fun).

VIDEO: Andrew Gibb talks to Claire Phoenix about how it feels to win the ‘Best overall concept’ category at the awards ceremony the night before. The product is Preshafruit and the company is Preshafood.

IMAGES: The BI Awards gallery has more than 90 pictures to look at, and you can also find larger versions of each pic in our Flickr gallery.

ARTICLE: The winners, finalists and commended, plus a few other bits and bobs, all on one page (though not nearly as good as this page).

Some other great stuff …

AUDIO: My colleague Geoff Platt, editor of Dairy Innovation magazine, visited the Dairy Event & Livestock Show in September, and this is an interview you can listen to on our audio page. You can also subscribe to the FoodBev.com podcast feed via iTunes.

AUDIO: I had a great chat with Assim Ishaque recently, who told me about his company EnvirUP, and explained the thought process behind the EnvirUP Green Index, which is a top 100 list of brands and their respective sustainability credentials. There are some surprises on that list!

AUDIO: My very first Skype interview went surprisingly well, especially considering the distance between myself and Rodrigo Veloso of One World (he’s in LA, I’m in Bath). Technology’s just great, isn’t it? It’s up there with garlic bread as being very much ‘the future’.

And that’s it, folks. Please enjoy yourselves and drop me a line if you want to share new products, innovations, news and opinions. I love hearing from you.

I had a great chat with Assim Ishaque from EnvirUP.com Ltd today, who had generously travelled down from Nottingham to Bath to tell me about his company’s first ‘Green Index’.

The Green Index is a list of 100 well-known brands – many of which are food and beverage brands – all rated according to their green credentials. This takes into account packaging, carbon footprints, labelling and a number of other criteria. Some of the results are astounding, not least the fact that none of the 100 brands achieved a grade higher than ‘C’ (with ‘A’ being the highest).

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, is that washing detergent manufacturers did rather well, as many detergent companies have made a concerted effort to grasp more than a fundamental understanding of what genuine sustainability is. Strangely, there are some inconsistencies that just don’t make good business sense, such as Unilever’s great result for its detergent brands, yet poor results for some of its popular food brands.

You can listen to the interview via iTunes, or by going to the FoodBev.com audio page. As ever, let me know what you think.

My colleague Claire Phoenix met René Wilhelm of Vicap Systems at Drinktec this month. He was kind enough to agree to be filmed for FoodBev.com, and even though the surrounding machinery made for a noisy soundtrack, I’ve added subtitles to make things easier.

I’ve just come across another fine example of ‘keeping up with the times’, in line with Kraft’s embracing of Apple’s iPhone technology (as reported last December).

Now, the Starbucks iPhone app may not be new, as I’ve only just spotted it on YouTube, but it’s proof that social networking really does work as much for the food and beverage industry as it does for everybody else.

The Starbucks iPhone app enables you to pay for your coffee without having to stand in line, as well as other cool tricks. What I’m not sure of (as of writing) is whether it’s US-only. Can anyone tell me?

The Starbucks blurb says: “We love finding ways to serve you better. Like helping you enjoy your coffee even more. Or making your life a little easier. And with our two free new apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, we’ve managed to do both.”

If nothing else comes of this, it still demonstrates that Starbucks is managing to extend its social reach by utilising the likes of YouTube to appeal to its existing user base as well as new customers, and that’s never a bad thing.

This is one of the funniest things I’ve read in ages. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

My colleague Claire Phoenix, editor of Beverage Innovation magazine, recently interviewed Carsten Kaisig, CEO of Capri-Sonne. We tried to make the best out of the poor sound quality, but it’s worth listening to for Carsten’s insight into the beverage market in China.

Claire also spoke to Vanessa Veronese, Marketing Product Manager for Italian company Zuegg, about two of its brands: Skipper and Frulli.

I hope you enjoy the podcasts. Please leave comments if you feel so compelled, and I’d be happy to hear from you if you’re interested in being a FoodBev.com interviewee!