Drinking Consumer Insights

Trend - Coffee brands are launching cold foam toppers for home consumption, enabling consumers to recreate café-quality drinks. These products offer convenience and elevate the at-home coffee experience. The intent is to provide easy ways for coffee lovers to enjoy cold foam without professional equipment.

Insight - Consumers seek to replicate the café experience at home, driven by the desire for convenience and quality. The increasing popularity of home coffee brewing, coupled with a growing appreciation for artisanal coffee, has led to the demand for premium add-ons like cold foam toppers. The pressures of busy lifestyles and the desire for indulgence without leaving home are key factors. By offering cold foam toppers, coffee brands cater to consumers' needs for convenience and quality from the home.

Trend - The Shirley Temple, a beloved classic from the early '90s, is making a stylish comeback—this time in canned form for straightforward enjoyment. These new versions put a contemporary spin on the drink, appealing to nostalgia-driven customers and even offering spiked variants for a grown-up twist.

Insight - Consumers often gravitate toward products that remind them of childhood, aiming to replicate and indulge in nostalgic flavors from their youth. In response, brands are making that nostalgia instantly accessible while refining the flavor profile for a more grown-up audience, aiming to simultaneously appeal to long-time enjoyers and new consumers. These brands recognize that their consumer desires a product that brings back childhood joy but feels sophisticated enough for adult social settings.

Trend - Luxury hotels are partnering with popular fragrance brands to launch collaborative, experiential tea activations. These events are intended to blend the intense flavors of the teas with the rich, aromatic notes of luxury fragrances. Combining these offers consumers heightened experiences.

Insight - Higher-income consumers, in particular those who frequently travel for work or pleasure, are often privy to enjoy finer, higher-end experiences. These consumers want premium accommodations, dining experiences, and living conditions, with minimal work required, and are willing to pay for such things. In order to cater to these illustrious consumers, luxury hotel brands are launching multisensorial fragrance-based high tea and afternoon tea experiences.

Trend - New brands are launching 0% ABV supplements designed to provide calming, alcohol-like feelings for sober consumers. Some of these supplements are flavorless and are designed to be added to a drink of choice, while others simply require mixing with water to be ready to drink.

Insight - Dry January continues to gain popularity year-over-year, particularly as the negative health effects of alcohol become more publicized, and as mocktails come more closer to mimicking the flavor and feeling of alcoholic beverages. With this rising popularity, more consumers, particularly those in the Gen Z and Millennial age ranges, are gravitating toward alternative ways to achieve a calming-like buzz from more natural sources, such as CBD or other herbal supplements.

Trend - Alcohol brands are increasingly incorporating matcha powder in their products, offering a vibrant green color, earthy flavor, and a caffeine boost. The green tea powder is known for complementing various spirits while pairing well with other ingredients like citrus, honey, or coconut milk.

Insight - Matcha is often seen as a healthier alternative to coffee, offering an energy boost and functional ingredients like L-theanine to support well-being. Capitalizing on the growing interest in matcha, brands are now incorporating its distinctive grassy flavor into alcoholic beverages to enhance their flavor profiles while still catering to consumers' health goals. Businesses that incorporate this popular ingredient can attract consumers who already enjoy matcha in non-alcoholic contexts.

Trend - Alcohol brands are increasingly opting for pouches to package their cocktails and low-ABV offerings. These pouches, often made from flexible, durable materials like plastic or foil, typically feature resealable spouts or caps for convenient consumption.

Insight - At large gatherings, consumers often gravitate towards cocktails and light alcoholic beverages to enjoy throughout the evening. However, crowded settings can bring challenges like drink tampering and accidental spills. In response, brands in the low-ABV space embrace pouch-style packaging, offering tamper-resistant, spill-proof solutions that enhance safety and convenience. Businesses that align with this demand can resonate with consumers who value secure and responsible drinking experiences.

Trend - Restaurants and bars are leaning into cultural flavors to diversify alcoholic offerings. One such cultural flavor is chai, with bars creating cocktails blended with tea and spices to compliment the palate. These are designed to offer the benefits and flavors of tea and the social aspect of drinking.

Insight - Amongst consumers who go out to drink, there is a continually-growing trend of those who simply drink socially, and do not care as much about the effects of the drink, and are instead drawn to the rich flavors of mixed drinks, and the connections formed over mutual drinking. These consumers are more likely to try drinks and cocktails with unique flavors, particularly when the alcohol flavor is mitigated. Bars are catering to both these consumers and more adventurous drinkers with chai martinis.

Trend - While nitrogen-infused coffee has become mainstream through major coffee chains and ready-to-drink products, beverage manufacturers are now expanding nitrogen infusion into new categories including tea, juice, and non-alcoholic craft beverages. This technique creates a uniquely smooth, creamy mouthfeel and visual appeal without adding calories or dairy.

Insight - Contemporary consumers are increasingly seeking novel sensory experiences in their everyday products, particularly in the beverage space where innovation has become a key differentiator. This desire for experimentation aligns with growing health consciousness, as consumers look for ways to enhance their beverages without adding sugar or artificial ingredients.

Trend - Alcohol brands are positioning themselves to align with the savory cocktail trend by experimenting with ingredients that deliver strong umami flavors. From MSG to seaweed, the inclusion of these ingredients imparts a unique flavor combination that caters to the palates of adventurous drinkers.

Insight - Consumers are increasingly searching for alternatives to traditional cocktails, usually characterized by high sugar content and familiar, sweet flavors. In response, brands are exploring fermented and saline ingredients, such as mushrooms and broths, to create cocktails with savory flavor profiles. These companies recognize that consumers are increasingly conscious of the health benefits of their purchases and value brands that offer something different from the typical cocktail experience.

Trend - Bubble tea restaurants are launching new seasonal flavors inspired by traditional pumpkin spice lattes. This blending of a traditional fall dessert flavor with the bubble tea format is designed to offer more variety to fans of both respective products.

Insight - Younger consumers ranging from younger Millennials to Gen Alpha, are more drawn to loaded dessert-style beverages, such as bubble tea, than those of previous generations. These consumers treat bubble tea as a social experience. As these drinks continue to become ritualized in consumers' lives, demand for new flavors and experiences goes up in turn. In order to cater to the ever-growing demand for flavor diversity, bubble tea restaurants are looking to popular seasonal flavors for inspiration.