Coffee and tea

Consumers are constantly seeking to experience next-level indulgence with their beverages. High quality café-styled lattes and cappuccinos are amongst the decadent beverages preferred by consumers. Their premium and indulgent texture is achieved through milk. which creates a more premium mouthfeel, thicker texture and a velvety smoothness. Milk proteins help to reduce a coffee’s acidity and balance its potentially ashy, bitter, and acidic profile to achieve a more harmonious and widely-accepted taste as compared to black coffee. 

Increased consumer demand for more new and exciting products has resulted in interesting, out-of-the-box innovations. Hybrid beverages – the combination of two or more drink categories in a beverage – is one such innovation. The potential is such that even soft drink and dairy giants are venturing into the coffee and tea sector to bring in more varieties and take advantage of the boom.

Sugar has drawn increasing focus given the potential dangers of excessive consumption, and beverages are often called out as key carriers of excessive sugar. With coffee and tea being regularly consumed, sugar reduction in these drinks has become a priority for food manufacturers. In June 2018, the Australian Beverages Council announced a pledge that will see the non-alcoholic beverage industry commit to a 20 per cent reduction in sugar across the industry’s portfolio by 2025. This announcement has hastened the development of sugar-reduced solutions, and brands are launching more sugar-free options to diversify their offerings. 

Balancing costs whilst addressing the increasing demands of consumers with minimal changes to the manufacturing process is a constant challenge. Coffee creamers is one way to address this issue. Creamers can be formulated to deliver exciting texture and taste profiles that create luxurious, sophisticated products, but in a cost-effective manner.

Sweetened condensed creamers, non-dairy creamers and evaporated creamers can be directly added to hot beverages as cost-effective milk substitutes that also have the advantage of a longer shelf life, thereby allowing consumers to extend the use of their hot beverages.

Cost savings can also be achieved by using texturisers and stabilisers to replace everyday ingredients such as dairy solids like milk proteins and fat. Texturisers and stabilisers build structure and body to introduce a creaminess that mimics the functionality of milk solids.

As consumers diversify their meals away from animal-sourced ingredients for reasons of health and sustainability, plant-based options across nearly all food and drink categories are performing positively, with creamers and RTD coffees and teas also following suit.

Having many plant-based milk options available means that manufacturers are expanding their portfolios by using trending alternatives such as oat and nut to make plant-based creamers, with new protein sources such as peas increasingly emerging in the market.