Vegetable Beverages Hitting Mainstream

Would you drink a cucumber lime-flavored Gatorade?  How about blueberry mint-flavored water?  An article on Beverage Industry on emerging beverage trends claim that vegetable-flavored beverages are increasingly popular because of their “healthy halo” (article link here).  With everyone focusing on healthier options, it makes sense that vegetable flavors reach mainstream status and consumers seek to take in more vegetables.  After all, berry and other fruit-flavored beverages can only deliver so much momentum.  That said, the article describes that consuming a vegetable-only flavor is still in uncommon and many beverage options are a combination of both vegetables and fruits.  How will this particular flavor trend impact beverage makers?  Will these drinks ever reach a level of popularity to take down mainstream colas, juices, or waters?

Beverage manufacturers constantly monitor flavor trends and Pepsi has locked into this trend since 2011, when they launched a Cucumber Lime flavor under the Gatorade franchise.  Pepsi Japan’s limited-time releases of Pepsi Shiso and Pepsi Ice Cucumber also proves this point.  Since most (if not all) beverage organizations monitor consumption trends, it would not be surprising to see manufacturers build momentum and launch more vegetable-infused variants over the next few years.  It just needs to make its way into the North American market.  And this is beginning to catch on more in the U.S.; research firm Mintel tracked over 100 U.S. beverage innovations with vegetable or vegetable-fruit flavors launching in the past year, representing a 20% increase from 2013.  It still stands to be seen whether these vegetable-flavors will launch under the most popular and mainstream beverage lines like Gatorade, Coke, and Pepsi or launch under emerging beverage brands.  No matter the case, any approved product launch puts sales pressure on other items to perform or risk losing the shelf space.  This flavor trend may not have been successful replacing other products’ sales to justify shelf space though it looks that will soon change.

On the topic of reaching critical mass to take down mainstream product categories, it doesn’t look promising.  This isn’t to say that vegetable-flavored beverages will not reach mainstream status themselves, just that it will not overtake other mainstream categories.  For one, this is a flavor trend that integrates the product under a specific beverage segment; it is not a standalone beverage category in itself.  Consider these vegetable-flavored products to pattern after  Campbell’s V8 juices or Bolthouse Farm smoothies, where they represent a growing portion of a drink category (juices and smoothies, respectively) but are not large enough to overtake juices as a whole or smoothies as a whole.  Regardless, these healthier options will compete aggressively for retail shelf space alongside other beverage options.

Image courtesy of foodbusinessnews.net

The Beverage Industry article also describes other beverage flavor trends, include a growing preference toward sweet and spicy combinations.  Consumers increasingly look for flavors that will satisfy multi-sensory experiences.  Some examples include chocolate gojuchang tea (gochujang is a Korean spicy sauce),  spicy ginger mango juice, and mango jalapeno water.  So be on the lookout, soon enough you’ll see more cross-flavored beverages on store shelves.  Be in sweet and spicy or vegetable-fruit flavored, it will sound exotic but your taste buds and your body will thank you for choosing that over another drink.

Green Tea Coca-Cola, Pepsi Shiso launches in Japan

Green tea-flavored Coca-Cola will hit Japanese stores June 8, Coca Cola (Japan) Co. spokesman Katsuya Sato said Thursday. It contains tea antioxidants called catechins, leaves a slight green tea aftertaste and is mainly targeted at health-conscious women in their 20s and 30s, Sato said.

“We wanted to cater to people who are looking for something that tastes good but is also good for health and beauty,” he said.

Coca Cola is the leader in Japan’s cola market but faces stiff competition from non-carbonated bottled drinks such as tea, coffee and fruit juices.

Rival Pepsi Cola is countering with another exotic cola — Japanese basil-flavored “Pepsi Shiso,” which hits stores in late June.

As with anything health-related, companies will jump on to the bandwagon with everything they’ve got.  There are low-fat fries, vitamin-enriched chips, and now healthier, green tea-flavored carbonated beverages.  It remains to be seen whether this green tea cola will be a limited time offering or something that becomes a mainstay.  Coca-Cola Japan probably should test this flavor out in the market as a limited time offering first (which they may be doing anyway) and then if feedback is positive keep it in production.

Pepsi’s previous releases did not work too well in the Japanese market (first Cucumber Pepsi, then Blue Hawaiian Pepsi), so it remains to be seen if the Pepsi Shiso will do any better.

Notice that the Pepsi bottle still has the old logo?  The new logo is only in North America as this time, but over the next two years PepsiCo’s new logo will be on every bottle worldwide.  Apparently PepsiCo is slowly executing their identity transformation and will phase out the old logo internationally to minimize the loss of brand equity.  North American consumers travelling abroad the next two years will have to adjust to the classic Pepsi logo.  While international visitors to North American may be confused where their Pepsi beverages went and why it was replaced with something else (yipes!).

Also, BevWire will try to lobby for a orange or apple-flavored Coke or Pepsi.  Since those seem like pretty healthy fruits for people to consume, maybe the two beverage giants will try releasing their trademark beverages in one of these flavors.