ATLANTA — As one of its largest bottlers prepares to launch Costa Coffee throughout eastern and western Europe next year, Coca-Cola has also announced plans to launch its first alcoholic beverage in Japan in October. The Lemon-do alcoholic soft drink debuted last year in Kyushu, and the Atlanta-based global soft drink brand is repackaging it as Remondo, which will be introduced this fall throughout the nation.

Coffee is one of the most lucrative and fast-growing revenue and profit pools within commercial beverages. It is a multi-billion dollar category across Coca-Cola HBC’s 28 markets and is forecast to grow 4% annually.

Coca-Cola HBC plans to launch Costa Coffee in at least 10 of its 28 markets next year, including Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. “Adding a brand as strong as Costa Coffee to our portfolio will allow us to capture more consumer occasions, to partner even more closely with our customers across all channels and strengthen our ability to address every drinking moment throughout the day,” said Coca-Cola HBC CEO Zoran Bogdanovic. “Our well-established infrastructure, processes and capabilities around coffee means that we will hit the ground running with this exciting opportunity.”

Coca-Cola acquired Costa Coffee in January 2019 and has accelerated the business, focusing on expanding in vending and ready-to-drink products. Costa Coffee is a leading coffee company in the United Kingdom, with a strong presence in Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

Coca-Cola spokesperson Scott Leith told CNN the company’s alcoholic beverage is modeled after Japanese “chu-hi,” a popular canned drink made with a distilled alcohol called shochu, carbonated water and flavoring. At this time, the company doesn’t plan to offer the product elsewhere.

Also, Coca-Cola is reportedly in negotiations with Aurora Cannabis to develop and launch a beverage that contains cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive derivative commonly used to provide medical benefits such as relieving muscle cramping. CBD is a chemical found in marijuana plants.