Addressing Trends
The growth in RTD beverages is being led by better-for-you beverages. This category addresses key trends that we’re seeing in both the beverage and food industries, which include:
- Convenience
- Clean label
- Health and wellness
Build Your Own Healthy RTD Beverage
Fortunately, there is a good deal of consensus on what makes a healthy beverage and what consumers want from this category. The first step is choosing a popular base, such as:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Water
- Juice (fruit or vegetable)
- Milk (dairy or plant-based)
These bases can also be combined to create a hybrid beverage—for example, a coffee almond milk latte or a tea-juice blend.
Five Insights on In-Demand RTD Beverages
After choosing the base and setting ingredient parameters (like organic, non-GMO, and natural), consider how your beverage can capitalize on these five key insights that reveal what consumers love about RTD beverages:
1. Functional Ingredients
The U.S. remains the biggest market for functional foods, with continued growth and innovation driven by the health and wellness trend. It’s no longer enough for a beverage to simply quench thirst. RTD beverage users want to buy a beverage with a purpose. Popular ingredients include:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Probiotics
- Prebiotic fibers
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- Antioxidants
- Natural energy boosters
- Botanicals
Just adding one of these can get your product noticed, especially the nutrients most important to consumers like B vitamins, calcium, or probiotics. In the post-pandemic world, consumers more than ever will be looking for functional ingredients associated with immunity, so vitamin C, Omega-3, vitamin D or elderberry are all opportunities to add an immune halo to your beverage. According to consumer survey by FMCG Gurus in early 2021, 58% of US consumers indicated they would continue to turn to beverages to boost their immune health after the pandemic had passed.1 A custom nutrient premix is a simple way to add immune-associated nutrient blends to beverages.
2. Less Sugar
Consumers are catching on. They are trying to avoid drinking their calories and are replacing juice and soda with carbonated juice drinks, flavored waters, teas, and coffee drinks. Unsweetened teas and coffee drinks—already favored for their role as pick-me-ups—are getting an extra boost from the low sugar/no sugar trend. In a survey by Mintel, 40% of US consumers claim to check the label for added sugars and the percentage who do so increases as consumers age.2
3. Carbonation
As consumers transition away from sugary beverages, carbonation is a way to add back some sensory experience and distract from any perception of reduced sweetness or taste. A sparkling juice drink is certainly a more exciting experience than a diluted juice. Likewise, sparkling flavored waters, nitrogenated (“nitro”) coffee, and naturally fizzy kombucha promise added sensory appeal through mouthfeel and the subtle effects on taste perception. Layer in the naturalness of botanicals with the proven efficacy of nutrients and Mintel expert, Alex Beckett, predicts this will accelerate innovation in sparkling water.3
