Category
Business
Autumn Teasers
Trend cluster
Category
Functional
Chai
Brands are launching foods made with chai for health benefits and flavors.
5.0
Trend score
Trend
What is the Functional Chai trend?
Functional Chai: CPG brands and restaurants are launching foods made with chai ingredients. Chai is popular in drinks for its strong, spicy, floral flavor, and its health benefits. This is now being made available to non-tea-drinkers in the form of snacks, breakfast bars, bakery items, and packaged goods.
Insight
The consumer insight behind the Functional Chai trend
The modern consumer in North America has countless flavors from international locations available to them for snacks, drinks, and foods. These consumers are willing to try new flavors, pairings, or interpretations of recipes, to find a new flavor, with priority given to functional foods. Some of the most popular flavors for drinks, such as chai tea or blue curacao in alcohol, are often only found in beverages, making it difficult for certain customers to ever try these flavors.
Trend themes
Themes within the Functional Chai trend
Three behaviours holding the trend together01
Functional Foods
The popularity of functional foods is driving the launch of chai-infused snacks, breakfast bars, and packaged goods, providing consumers with both flavor and health benefits.
02
International Flavor Exploration
Consumers in North America are increasingly willing to try new flavors and interpretations of recipes from around the world, creating opportunities for brands to introduce chai-inspired products to non-tea-drinkers.
03
Mushroom Infused Products
Health-conscious consumers are turning to mushroom-infused food and beverage products, like mushroom protein bars, for stress relief, clarity of thought, and overall physical and immune health.
Industry implications
What the Functional Chai trend means for industry
Where the trend changes the playbookFor
CPG
CPG brands are launching chai-infused snacks and packaged goods, tapping into the trend of functional foods and international flavor exploration.
For
Restaurant
Restaurants are incorporating chai ingredients into their menus, offering non-tea-drinkers the opportunity to try the popular flavor in different forms.
For
Health and Wellness
Health and wellness brands are introducing mushroom-infused products, like protein bars, to cater to consumers seeking stress relief, clarity of thought, and overall physical and immune health.
Workshop question
How could your brand transform traditional or cultural flavors into new products and offerings for the modern consumer?
Trend signals
Trend signals for Functional Chai
Trend score 5.0 out of 10, from popularity 68%, activity 66%, freshness 17%.
Popularity68%
Activity66%
Freshness17%
Audience
50%Men
50%Women
- Gen Alpha
- Gen Z
- Millennial
- Gen X
- Boomer
Market
North America
Europe
Asia-Pacific
Evidence
Examples of the Functional Chai trend
5 featured examples from Oct 27, 2022 to Jun 20, 2023CategoryLifestyle
Mushroom Protein Bars
Balanced Tiger's Bars Have 1,500mg of Functional Mushrooms
This industry can explore further the use of functional mushrooms as an ingredient to produce snacks and beverages that cater to the health-conscious trend.
CategoryMarketing
Chai-Inspired Breakfast Sets
The Breakfast Set by Dona Includes Three Chai-infused Products
Opportunity for food and beverage companies to innovate and create unique products by infusing chai flavors.
CategoryLifestyle
Pain Relief Chocolates
Painfree Chocolate Helps to Ease Everyday Aches, Pains & Inflammation
Functional chocolates represent a disruptive innovation opportunity for chocolate manufacturers who can tap into the growing market of health-conscious consumers by offering produ…
CategoryLifestyle
Heritage-Inspired Breakfast Biscuits
Kanira's South Asian-Inspired Biscuits Feature Pearl Millet
Food companies could gain a competitive edge by utilizing locally-sourced, climate-smart crops and unique flavors like those found in Kanira's South Asian-inspired breakfast biscu…
CategoryLifestyle
Asian-Inspired Snack Cups
These Sun-Butter Chocolate Cups Feature Globally Inspired Fillings
Food manufacturers can explore innovative recipes and production techniques to create allergy-friendly and globally inspired snack products.
