According to a new Mintel report, color is one of the most significant visual cues that contribute to the sensory appeal of food and beverage, and it adds to the larger interactive social trends consumers look for when purchasing beverage products.
Consumers want a shareable drinking experience
Suprisingly-colored beverage products are proving to be an effective way to connect to the digital consumer, as they are more likely to post the technicolor drink to various social media platforms.
“While flavor has long been the focus for innovation, our more visual and share-focussed society calls for innovations that are boldly colored, artfully constructed and sometimes just cool,” Jennifer Zegler, global food and drink analyst at Mintel, wrote in the report.
The buzz around sharing vibrantly-colored beverages plays out in social media where users want to share their experience with a novel beverage.
Crafted by six young Spanish entrepreneurs, Gïk blue wine claims to be the first naturally blue wine. Only available for pre-order, the wine has already drummed up a strong social media of more than 10,000 Instagram posts associated with the wine largely because of its unique blue hue.
The wine is colored with anthocyanin, a pigment derived from the skin of red grapes and plant-derived indigotine.
According to the inventors, “Drinking Gïk is not just about drinking blue wine; you are drinking innovation. You are drinking creation. You are breaking the rules and creating your own ones. You are reinventing traditions.”
Other beverage companies that fall into the naturally-technicolored beverage trend include FulHum's jet black mineral water and Smart Chimp's bright blue water.
Colors must align with clean ingredients
The Mintel 2016 Global Food and Drink report also stated that artificial ingredients are “public enemy number one” for consumers.
Zegler said that while surprisingly-colored food and beverage products may be trending, consumers still seek clean ingredient formulations.
Origem Coffee Co.’s pink coffee beans is another example of a company taking advantage of a naturally vibrant hue. Coffee farmers on a small farm in Sao Paulo, Brazil manually select red Icatu beans to make the rose-colored speciality coffee. The company also sells blue, orange, and violet-colored coffee, which are all free from synthetic and artificial ingredients.
“For many consumers, these preferences include an expectation that food and drink will be free from artificial ingredients, including colors,” Zegler said.
This could mean that technicolor beverages that are made with natural colors could stand the test of time better than those that rely on artificial ingredients to create the documentable, share-worthy products.