ABA members are the producers, marketers, distributors and bottlers of virtually every non-alcoholic refreshment beverage category you can name. The American public craves choice in its beverage product selections, and the companies whose business it is to quench thirsts take that demand very seriously.

The ascension of beverages of all varieties has come about because consumers have sampled beverage products, liked them and demanded them. Whether it’s a vitamin-enhanced water, a juice brimming with calcium, a tea that’s organic to its core or a sugar-free cola, these beverage products thrive because a thirsty nation has embraced them.

Factors like innovative packaging and new types of retail outlets have changed the way beverages are available to people today. Iced tea, for example, may have been invented 100 years ago at the St. Louis World’s Fair, but it is only in this generation that it’s become a genuine ready-to-drink beverage option. You can buy a single-serve container of tea or water just about anywhere you can buy an ice-cold root beer.

As tastes have evolved, so have the companies that comprise the beverage business. Though best known for good old soda pop, the best-known brand marketers in the beverage business have built portfolios designed to meet the needs of constantly changing American thirst. Since the early 1990s, these companies have provided bottled water, juice drinks, sports drinks, teas, coffees, dairy beverages and an array of choices unimaginable even 20 years ago.

And these are the members of the American Beverage Association.