27 August 2008 | Published by Datamonitor

London - This month’s Productscan new drinks review focuses finds that ethical drinks are increasingly being introduced to market. Whether carbon neutral, ethically packaged or with a charitable core, manufacturers are finding that it pays to court consumers’ principles in the pursuit of increasing market share.

The Monarch Beverage Company has introduced a new drink to the US market called Acute Fruit 100% Juice Energy Drink, which is said to be carbon neutral. Available in orange passion fruit flavor, the energy beverage has been launched in partnership with the Carbonfund.org, an organization that helps companies to offset their carbon emissions. As a result of the current publicity surrounding global warming, there will, no doubt, be many more products like this one that are marketed on their small carbon footprints.

Another ‘green’ beverage has been launched in the US by Blue Lake Citrus Products. The Noble 100% Pure All Natural Juice is said to be the first juice brand to be packaged in a bottle that is made from all-natural renewable resources, namely Ingeo and EarthFirst PLA film, which are both corn-based. As consumers are increasingly concerned about the use of non-renewable, oil-based plastics, this could offer them a viable, renewable alternative.

Staying with packaging, DyDo Drinco has launched an unusual looking beverage in Japan called DyDo Juso Tokushu. When three of these bottles are lined up together, the lemon flavored bottled water presents an image of the product information that looks similar to a contents page in a magazine. Although there have been a few packaged goods brands whose packaging creates a “billboard effect”, relatively few execute the idea in this manner.

Back in the US, PurBlu Beverages has launched the Give Natural Spring Water, a bottled water that donates 10 cents to the charitable cause of the consumer’s choice for every bottle sold. Give drinkers can decide which cause to support by selecting any one of three vibrantly colored bottles. They include Life, to children in need, Hope, to women with breast cancer and Love, to the environment. Although charitable tie-ins are nothing new for consumer packaged goods, what makes this one different is that consumers can decide which charity they want to support by purchasing different varieties in this line.

Meanwhile, Multibirra has launched the Ultrapres Liquore in Italy, which rather unusually consists of coffee liqueur combined with Ultra Delice beer. The 20% ABV beverage is designed to be drunk warm with cream on it, creating a coffee with an extra kick.

Finally, Nestle has introduced the Nescafe Body Partner Complete Coffee Mix in the Philippines in three flavors: Relax, Lingzhi and Protect. Relax is a decaffeinated coffee infused with chamomile, Lingzhi is a coffee with Ganoderma mushroom extract, and Protect is a 100% pure instant coffee that is said to have three times more antioxidants than green tea. Although they all have a novel health positioning, the Lingzhi variety is especially unusual in that it contains Ganoderma mushroom extract, which appears to be a very novel ingredient for the coffee market.

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