A New Year, New Beverage Trends

Happy Friday! I hope everyone is staying warm on this icy January day. Unless my eyes and ears were deceiving me, I'm pretty sure I heard on the news earlier that two-thirds of the country is dealing with freezing conditions...so be safe out there. Moving on to other topics, what does 2010 hold for the beverage business? According to BevNet and some of the industry's top minds, this year will see more functions, more natural ingredients and flavors and more emphasis on low-calorie products. Among those trends is the push for more ready-to-drink tea products. Only a few months ago, three of the country's largest beverage companies unveiled new strategies based around tea lines at the National Association of Convenience Stores convention. For example, Hansen Natural Corp. is in discussions with Coca-Cola Co. and some of its main bottlers in an effort to get Peace Tea into the Coke distribution system in a matter of weeks. Hansen is best known for its Monster energy drinks, but is introducing Peace Tea in four flavors: green, imported Ceylon, sweet lemon and razzleberry.
At the same time, Anheuser-Busch InBev is using the tea category as a jumping off point for what could be a broad array of non-alcoholic beverages, all affiliated with Jimmy Buffett. The company is singing about its all-natural Paradise Key teas, which recently rolled out in Florida and the rest of the southeast with a national launch scheduled later this year.
So why all the attention on tea? As the North American beverage business struggles through a recession, ready-to-drink teas have posted modest 1.8 percent sales growth this year, Beverage Digest reported in November. This means marketers have noticed that tea is a hot commodity among consumers these days.
Either way, I say competition is great so bring on more ready-to-drink tea products.
Finally, did you know today is Elvis Presley's 75th birthday? And in a bit of odd trivia, it appears the King worked for a Pepsi bottler in Tupelo during his teenage years. Happy birthday Elvis. You are still missed...