Frequently Asked Questions

What is a COLA?

A Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) is TTB approval for many alcohol beverage labels before interstate sale, shipment, or import release. The COLA Registry is a public database of approved label records dating back to 2005.

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 2015-forward data via self-service web and API tools, or license the full historical dataset separately.

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?

The full COLA Cloud dataset contains 2.9 million+ COLA applications dating back to 2005, 5 million+ label images, and 575,000+ extracted barcodes. Self-service web and API plans use the 2015-forward app database. Approximately 2,500 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?

Read the COLA Search overview for the web product, API docs for programmatic access, the sample pack for evaluation, and pricing or contact pages for paid plans and bulk licensing.

Can I match products using barcodes?

Yes. COLA Cloud extracts UPC and EAN barcodes from label images using computer vision. Over 555,000 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