Flavours & Ingredients 06.10.2010
Cocktail Mixes And New Flavours Squeeze Out Orange
According to a new report from Beverage Insight specialists Canadean, the flavour dynamics of the juice, nectar, still drinks and iced tea markets are evolving rapidly as tastes shift from the traditional mainstay of orange to a more…

New flavour innovation is not just aimed at reducing costs during times of high concentrate prices or developing new taste concepts, but also has a critical role of adding value. Adding value in mature markets is important and one example has been the development of the so called ‘superfruit’ segment. Flavours like acai, blueberry and pomegranate have been positioned as a source of natural enhancement without the addition of vitamins and minerals artificially.
Orange may be waning but the second most popular global flavour, lemon, is very much on the up. This can be accredited to lemon’s popularity as an iced tea in Asia and lemon’s success as an unpackaged still drink in India. The phenomenal rise of Limonata in Turkey and the popularity of lemon flavoured sweetened waters in Poland and other East European markets have been contributing factors. The pioneering work of Nongfushanquan in China in producing new vitamin variants of lemon still drinks in the fast rising Chinese market has further boosted lemon share. The sheer size of the Asian iced tea market is borne out by the fact that unflavoured, mainly green tea based products that make up almost 90 % of volumes in the region, help this flavour grouping to third place with 10 % of global sales.
Canadean’s report tracks the trends in flavour innovation and helps to highlight why although in the short term orange will not be deposed as the leading flavour, stakeholders in the fruit drinks industry will be less vulnerable to big hikes in orange juice concentrate prices. New flavour options provide immunity from such rises and make the industry less reliant on the once core orange flavour.
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