Beverages

I think that we can safely say that 2020 has been a year like no other. Many challenges have faced us this year and along with those challenges has come positive change. I’m choosing to reflect on those positives as we say goodbye to 2020.

The emergence of the popularity of Boba Tea in the U.S. started in the 1990’s and has grown steadily since then. Yearly Boba is projected to grow by 7.3% for the next 3 years. Boba tea shops are popping up all over the U.S. There are now Boba tea shops across the U.S. including Sharetea, Kung Fu Tea, Coco Fresh and Juice, Fat Straw, Teapioca, Teassert Bar just to name a few. Many of these shops use artificial bases to flavor their boba teas.

The beverage industry has seen the steady rise in non-alcoholic options as some consumers look to cut back on their overall intake of alcoholic beverages. More than 50% of consumers surveyed from International Wine and Spirit’s Record stated that they wanted to cut back on alcoholic beverages. Consumers are looking for non-alcoholic beverages that continue to provide a sense of theater without the hangover.

A while back, our sales and customer service manager Chad Johnson came to R and D with a request. His request was for us to recreate his favorite drink in concentrate form. This included cranberry juice and cucumber sparkling water.

It’s summer, and here at the Innovation Center that means summer cocktails. Last week the team and I worked on some videos for summer cocktails to showcase on July 14-17th at the virtual conference for the American Distilling Institute. Due to the pandemic we decided to participate in their virtual platform this year.