Sports and energy drinks

Perhaps the biggest push in sports and energy drinks is toward natural and organic ingredients, a segment which Grand View Research estimated could account for something like 40% in 2025. It put the global energy drinks market at $86.35bn in 2021. 20

The main players in this category, such as Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, and 5-Hour Energy, tend to feature similar formulations based around varying doses and derivatives of caffeine, taurine, and B vitamins, which have made energy drinks and shots such a blockbuster ‘feel the benefit’ category for more than two decades. But perhaps the more interesting aspect of this segment is natural and organic, which Grand View Research expects to surge to 40% of category sales in 2025 – about $34bn.

“With some energy drinks, they're using protein now instead of taurine or caffeine. All of a sudden, energy drinks are not seen as the kind of necessary evil they once were,” said Hughes.

A brand like Hi-Ball offers an energy drink marketed as an energy seltzer with ‘good energy’. 21 Its actives include 160 mg of organic caffeine, 50 mg of organic guarana, and 50 mg of organic panax ginseng, as well as a B vitamin complex .

In this sector, brands like UK-based Tenzing proclaim their plant-driven energy sourcing, as well as being “the first carbon-negative drink in the world”.

“What Tenzing does is say, ‘we're plant-based’,” says Hughes. “The energy comes from protein, they proclaim their sustainability. It’s a healthy, sustainable message and it’s completely different from the typical energy drink messaging.”

“It’s a really good example of how companies can use ingredients to challenge perceptions around product categories.”