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“Beverage flavours are arguably the most important factor in determining consumer purchasing decisions, with 29% of global consumers stating they would happily try a new drink flavour out of simple curiosity. This highlights huge incentive for beverage producers to launch new product developments – and reinforces soft drinks as a fast-paced, innovative industry,” explains Holly Inglis, beverages analyst at GlobalData.
HERE ARE THE top five flavour launches in 2021 so far, which are shaping the global soft drinks landscape:
Going ‘green’ with hemp and CBD
Hemp- and CBD-infused drinks are continuing to garner interest, like products such as Trader Joe’s non-dairy hemp beverage in the US and Sonnenstar hemp juice shot in Austria.
While hemp and CBD are positively received by a third and fifth of global consumers respectively, GlobalData’s survey indicates that a considerable portion are still unfamiliar with the ingredients – producers must address this to ensure the longevity of their hemp- or CBDinfused launches.
Mango, let’s go
Mango-flavoured drinks have emerged in Romania and Singapore, while a flurry of innovations with flavour combinations that incorporate mango have been observed in the US, UK and France. In the US, PepsiCo’s Bubly Bounce product tags no calories or sweeteners and is a carbonated water brand combining grapefruit, mango, orange and passion fruit aromas.
Isn’t that just peachy
Peach-based products such as Lipton’s peach tea with honey and Badoit’s peach-flavoured sparkling water in France both tag either low calorie or low sugar bases, reinforcing positive brand connotations, and favourable views on peach as a flavour base.
Ginger spice and everything nice
Ginger, on the other hand, has been integrated across parts of the globe such as Nigeria, South Korea and Peru, in line with consumers opting for products that promote digestive health and wellness claims. In fact, 78% of global consumers believe that ginger has a positive impact on their health, reinforcing those links to health/wellness, and promoting manufacturer opportunity to innovate in line with consumer trends.
It’s ‘grape’ to be back
Interestingly, grape-based products have also made an appearance in 2021. These products are fighting off current stereotypes of grapeflavoured beverages being high in sugar and bad for health, especially in parts of Western Europe where they have less-than-favourable links to low quality. •
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