Beverages are essential food for modern life, and solid beverages are highly favored by consumers due to their characteristics such as economic price, convenient use, easy production and storage and transportation. Due to the special characteristics of solid beverages, they have gained faster development in recent years. Meal replacement, snacking and functional solid beverages provide richer choices for businessmen and ordinary consumers, and in the field of ready-to-sell beverages, solid beverages are used as basic ingredients to inject new vitality into leisure beverages.

The main consumption scenarios of solid beverage products are, first of all, the places where ordinary consumers are most likely to buy them, i.e., supermarkets and convenience stores, which are found in many communities, CBDs and schools.

In addition, the ready-to-drink machines in restaurants, schools, stores and hotels are the places where solid beverage products can be enjoyed.

Diversification of solid beverages

The first is meal replacement, “Tmall Food Industry Trend Analysis Report” shows that meal replacement food is loved by young consumers, the new first-tier and second-tier cities accounted for nearly 50% of the consumption, from the sales volume and the number of consumers, the overall sales of meal replacement food have a steady growth and show a growth rate of more than 50%, 95 after replacing 90, has occupied the position of the main consumers.

The second is snacking, snacks are not just to eat, there should be a drink function, may be related to our current young people’s habits, such as at home, not willing to go out, hoarding some things at home.

Snacking in the process of business also take a lot of publicity, for example, Peopeo’s slogan is a little hungry and sleepy drink Peopeo, so that publicity, in the promotion of the role of carrying more, the value of the product also diluted the role of the drink.

The third is the functionalization, sports people and vitamin compensation of the crowd need functionality, can compensate for the body’s need for vitamins and electrolyte composition.

In addition, in the past two years, you can see more and more manufacturers of probiotics, indicating that it is a very hot thing. In the same case, they launched these probiotic solid beverage products at the same time also gave some advice, such as can be directly torn open and poured inside the mouth to eat directly, can solve the function of the intestinal health aspects that we often say, is also called the direction of functionalization.

The fourth is the application of solid beverages in the field of ready-to-sell beverages. In the ready-to-sell beverage industry, the most used is cocoa and matcha, usually these products are generally made with premixed powder, especially in winter, we prefer to drink hot drinks can often see the case of these drinks, can bring a more mellow feeling.

In addition, flavored solid beverages and fruit and vegetable beverages, fruit tea or fruit and vegetable creativity, as well as ginger, jujube collocation and so on.

Solid beverage product development new direction

The first is to adapt to the new needs of the consumer population, Nielsen research found that the post-1990s and silver-haired people are two major groups of concern. From the point of view of consumption willingness, the post-90s have the highest consumption willingness among all age groups, and it is expected that by 2030, their contribution to consumption growth will reach 20%. There are 250 million silver-haired people in China, and it is expected that by 2030, the silver-haired population will account for 25% of the total population. As their monthly income rises, so does their willingness to spend.

The post-90s group is more concerned about themselves and more willing to show their individuality, which is one of the main reasons for the rise of niche brands in the past two years, such as self-heating hot pots, cocktails and other products. The development of new products for solid beverages should also increase the development of creative products, such as fruit-flavored solid beverages that can change with the brewing temperature, self-heating cups of milk tea, and salted egg yolk-flavored solid beverages, etc., with appropriate social network marketing, which is used to satisfy this type of consumer group.

Healthy aging is becoming a crucial topic for the food and beverage industry and a new opportunity for the food and beverage industry, according to the Inmindt Global Food & Beverage Trends 2019 report. Data from Inmint shows that 72% of Chinese consumers over the age of 55 exercise regularly to stay healthy, and when it comes to diet, older consumers want to reap the benefits of the products they buy or eat.

New solid beverage product development can build on the concept of “healthy aging” with products that help seniors stay active, ease discomfort, improve flexibility, and focus on bone and joint health, as well as immune system and brain health. Solid beverage products can be selectively added such as collagen, theanine, multivitamins, choline, omega-3 and other functional substances, and give them good flavor characteristics.

Secondly, new flavors are needed. Inventec research shows that 25% of Chinese consumers want to drink more floral teas in the future. Consumers are also interested in non-tea floral flavored beverages and have a favorable impression of flowers as a natural and refreshing flavoring.

Research from Inventec shows that 32% of Chinese soft drink consumers are interested in floral-flavored carbonated soft drinks. The Ingenuity Global New Products Database (GNPD) shows new floral-flavored beverage launches in China are on the rise, with 28% of new launches in 2018 being floral-flavored, up from 15% in 2014. In particular, in terms of instant coffee beverage products, there is an emerging trend globally to add fruity flavors and aromas to coffee and develop “fruit coffee” products, such as grapefruit-flavored instant coffee.

Herbs have long been used in medicine in China, and the Compendium of Materia Medica notes that flowers such as chrysanthemum, rose and honeysuckle can be effective in improving health. 33% of Chinese soft drink consumers are interested in soft drink innovations that contain herbal ingredients. The development of new solid beverage products can capitalize on this perception of flowers by developing corresponding solid beverage products and designing healthy and natural flower ingredient packaging images to attract consumers who are looking for health benefits.

In addition, solid beverages can better protect functional ingredients, especially active substances, than liquid beverages, and solid beverage product development can capitalize on this advantage to better apply new food ingredients from the same source as medicine and food to solid beverage product development.

Third efforts to develop plant-based products, oat milk burst into the European and American markets in 2016, Mintel data show that from April 2017 to March 2018, oat-based plant-based beverages and yogurts accounted for 14.8%, compared with only 9.8% during the same period, and oats, coconut, and lentils have become the three major star growth ingredients.