CHICAGO -- With the American Beverage Association's InterBev 2015 held this past week in conjunction with the Food Marketing Institute's Connect expo and the United Fresh Produce Association's annual trade show, there was a distinct air of better-for-you in the air of the new beverage products I found on the trade-show floor.
And with health and wellness a key trend among many generations of consumers, those beverages present opportunity to convenience-store retailers, in addition to the grocers that typically attend these trade shows.
Trends among the products I found included:
- Craft sodas--more often than not reimagined as flavored sparkling waters--pitched themselves as being perfect for every beverage occasion, from a spirited hike in the woods to an ornate bridal shower.
- Several old flavors are staging a comeback, include Cock 'n Bull Ginger Beer, which claims to have invented the again-popular Moscow mule vodka drink, and Frostop's line of root beer and other flavored sodas, with a history going back to 1926.
- One-hundred-percent fruit and vegetable juices are squarely targeting consumers who aim to eat healthier with various promises of organic ingredients, no preservatives and natural flavors.
Here's a slideshow look at what might be coming next to your c-store.
Noah's Spring Water has expanded into that space between bottled water and carbonated soft drinks with several flavors of sparkling waters, including blueberry pomegranate, varni almond, lime and peach mango packaged in 12-oz. cans. Also new from Noah's, Nella Bella Fizz Sparkling Spring Water Beverages, which come across as craft CSDs. Nella Bella is available in 12-oz. bottles and 4-packs in almond, chocolate almond and pistachio crème. All the new drinks are caffeine-free.
Onli Beverages pitches its line of "premium flavored sparkling waters" as chef-inspired and stylish. The drinks are available in 12-oz. bottles in flavors: hibiscus pomegranate strawberry, green tea lemongrass mango, grapefruit pomelo & peach, honeycrisp apple & pear, lemon water melon and hibiscus pomegranate aronia.
Joia All Natural Soda brings fruits, herbs and spices to its collection of six flavored CSDs. Available in 12-oz. bottles and 4-packs in grapefruit, chamomile & cardamom; blackberry, pomegranate & ginger; pineapple, coconut & nutmeg; lime hibiscus & clove; ginger, apricot & allspice; and orange, jasmine & nutmeg.
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