Frequently Asked Questions

What is a COLA?

A Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) is a federal permit required for every alcoholic beverage sold in the United States. The TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) reviews and approves all alcohol labels before products can be sold. The COLA Registry is a public database of all approved labels dating back to 2003.

What is the TTB COLA Registry?

The TTB COLA Registry is the official government database maintained by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. It contains every Certificate of Label Approval issued for alcoholic beverages sold in the US. The registry is publicly accessible but difficult to use for data analysis, which is why COLA Cloud exists.

What is COLA Cloud?

COLA Cloud is a data platform that transforms the TTB COLA Registry into a modern, queryable data product. The raw government data is scraped, cleaned, and enriched with AI-powered features including text extraction, barcode detection, and product categorization. Access data via REST API or Snowflake integration.

Is COLA Cloud data the same as TTB data?

COLA Cloud sources all data from the official TTB COLA Registry. Significant value is added through data cleaning, normalization, and AI enrichment. The core approval data matches TTB records, while enriched fields (categories, barcodes, extracted text) are COLA Cloud additions.

How much data does COLA Cloud have?

COLA Cloud contains 2.6 million+ COLA applications dating back to 2003, 4.6 million+ label images, and 470,000+ extracted barcodes. Approximately 3,000 new approvals are added every week with daily data updates.

How often is COLA Cloud data updated?

COLA Cloud data is updated daily. New COLA approvals from the TTB are scraped, processed through our AI enrichment pipeline, and made available within 24 hours. This near real-time data helps you identify new products before they hit retail shelves.

What AI enrichments are available?

COLA Cloud uses computer vision and LLMs to extract: ABV percentages, volume measurements, UPC/EAN barcodes with coordinates, full OCR text from labels, and hierarchical product categories (e.g., "Liquor > Whiskey > Bourbon"). All AI-extracted fields are clearly marked in the data.

How do I access COLA Cloud data?

COLA Cloud offers three access methods: (1) Web application for browsing and searching labels, (2) REST API with JSON responses for programmatic access, and (3) Snowflake data share for warehouse integration. Create a free account to explore data and generate API keys.

Can I match products using barcodes?

Yes. COLA Cloud extracts UPC and EAN barcodes from label images using computer vision. Over 470,000 unique barcodes are available with precise image coordinates. Use barcodes to match COLA records to your existing product catalog or POS data.

What use cases does COLA Cloud support?

Common use cases include:

• Product catalog enrichment — official label images and attributes
• Supplier lead generation — identify new brands 1-3 months before launch
• Competitive intelligence — track competitor product filings
• Market research — analyze category and origin trends over time