5 drinks categories to watch this summer

Early summer is a fabulous time to set out your stall as an independent retailer. Brighter, warmer weather naturally encourages shoppers to feel more positive ... making them receptive to new products and sampling. And right now their sights are firmly fixed on al fresco occasions. When the sun is high in the sky, those trellis tables and blankets come out in force, with consumers keen to bring a point of difference to their picnics and barbecues. And this applies to both food and drink.

What are the summer sips you should be stocking more of this year? Let’s delve in.

The retro drinks trend

No doubt about it, as we’ve written previously, the nostalgia and retro trend is still capturing the hearts and imaginations of British shoppers. This is reflecting strongly in the drinks industry, as brands switch up their offerings to meet the market. We’re seeing tactile, vintage-style bottles and on-pack design creeping in, while old-fashioned flavours take hold.

Ashleigh Morley, owner of Mr Fitzpatrick’s Temperance Bar (the last original bar of its kind in the UK), says demand for tradition is overwhelmingly high, and shouldn’t be ignored in retail or foodservice settings.

The call for milkshakes, soda floats, mocktails, cordials and childhood favourite soft drinks has been enormous she explains, saying the bar’s top sellers are sarsaparilla, dandelion and burdock, cream soda and the unusual-sounding blood tonic. “Blood tonic sounds weird and wonderful, but it is one of our traditional flavours made with raspberries, nettles and rosehip,” she explains. “We are very much about nostalgia, and love hearing memories relating to these flavours.”

Customers are telling Ashleigh and her team they’ve had enough of drinking alcohol, and have found myriad benefits to abstaining, for their health and sleep. “Yet they want something different to enjoy that feels like a treat.”

Adult soft drinks on the rise

Moderation is being seen across the UK drinks sector. And while this is negatively impacting sales of some alcohol beverages, it’s having the opposite effect on soft drinks, which continue to flourish as a result.

Belvoir Farm, which has just introduced new 275ml bottles across its range, says it’s feeling the impact as this category continues to grow. “As more people cut down, or move fully away from alcohol in their diets, especially Gen Z, consumers are looking for exciting alternatives to enjoy,” says senior category and insights manager, Michelle Wilkinson. “The adult soft drink mocktail range is now worth £5.6 million – up 81% on last year, dominated by Belvoir (40% market share) especially driven by our Lime & Yuzu 750ml mocktail, worth almost £1 million.”

Investing in mocktails and soft drinks geared to the adult market is wise, Michelle suggests, as is ensuring you give space to low and no-calorie drinks, which are also seeing a boom. “With two-thirds of UK carbonated soft drink sales coming from low and no-calorie drinks, it is a trend we are more than aware of that may affect ASD,” she says.

Consumers want natural drink options

The soft drinks market, says Kit Newell, co-founder of Hive Mind, is made up of around 99% larger players, which can make it difficult for newcomers to penetrate. And yet, “there have been some fantastic breakthrough challenger brands, which points to a change in consumer behaviour”.

He’s observing a pushback away from artificial sweeteners, but also consumers looking at ways to reduce their sugar intake, while keeping an eye on ingredient lists. 

“The bad press of ultra-processed foods has driven a desire for drinks with natural, understandable ingredients,” Kit adds. And that inspired Hive Mind to launch a range of Honeyade products. “Along with the drive away from ultra-processed food and drink, there has also been a parallel decrease in alcohol consumption, so we felt the time was right for us to produce a soft drink that has all the same values as our range of meads.”

Hive Mind’s new drinks are made using real, unprocessed honey from their own hives in the Wye Valley. “It’s about what isn’t in it, as much about what is in it,” Kit reflects. “Offering products that align with consumer values is hugely important. Shoppers are choosing more natural, minimally processed, healthy options, but also products that are made sustainably and ethically (it also helps if they taste great). Simply put, if a retailer does not offer products that align to the consumers’ values, this will force them to shop elsewhere.”

Aligning with alcohol-free

“There’s a growing number of people who don’t drink at all,” says Chris Losh, founder of the World Alcohol-Free Awards, who thinks this is a trend that will continue, and one retailers should take note of as they restock their drink collections. “It’s certainly a thing for people under the age of 25. The biggest growth, though, is from people who still drink alcohol, but want to drink less of it. They might only have two or three alcoholic drinks, mixing in a couple of alcohol-free drinks alongside them. Or they’re switching to alcohol-free options during the week.”

Put simply, Chris says, consumers want non-alcoholic options. “There’s a mountain of research out there showing how much less people are drinking. A good recent report by KAM shows drinkers under the age of 55 are drinking more moderately than they used to, and 4.7 million Brits are now drinking half of what they used to. That’s a big shift.”

According to Laura Willoughby of Club Soda, Drinkaware puts the number of adults moderating in the UK at 90%.

“It is part of a widespread and increased focus on health, both mental and physical,” she thinks. “So their spending on alcohol-free drinks is part of their healthy decision making.” What hasn’t changed, she adds, is that people want to socialise, and alcohol-free drinks are a part of the conversation so they can, “still enjoy a night out or evening in front of the TV without compromising on their health goals”.

Alcohol-free wine has proven Club Soda’s biggest selling category, followed closely by mood-enhancing and fictional drinks which she says “fly off the shelf”. 

When buying low or no alcohol, Laura says retailers must put taste first. “Drinks do not have to mimic alcohol, but do need to taste great and suit the evening socialising occasion. They have to look the part, be complex in flavour, and have natural speed humps that make the drink sippable rather than rehydrating.”

A brand that fits neatly into this category, while satisfying consumer intrigue in natural flavours is Wild Life Botanicals, which founder Ellie Bradshaw calls ‘bubbles with benefits’. 

Unlike some alcohol-free wines, this range starts life at 14% ABV, with the alcohol later removed and recaptured through the distillation process.

Founder Ellie, who’s always worked in hospitality, said she started the brand as, being a ‘mum taxi’ in rural Cornwall, having a drink at the weekends became impossible. “Also, I’ve always been passionate about plant power and wanted to know if I could fuse those worlds –a non-alcoholic wine that tasted like wine, but that delivered all the functions of what I wanted with a health kick to boot.”

Zero alcohol was “good”, but she found working with a product at 0.5% ABV (which is still classed as no alcohol in the UK) “made such a difference to the mouthfeel and texture”.

“When you remove alcohol from any beverage it loses that viscosity and those ‘speed bumps which impact your behaviour when you drink. With Wild Life, we’ve designed it to be sipped like a Champagne or Prosecco, rather than a soft drink,” she explains.

The brand has a Nude and a Blush option. The Nude being “refreshing with lots of green, sherbetty notes”, and the Blush being laced with a touch of Tempranillo grape “for a bit more fruitiness” with 75cl and 20cl bottles, and 250ml cans available.

Each is infused with botanicals to enhance their flavour profile and wellbeing credentials – from lemon balm for gut health, to adaptogenic ashwagandha to calm, damask rose for boosting mood, plus the full suite of B vitamins, zinc and Vitamin C.

Ellie says the drinks are appealing to a wide range of customers, from fitness fanatics in their early 20s, to people in their 80s who can’t drink alcohol because they’re taking medication. “It’s incredibly diverse and the drinks are so inclusive,” she says, adding these products, and drinks like them, fit perfectly into today’s speciality retail settings.

“It all goes back to consumer demand. There’s been a real shift in the landscape, and consumers are now much more wellbeing focused. To see this as a trend is slightly short-sighted. It’s here to stay and is going mainstream. You don’t have to be a vegan or non-drinker to enjoy them – so many people are flexing in and out of the category and when you’ve got some really heavy weight players like Guinness Zero sponsoring key events like Rugby Six Nations it’s great as a small producer to see that momentum.”

Putting the fun in function

A further category within drinks that can’t be ignored, as our experts have already explained, is functional, with functional ingredients such as CBD, fibre, pre and probiotics and natural sources of energy being infused into everyday serves – not only drinks aimed at the health sector.

Jess Hillard, sports nutritionist at Warrior says she’s seen a surge of interest in alternatives to coffee, such as the green tea extract L-Theanine (for those who don’t want to experience a post-coffee energy crash) while CBD (as it’s become better understood by consumers) has filtered into the mainstream for its calming, soothing effects.

Along with these, she recommends retailers bringing fermented drinks into their ranges. Kombucha is a refreshing option for summer, for example.

“If retailers wat to stay competitive i the food and drink industry and drive growth, this is where the market is heading,” she adds. “Keeping in tune with current demands will ensure that customers return, knowing they will find the newest and trending drinks in stock.”