Drinking Consumer Insights

Trend - Brands are tapping into nostalgic soda flavors, reimagining these drinks as health-positive products filled with probiotics.
These items satisfy nostalgic desires for hearty, classic sodas while simultaneously boosting consumers' gut health.

Insight - Many consumers remember the joy of drinking soda as a youth. However, far fewer customers continue to drink soda in adulthood for health reasons.
These consumers desire to recapture these flavorful, youthful experiences, but not to the detriment of their own health. Therefore these
customers place pressure on brands to create better-for-you products that appease nostalgia.

Trend - Brands are repurposing a traditional Japanese tea style, Hojicha, in drinks and desserts in the west. Hojicha, while commonly a health-focused drink in Japan, has a strong roasted flavor profile that suits desserts and sweet drinks well. The ingredient is gaining popularity in North America.

Insight - Tea drinkers in the west gravitate toward teas with strong flavors and underlying health benefits. Even when seeking dessert-style drinks like bubble tea, these consumers do not always want caffeinated black teas as the base, but rather something lighter and healthier mixed with sweet ingredients. These green teas leave the consumers feeling less bloated, but they often have a bitter flavor profile. This led to brands looking to more traditional teas for alternate flavor palates.

Trend - Brands are crafting non-alcoholic sparkling sodas with common cocktail ingredients like bitters and spritzes. These sodas offer the strong bitter flavor of cocktails in a bar mixed with the refreshing nature of sparkling sodas while enabling guilt-free consumption without alcohol.

Insight - Consumers are drawn to cocktails over traditional drinks for their strong bittersweet flavors. However, the inflated prices charged at bars combined with the challenges associated with drinking alcohol, make these flavors less accessible in everyday life. Thus, consumers place pressure on brands to craft alcohol-free, refreshing products that do not compromise on the powerful bittersweet flavors of cocktails.

Trend - Hotels are infusing drinks and dishes with CBD, incorporating CBD oils into massages, and selling products infused with high-quality CBD for health purposes. These businesses focus on the health benefits of CBD as it pertains to rest, relaxation, stress relief--all fundamental aspects of the hospitality industry.

Insight - Travellers prioritize rest and relaxation while staying at a hotel or resort. This is especially true now, as the wellness industry grows and enters even the most unlikely categories. Now, more customers are seeking out hotels that prioritize mental and physical wellness in the modern ways that they're accustomed to. Hotels are responding to this pressure by implementing experimental practices across spa services, restaurants and amenities.

Trend - At-home beverage kits that encapsulate the flavors that are popular in Latin American countries are seeing more popularity. These kits offer nostalgia for those who grew up with these flavors--and for those who didn't, an interactive way to expand their knowledge of other cuisines.

Insight - Food kits are popular because they make busy consumers' lives easier by reducing time spent cooking, without sacrificing quality. The growth of the meal kit business model has resulted in brands competing for market share, often by broadening their demographic appeal. Authenticity in this process is important to consumers who are accustomed to homemade cultural foods, and therefore have high expectations for food brands that prioritize convenience in their cultural offerings.

Trend - The restaurant and QSR industries are bouncing back from the Pandemic by better gathering insights on what consumers care about. Technologies dedicated to listening to and implementing suggestions for improving the dining experience are increasing in popularity. This can be done by gathering data on ordering platforms, surveys, and more.

Insight - Now that restrictions have been lifted in most parts of the world, the return to dining is in full force. That said, consumer attitudes toward in-person experiences have changed dramatically over the Pandemic, meaning the experiences themselves must evolve in turn. Further to that, consumer expectations of in-person experiences vary greatly depending on their political beliefs, risk tolerance, enthusiasm, etc. Thus, more insight and technology-enabled personalization are necessary.

Trend - Alcohol-free ready-to-drink beverages that replicate cocktail or beer flavors are increasingly being made with adaptogens. These plant and mushroom-based ingredients offer benefits that include stress-reduction and increased energy.

Insight - North American consumers are opting for healthier alcohol alternatives because of their growing focus on wellness. While many still enjoy the social aspects of consuming alcohol, more consumers now want options that offer the same benefits, such as stress-reduction or increased energy, but without the potential for negative mental or physical side effects. Now, consumers are turning to beverages with ingredients that offer similar benefits to alcohol, but without the downsides.

Trend - Alcohol free tequilas and low-ABV tequila beverages are now offering more flavorful alternatives to the gin and vodkas that currently dominate the no or low-abv space. Products include everything from non-alcoholic spirits that replicate tequilas' flavours, to more refreshing seltzer drinks.

Insight - Gen Z is generally less interested in alcohol consumption than preceeding generations. This demographic is more health-conscious because of how widely available health information now is, and they're more likely to consume cannabis over alcohol because of its comparative mental and physical health benefits. In order to adapt, the alcohol industry is having to appeal to this generation's more introverted tendencies and focus on wellness.

Trend - Indie alcohol brands have begun incorporating ancient grains into their formulas. In particular, most of these brands are leveraging West African grains due to their unique and novel flavor profiles. The most popular of these ingredients include teff, millet, fonio, and sorghum.

Insight - Consumers are increasingly searching for better-for-you alcohol options that do not have unhealthy ingredients like sugar, gluten, GMOs, artificial sweeteners, or preservatives. In addition, many of these same consumers are interested in purchasing products that are not harmful to the environment. As an ingredient, Ancient Grains satisfy both these desires. They are rich in phytochemicals, which have numerous health benefits, and they are low-maintenance crops that can be cultivated in harsh climates.

Trend - The international canned alcoholic beverage industry has adopted saké, a renowned Japanese alcohol variety, to offer new flavors to customers. These canned saké are sold as ready-to-drink mixed cocktails that are convenient, flavorful, and sweeter than other liquor-based beverages.

Insight - The low 13% - 17% alcohol content in saké combined with its strong, wine-like flavor make it an excellent choice for canned cocktails. Consumers continually seek new flavors for cocktails in order to enhance the at-home drinking experience, bringing it closer to the in-bar experience. Additionally, Millennial and Gen-Z consumers in the west are interested in global cultural flavors previously hard to find in North America, leading to manufacturers adopting saké as a primary ingredient.