DELICIOUS DRINKS Category insights

DELICIOUS DRINKS

Discover what’s new and popular right now.

The cold drink category continues to be a source of new and innovative products for consumers.

Category Manager at Foodstuffs, Jon O’Brien finds the latest innovation is ready-to-drink coffee. After proving popular in Japan, Boss Coffee hit New Zealand shelves earlier this year. Available across Foodstuffs stores, customers can choose between Boss Iced Latte Flash Brew and Boss Iced Long Black Flash Brew Drinks, delivering New Zealanders their caffeine fix at home, on the go, or in the office.

Another trend O’Brien has noticed is that customers are increasingly turning to ‘better for me’ beverages as they prioritize their health and wellbeing.

“Within the category, sparkling water is proving popular with sales up 16.2%. Brands such as Vista, La Croix and New Zealand Natural are getting snapped up by customers as they are looking for a refreshing and healthy drink to quench their thirst,” says O’Brien.

Remedy

Remedy are shaking the soft drink aisle up for good with the launch of their NEW 1.25L Kombucha take home packs, as seen on the cover of this issue! Now available in New Zealand in three of their top-selling fave flavours: Raspberry Lemonade, Ginger Lemon and Peach.

“Trends are showing that shoppers right now, more than ever, are shifting their behaviour to buying more multi-serve packs to minimise supermarket trips. Remedy’s early trial of their 1.25L pack proved couples and families pining for this pack size, making it the perfect addition to your ambient aisle shelf as they look to stock up the pantry,” says Deva Dhar, Remedy Drinks Country Manager -New Zealand.

He adds: “Remedy Kombucha is a-ok in and out of the fridge due to their traditional 30 day, long-aged brew process, which results in a delicious kombucha with no sugar, naturally and full of the right stuff: including strong and healthy live cultures, organic acids and tea polyphenols. Whether your customers are looking to start sipping straight away or save some goodness for later, it’s fizzy fun for everyone!”

For all sales enquiries please contact Deva Dhar, Country Manager for Remedy Drinks on:

Ph: +64 21 245 2363,

E: deva.dhar@remedydrinks.com,

W: www.remedydrinks.com

Daily Good

Everyone is busy! “We run, we attend meetings, we collect kids, we cook dinner, we drink coffee, we try to buy organic, we eat donuts,” says Jemima Briggs, GM Sales and Marketing at Red Shoots.

“Somewhere in all the above, our health is a priority and never has there been a time where we are in more need of easy, natural solutions to improve and protect our health.

Introducing our 2 new Ginger and Turmeric focused brands – Daily Good Tonics and Just Fresh Co. Juices.

Daily Good is the daily health warrior. It is a range of delicious infusions packed full of organic, superhero ingredients, created by a team of Kiwi innovators working from their respective bubbles during lockdown. They make the most of the amazing ingredients from Red Shoots’ sustainable partner farm in Fiji, Ranadi Organics, and are made right here in NZ. The team only puts the good stuff in, nothing else – no fillers, no concentrates, no extracts and no preservatives – just whole ingredient goodness and the associated health benefits. The tonics are not an RTD product but instead a weekly dosing bottle containing 7 shots. The three variants contain organic ginger, organic turmeric, organic apple cider vinegar, organic manuka honey, organic blackcurrants and more!

Just Fresh Co. brand launch sees an extension to the very successful Lemonfresh brand which now includes Ginger and Turmeric juice. These easy-to-use pouches contain nothing but juice and have countless uses in cooking, hot beverages, smoothies, or juices. Just open, pour, close and refrigerate. Done!

Ugly doesn’t compromise quality and taste

Like so many things, it’s not what’s on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. It’s a saying that rings true for Hawke’s Bay-based beverage company, Simply Squeezed.

They blend and squeeze “ugly” fruit with “pretty” fruit to create great-tasting juices and smoothies, and save more than 4,000 tonnes of fruit – that’s packed full of goodness but not so appealing to the eyes – going to landfill.

Simply Squeezed has been using ugly fruit to create their beverages since the company’s inception in the early 90s, as a way to reduce waste from going to landfill and turn it into something delicious.

Ugly fruit has the same taste as pretty fruit – or those found mainly on supermarket shelves. The only difference between the two is that ugly fruit may not have the colour, size or reflect the shape supermarkets and stalls are after.

Fruit we term “ugly” looks a little bit different: it’s usually too big, small, a funny shape or the wrong colour for export or market. And sometimes it could just be that the orchard does not have a market for it, explains Simply Squeezed sourcing specialist Jonathan Crawley.

“Sure, the ugly fruit may come in looking a little different, but the taste and quality that’s squeezed out of them isn’t compromised.

“The kind of ugly fruit we incorporate into our beverages includes navel oranges, mandarins, tangelos and all sorts of varieties of apples from around Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast. The amount we get very much depends on the time of year, season or weather events.”

Simply Squeezed blending team leader, James Calder says “ugly” fruit is not processed differently.

“If it is too big, small or unable to be juiced it will be graded out to avoid blocking the juicing equipment, and added to the pile that goes for stock food.

“But of course, if a fruit isn’t up to the quality standard and taste our customers expect from us, then we send it to our food stock or suppliers to distribute it to other businesses.”

Even after the fruit has been squeezed and pulped, there’s still approximately 20% to 40% of it left over. So to ensure as much of the fruit is used as possible, Simply Squeezed has established relationships with distributors who on-sell the peel and other edible remnants to other food suppliers.

It’s another great way to reduce waste going to landfill and improve the company’s environmental footprint, says Simply Squeezed Senior Product Developer Kirin Harrison.

Simply Squeezed is available from Frucor Suntory. Since its beginnings in the early 1960s as part of the New Zealand Apple & Pear Board, Frucor Suntory has evolved from a small local juice business to a significant international beverages company. The company produces more than 20 million cases of drinks a year at its South Auckland manufacturing plant.

Karma Juice — Every Drink Does Good

Refreshing, revitalizing, and so scrumptious you could slurp em’ all back in one go, Karma Drinks have released an organic range of do-gooding juices that taste just as fruity as they make you feel.

The delicious new certified organic Karma Juice range comes in six sensational flavours, featuring a couple of classics, plus some with an innovative Karma twist.

• Carrot, Orange & Turmeric

• Apple, Guava & Passionfruit

• Apple, Blackcurrant & Raspberry

• Orange

• Apple

• Orange, Apple & Mango

All served in a sustainable glass bottle, the Karma Juice range is proudly BioGro certified organic, and made right here in Aotearoa. It contains no preservatives, GMO’s or any nasties, says a spokesperson.

And it’s not just good for you – it’s good for other people too. When you buy a Karma Juice, you’re helping contribute to The Karma Foundation and the work they do to support the people producing their ingredients, and looking after our planet.

The 100% Kiwi owned company says it is seriously proud to be supporting local people and the local economy.

Iced coffee will be one of the trends of the upcoming summer

Trends at Countdown

Kiwis drank a lot of coffee over the earlier lockdown and this also included a lot of iced coffee due to the warm weather, says Steve Mills, General Manager Merchandise at Countdown. “We think iced coffee will be one of the trends of the upcoming summer.”

Mills adds: “Sales of single-serve cold drinks dropped whilst larger drink sizes increased, most likely because customers were limiting their visits to the supermarket over lockdown and were at home rather than enjoying their drinks out and about. We’ve seen double digit growth on two-litre orange juice as more people continue to work from home.

“Kombucha sales have flattened after being the golden child of drinks for several years. Customers are now searching for products with functional benefits such as immunity, vitamins, and supplements or superfoods such as the new Charlie’s Hemp Protein Smoothies,” says Mills.

FMCG Business produces a monthly snapshot of category news and highlights, based on information from participating clients and Nielsen data available at time of print. To showcase your products in upcoming category reports, please contact trubanowski@intermedianz.co.nz .