Finland welcomes spring with non-alcoholic beverages

Consumer concerns over health and well-being are helping to drive the current surge of interest in non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages.

Major Finnish breweries such as Sinebrychoff have invested in product development and new items are now appearing in shops and restaurants. “Non-alcoholic products are a matter of health. People want to be able to enjoy their drinks as before but without the alcohol that, for instance, simply doesn’t fit our increasingly hectic lifestyle,” states Anikó Lehtinen, Brand Activation Manager at Sinebrychoff.

Health and taste

Consumers are looking for products with locally sourced ingredients, Asian style flavours, clean and delicious tastes, and Scandinavian simplicity. Spices and flavourings such as ginger, vanilla, chilli and lemongrass previously used only in hot drinks can now be found in cold drinks such as iced tea and flavoured waters.

Health-promoting soft drinks have become significantly more popular in the last decade and new drinks are coming onto the market every year. Research gathered by the Just-food business information service forecasts that functional food and beverage products are set to account for around five per cent of total food consumption, with yoghurt drinks demonstrating the fastest growth globally.

Beverage manufacturer Hartwall launched new especially high fruit content Jaffa smoothies and a mineral water with added calcium in March. The company says that one 0.33 litre bottle of the strawberry-banana smoothie contains an average of five strawberries, twelve grapes, one third of an apple, two thirds of a banana and one third of an orange. Hartwall Jaffa smoothies are just one output from Hartwall’s in-house product development and are made in Germany.

Smaller Finnish companies are also getting deeply involved in the fruit drinks market. At the Gastro 2008 fair in March, Kaskein Marja presented its Aito ILO drinks which contain whole berry juice, ideal for drink mixes in particular, and will be offered exclusively to restaurants this year.

Young men prefer light drinks

Sinebrychoff is becoming increasingly active in the non-alcoholic beer sector and making a significant investment in the light beer market, says Anikó Lehtinen. Alongside its new non-alcoholic Nikolai beer introduced in January, the company is launching new Koff Lite beer in April and Carlsberg light beer in Finland by the summer.

New light ciders are launched successfully every year and are especially popular during the summer months, accounting for more than a half of cider sales according to ACNielsen.

“Light pear ciders are particularly popular among younger men, who cite their increasing concern about health and appearance,” states Tom Jansson, Innovation Director at Sinebrychoff. In another market development, Hartwall launched a new low alcohol wine in convenient retail packages last year.

Source: Finfood news

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