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CHICAGO, Illinois – What’s new in beverage flavours? Innova Market Insights has the answer to this and other soft drink trends at the Taste the Trend Pavilion, their booth at the IFT Food Expo in Chicago, Illinois, to be held on 14-16 July. But for a sneak peak, expect flavours derived from herbs and spices, honey and new-generation superfruits as best-sellers in the global beverages market.
Super favourites
Whilst flavours are usually marked by regions, superfruits transcend this and are well loved globally for their health benefits such as antioxidant properties. Pomegranate remains the favourite, accounting for over 40% of tracked beverage launches featuring superfruit flavours over the June 2008 to May 2013 period, well ahead of acai and lychee, with 12.5% and 12%, respectively. Upcoming flavour or new-generation superfruits are guanabana/soursop, cactus/prickly pear and marula.
Desert flavour
The cactus/prickly pear is not new to some regions like Latin America, but in the United States, it is only gaining ground in beverages. “Cactus/prickly pear is one of the emerging superfruit flavours in the North American beverage market,” says Lu Ann Williams, head of Research at Innova Market Insights. “US launches over the past year including Cactus Juice and Cactus Tea from Nopal and Prickly Pear Cactus Tea from Hunter & Hilsberg, as well as Martinelli’s Prickly Passion Lemonade juice drink, featuring prickly pear puree,” she notes.
Veggie delight
The health trend remains prominent in beverages, with vegetable flavours featuring strongly, according to Ms Williams. She says that vegetable flavours, whilst also a new flavour element, are often combined with fruit flavours in juices, smoothies and teas, adding health-giving phytochemicals. For example, the number of beverage launches featuring celery rose six-fold in 2012, whilst those featuring cucumber and beets doubled. Kale also started to feature in the beverages market in 2012.