Extended-release energy drinks that last longer. Meal replacement drinks customized to each individual’s needs. Water bottled from trees. And milk from a new kind of cow that is easier to digest. These are just a few of the innovations that everyone will be talking about in the next few years.
According to Packaged Facts’ newest report: Ready-to-Drink Beverage Trend Forecast 2017: Culinary Trend Tracking Series, we are living in what can only be described as a Golden Age of Beverage Innovation, thanks to:
• A desire for more healthful products with cleaner labels
• The emergence of new ingredients, production processes and technologies
• The coming of age of Millennials as the dominant consumer demographic, a group that is adventurous when it comes to trying new things
After decades of being a rather staid business dominated by only a few major, national brands that were slow to innovate, this confluence of modern trends has unplugged the innovation pipeline for the beverage industry.
“Ideas are flowing like perhaps they haven’t in decades, if not a century. Indeed, until recently the beverage industry had remained untouched by radical transformation. That is not the case any longer,” says David Sprinkle, research director, Packaged Facts.
The report includes nine chapters, each covering the innovations and staging of trends in a different beverage category:
• Coffee
• Dairy & Dairy Alternatives
• Energy & Sports Drinks
• Enhanced Bottled Water
• Juices
• Meal Replacement Beverages
• Soda
• Specialty Health Beverages
• Tea
As Ready-to-Drink Beverages: Culinary Trend Tracking Series reveals, even those beverage categories that have struggled in recent years—soda, for instance, or juice—are newly invigorated with innovation.
“Innovation is touching every aspect of the beverage industry today, and there is a lot more on the horizon,” says Sprinkle.
