Beverages That Do More

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Features

Consumers seek flavors that enhance their well-being,

By Anne-Marie Hardie

Flavors do much more than alter the taste, today’s flavors are formulated to enhance the experience whether wellness, beauty, or indulgence.

When flavoring tea, Dataessential Buzz Coffee and Tea consumer tracker reports that fruit flavors dominate. Customers report peach (26%), raspberry (25%), and peach and strawberry (18%) as their top choices.

Tea is more accessible in the US, reports consumer marketing firm Euromonitor International. On-trade sales volume grew 3% in 2016, reaching 39,000 metric tons. Starbucks (Teavana), Argo Tea, and DAVIDsTEA have helped to mainstream speciality teas. North American consumers now actively seek these premium loose leaf products. Black tea continues to dominate this segment, reports Euromonitor, exhibiting 5% growth in 2016. The combination of all other teas: green, oolong, rooibos, accounts for 7% of total tea consumption.

Chloe Simond, marketing assistant at Quebec-based Foodarom says customers want exotic, unusual ingredients, anything that reflects a luxurious experience. “Sophisticated flavors, like black tea with Mexican chocolate and mint, pink rose tea in Hong Kong and organic tea with vanilla orchid are examples of this trend,” she says.

Exotic spices and other ingredients are not just flavorful, they also bring health benefits and meet the desire for indulgence. This is one reason luxurious packaging is trending, she said.

“We see a steady demand for spicier, “red hot type’ cinnamon flavors for tea, and caramel and butterscotch are very popular for coffee,” says Colleen Roberts, director of sales, Flavor Dynamics, in South Plainfield, New Jersey. Health and wellness continues to draw interest leading brands to introduce turmeric and blends with ginger. Consumers are paying attention to inner beauty, what they ingest. They are looking towards functional plants, super fruits, and other benefits that can be incorporated into their beverages, explains Roberts.

“Peppermint, lemongrass, fennel, and rosehip are sought for their functional properties,” says Simond. “Blue orchid is one of the newer ingredients being added to tea as it helps with sleeping issues,” she says.  Although demand for organic flavoring is experiencing a slight decline, says Roberts, consumers continue to seek “all natural” flavors, reinforcing the fact that they are paying attention to what they are putting into their body.

This includes attention to how the product has been sweetened. Plant based low-calorie sweeteners like stevia and agave remain popular. Brown rice syrup, coconut palm sugar, lucuma fruit, and yacon root are naturally low-glycemic.

But beware the human palate is very discerning when it comes to sweets.

“Working with alternative sweeteners can be a real challenge, as they have a strong aftertaste including metallic and bitter notes,” says Simond. “Each sweetener has its own complexities, with flavorists having to adjust the flavor profile to mask the notes of the sweetener.”

Innovation in coffee mirrors these trends. “Looking at coffee worldwide is very interesting, Asia is focused on inner health, offering slimming flavors of coffee and even beauty coffee with collagen, while functional coffee has become very popular in Australia with beetroot being marketed as the perfect recovery beverage for athletes,” says Simond.  These trends will travel to other parts of the globe, as millennial and Generation Z consumers seek more functional beverages. The challenge is ensuring that innovative ingredients, like food grade collagen, address the desire for a functional beverage while maintaining the quality and taste that is pleasing to consumers.

Sweet and seasonal

Sweet and seasonal flavors are popular for all beverage types.  With regions making their mark with the infusion of local ingredients into their beverages. “In Egypt, we have cardamom and nutmeg, green tea coffee in Japan, and maple in Canada,” says Simond. “These flavors foster connections with the consumers by connecting with the origins of their beverages.”

Determining this year’s trends is not a simple task. Food and beverage trends evident in restaurants provide some insights but there are many other variables that impact which flavor consumers are gravitating towards.

“Sometimes flavor trends are born simply as the result of supporting healthy crops in each season,” says Roberts.

When it comes to determining the flavor profile of a product, the industry has a lot to consider. Market trends are just the beginning; companies need to understand the needs of their demographics and which products will best respond to them.

“Not every trend is successful universally,” says Roberts. “It is important to understand who your buyer is and their needs.” Providing a flavorist with a precise description also helps ensure that the flavor meets the manufacturer’s expectations. “The flavor universe is very precise, a coconut flavor could vary from a toasted coconut to a pina coloda flavored coconut, manufacturers need to make sure that the flavorist is speaking the same language,” says Simond. Beyond that, manufacturers also need to understand if their request is doable.

Will the flavor they want pair well with the requested base? Does the flavor respond to the interest of the current demographics. Do the ingredients meet the regulatory standards of the countries that they are working with?

“There are different regulations with all of the countries that we work with,” says Simond. “Smoked flavors, for example, are currently not permitted in Europe.”

Innovative ingredients will continue to evolve, awakening consumer’s palates to new experiences in hot and cold beverages. For manufacturers, developing new flavor profiles involves understanding not only their target market but how to pique the curiosity of consumers to purchase and sample the drink. Success is not just providing the right beverage, but the desired beverage experience. 

Trending Flavors

Republic of Tea - Biodynamic Tumeric Cinnamon

Choice Organic Tea - Reishi Matcha Mushroom

Honest Tea - Unsweetened Peach Ginger

Hamstead Tea - Lavender & Valeria

B Sweet - Nitro Brew Matcha

Tisane Teas - Alkaline Rooibos Tea

Wize Monkey - Coffee Leaf Tea