2023 Trends: Low and Non-Alcoholic Mood Enhancing Drinks
The no or low-alcohol beverages and mocktails market, comprising more natural and even healthful ingredients, has been growing exponentially, fueled and accelerated by the recent pandemic and associated lifestyle changes and increased health concerns.
As a result, according to a recent IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, low alcohol grew by nearly 20%, with no-alcohol beverages nearly doubling that growth. Valued at almost $2 billion, the category represents a small but fast-growing one percent of total alcoholic beverage sales1.
However, Low or No-Alcohol Alone is Not Enough
At the same time, while the conventional alcohol content is out, users still want a buzz, even a functional element, to their mood-enhancing beverages. They also want the same taste and mouthfeel.
Modern low-alcohol beverages and mocktails’ flavors must still be adult – providing unique and exciting tastes and experiences, albeit without the tipsy element.
In response, manufacturers incorporate natural mood and energy boosters such as ginseng, ashwagandha, and l-theanine and mood-enhancing compounds such as CBD, addressing taste with tannins and concentrated grape juice in wine, and scented hop extracts in beer.
Convincing mouthfeel and throat catch rely on ingredients with a “sting”, such as black pepper, ginger, citrus, lemongrass, and smoked agave.
Producing Low or No-Alcohol Beverages
While low alcohol options use dealcoholizing and distillation, in many cases, non-alcoholic beverages are produced without any alcohol at all, created by adding natural flavor and aroma extracts and essences to a liquid, non-alcoholic base.
However, since alcohol tastes and aromas are driven by the alcohol content, removing this element significantly impacts the product’s flavor, balance, and texture. Instead, producers must rely on flavor and aroma-enhancing ingredients to address the resulting lack of taste while exploring improved and greener production techniques and technology.
These low or no-alcohol beverages include mocktails, beers, and wines, with ongoing developments producing numerous enticing innovations and trends.
Mocktails
Availability and convenience make the low-alcohol beverages and mocktails RTD segments highly appealing, as does the lean towards healthier and more sober lifestyles, with the global ready-to-drink (RTD) mocktails market potentially accounting for $9.43 billion by 20282.
Look out for innovation and novelty, including international and ethnic tastes and sensations, embracing sweet and salty, bitter and sour.
Introduce tartness with berries and citrus and through barrel-aging, pickling, or fermenting. Consider unusual fruits – yuzu, pomelo, blood orange, blackcurrants, gooseberries, and elderberries.
In addition, botanicals and florals are always popular, so incorporate hibiscus, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger, cherry blossom, rosemary, basil, and mint.
Then balance sweetness and bitterness with saltiness – with trending algae or seaweed-based mixes; spiciness – using chili, pepper, ginger, and wasabi; or smokiness – explore smoked cherries or apples paired with cinnamon.
Non-Alcoholic Beer
While the beer segment dropped 4.6%, heavy investment in better-tasting non-alcoholic options by players such as Heineken NV and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA is bringing the category back on track. As a result, IWSR Drinks Market Analysis forecasts that non-alcoholic beer volumes in the US will close to triple by 20253.
Moreover, while Europe owns three-quarters (75%) of total non-alcoholic beer consumption, the US’s small 0.5% share means the category is up for grabs by innovative producers4.
Non-Alcoholic Wine
Also booming, non-alcoholic wine is anticipated to surge at a CAGR of 10.4% to reach US$ 4.5 billion by 20315.
One trend to watch is flavored wine, including berry and fruit flavors, with non-alcoholic grape wine preferred. Also predicted to trend are more unusual savory, bitter, and sour options.
In addition, expect premiumization to continue. This trend is mainly driven by millennials, with a recent report suggesting that over half of 18-34-year-olds are more likely to select a premium product relative to a third (35%) of 55 plus year old’s6.
Natural – the New Normal
Consumers demand natural ingredients and cleaner labels, including in their mood-enhancing beverages.
So, rely on Advanced Biotech’s extensive collection of high-quality pure, 100% natural, and EU-certified flavor and aroma molecules to inspire, ease, and enhance product development.
Please contact us today to place your order or collaborate on novel flavor molecules and profiles.
1 https://www.theiwsr.com/innovators-in-no-low-alcohol-aim-to-build-on-the-categorys-success-in-the-us/
2 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-ready-to-drink-rtd-mocktails-market
3, 4 https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/investing-in-the-world-of-low-to-no-alcoholic-beverages-2021-07-23
5, 6 https://www.factmr.com/report/4532/non-alcoholic-wine-market