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The Mason jar was once the main vessel used to preserve food. Now it is being used to preserve – or perhaps increase – Grolsch’s hold on the beer market. Grolsch is making use of the growing popularity on mason jars in trendy bars and cafes as a way of displaying home-made goods and released its lager in “The Jar” or Borcanul.

Grolsch has launched its lager in mason jars in just one market for now, Romania. Beer consumption represents 25.6% of the country’s drinks market by volume while the European average is 12.8%.

Beer consumption is growing most significantly in the Romania, Poland and the UK – due almost entirely to the new phenomenon, flavoured beers. Worldwide, 14%  of consumption in the lager market is triggered by a desire for new experiences. And with standard beer consumption declining at 3% per annum globally, many “new experiences” – including, but also outside, flavoured beers are being trialled. A bottle cap that unlocks movies is another new experience that has been launched by Grolsch.

Also this month, Grolsch launched a multipack that targets people who love creative challenges, especially at get togethers. On the side of the multipack are seemingly absurd stories in the style of De Bono’s lateral thinking challenges. These are the basis for a game to play with a bunch of friends. One of the participants is nominated to be the storyteller and knows the solution published on Experimentalist.ro, while the others must find out the solution by thinking outside the square.

Food & Drink Business

Australia’s food and beverage manufacturing industry is converging on Melbourne this week for foodpro 2026, the country’s leading trade event for processing, packaging and innovation. Held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) from 26-29 July, foodpro 2026 will be opened at 10am on Sunday 26 July by Victorian Minister for Industry and Advanced Manufacturing and Minister for Skills and TAFE, Colin Brooks.

De Bortoli Wines is restructuring its vineyard portfolio across four regions, removing underperforming blocks in the oversupplied Riverina while buying new land in the Yarra Valley and converting most of its King Valley plantings to Prosecco, Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese.

Ready-to-drink cocktail company, Curatif, has completed a crowd-sourced funding campaign of over $1.4 million through OnMarket, supported by 613 investors. The company is gearing up to launch overseas, with a fulfilment partner already in place to take its online model into the UK.