US
American millennials may be losing their taste for iced tea, according to results of a poll released this month by YouGov BrandIndex. The “brand intelligence service” focuses on public perception of brands across many sectors and nations, providing insights to industries such as food and beverage.
Its findings on iced tea are based on polls conducted during the last two years with adults 18 to 34 years of age. In January 2016, 23% of millennials said they’d consider buying iced tea the next time they purchased a beverage. That percentage is now down to 18%.
Brands associated with high sugar content or high-fructose corn syrup, colorings or artificial flavorings are seeing the quickest retreat from customers, as younger Americans increasingly seek out healthier ways to quench their thirst, especially in recent months, says the report.
“Lipton, Nestea, Crystal Light, and Snapple have been trending downward in this metric from the end of October [2017] through the present. Only Arizona Iced Tea has had a relatively stable trajectory,” the report states, noting that Crystal Light—an iced tea drink mix containing artificial flavors, preservatives, and red, yellow, and blue food dyes—has been hit the hardest, dropping a full eight percentage points over the past two years.
IRI, a global provider of market information solutions, for the 52 weeks ending Dec. 3, 2017, unit sales of instant tea mixes are down by 7%. More healthy options such as Peace Tea, an RTD tea beverage that contains no artificial flavors or colorings (it does contain sucralose artificial sweetener) are bucking the downward trend; its unit sales rose 30% last year.
In the refrigerated (RFG) teas category, IRI figures show a relatively modest 3% increase in unit sales from the previous year, mainly boosted by healthier brands such as Milo’s Tea (up 18%) and Lipton Pure Leaf (up 36%).