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ANYONE STILL ONLY serving bog-standard soft drinks is definitely missing a sales trick. Yes, Coca-Cola is still popular and there’ll probably always be a market for lime & soda, but many of today’s adults – old and young – want their tastebuds tantalised by unusual flavour combinations. Just as with food, they want some authenticity. They want less artificial and more artisan. They want natural ingredients. They want a premium soft drink that’s a treat and they’re willing to pay for it.

Amanda Grabham, marketing director at SHS Drinks (Bottlegreen and Shloer), says: “Consumers have made a decision to go out and want to treat themselves, so they’ll choose a premium soft drink over a standard carbonate.

“There’s also the trend for drinking less alcohol in the week.

“We have an ageing population but it is quite a sociable one. These people are going out a lot but don’t always want to drink alcohol. Then there’s the younger generation (18 to 25-year-olds) who are health conscious but also very conscious about how they are seen on social media so they’re mindful of their alcohol intake.

“Both these groups want something more interesting than a standard carbonate.”

Grabham reckons Bottlegreen has the answer and reports that the brand is seeing growth in UK pubs, bars and restaurants but it also has quite significant distribution in pubs and bars in Australia and Canada. It’s listed in Soho House in London and Toronto, for example.

She puts much of Bottlegreen’s success down to its adult flavour profile. Of course, Bottlegreen is synonymous with elderflower – it is the company’s best seller and it’s still in growth.

“Bottlegreen has strong natural credentials plus it’s at the lower end of the calorie and sugar spectrum. It’s made with a filtration process like wine – so there’s no sediment – and it works really well with food.

“It obviously features on the drinks menus in many pubs but it’s also on some lunch menus too. We’ve worked with pubs to put together suggestions such as ‘try a pressé with a salad’ or our Sparkling Cox’s Apple with a sandwich.”

Bottlegreen is keen for bartenders to understand its ethos and so hosts a lot of on-trade customers at the Bottlegreen Mill. Grabham says this works brilliantly as it showcases the drink’s unique production process and means guests can really “experience the brand”.

Meanwhile the Shloer brand, although sold as an in-home drink in the UK, has potential in the international on-trade now thanks to its recent Halal accreditation. Grabham says SHS will definitely be looking at unlocking the potential of the brand in international markets.

BRAND MESSAGE

Obviously getting the message out there about a brand is always key to its success. At Belvoir, a small sales team visits outlets where possible, but also works closely with distributors to help educate bar staff as to the best way to serve a Belvoir drink.

According to the company it’s all about correctly ensuring a “premium drinking experience”. Customer marketing manager Serena Smith says: “There is nothing worse than a warm soft drink so serving it chilled from the fridge or with ice is essential, together with the correct garnish.

“Most of Belvoir’s drinks would lend themselves to a slice of lemon but there’s nothing wrong in taking your cues from nature and simply adding some more of the natural ingredients used in the individual drinks – a slice of ginger in the Ginger Beer, a raspberry in the Raspberry Lemonade or some lime in the Lime & Lemongrass.

“For drinks such as Belvoir’s, which are all natural, this enhances the ingredients and the taste, but also adds a sense of increased value to the serve.”

Belvoir has branded glasses for customers in the on-trade and encourages bar staff to part-pour the 25cl bottles of Pressé and allow consumers to take the bottle and glass away with them so it remains in the chilled bottle until needed.

“Having the soft drinks range clearly visible is another key to promoting them. Displaying them at eye level in the back bar chillers helps. Many bars make the mistake of storing bottled water in that crucial part of the fridge but it’s a wasted opportunity as people know bars will stock water so it should be used to promote more interesting products.”

Belvoir has worked extensively with mixologist Andy Mil, of the Cocktail Trading Company, and his team to develop a range of cocktails and mocktails that demonstrate the ruses for the drinks and introduces theatre and drama at the bar to make the soft drinks option as exciting as the alcoholic one.

While Belvoir is quintessentially British, the success of its export team (the brand exports to Europe, Scandinavia, the US, Canada, the Middle East and south east Asia

including China, Singapore and Japan) means it is well placed to see and hear about trends that might work well in the UK.

The most recent example of this was the launch, in March, of Organic Dragon Fruit & Raspberry Pressé. Made using sweet organic white dragon fruit juice combined with rich raspberries and crisp redcurrants for a well-rounded, full and fruity flavour, Belvoir says this is unique to the UK market and has been influenced by tastes in the US, where dragon fruit is a popular flavour.

Meanwhile, cedrata – which translates as citrus fruit – is incredibly popular in Italy but organic drinks company Galvanina believes the UK palate is not quite ready for the bitter citrus flavours yet. However, chinotto is now making an appearance at some of Galvanina’s key licensed customers in the UK. The flavour errs on the bittersweet side with the fruit hailing from the myrtle-leaved orange tree. The beverage is dark in colour, similar to cola but nowhere near as sweet.

Galvanina’s best seller in the UK is Sicilian Lemon, closely followed by Sicilian Clementine. Both these varieties use gently sparkling, natural spring water and organic fruit grown in Sicilian orchards.

Again, Galvanina is a brand that’s keen to get is credentials across so it invests heavily in bringing brand spokespeople to sites to discuss the heritage and versatility of the drinks and provide mocktail ideas to bar staff. Further on-trade support comes from marketing material including colourful branded coasters, Italian flag-coloured straws and recipe postcards. Galvanina also sponsors Soho Radio and has a programme where mixologists prepare favourite mocktail recipes for listeners on a weekly basis.

At Fentimans, national on-trade controller Dave Ward says it ticks all the boxes when it comes to a premium soft drink.

“Historically, a soft drink in the licensed sector was always a distress purchase – ‘I’m not drinking, so I’ll just have a coke’. However, with one in five adults in the UK choosing not to drink alcohol at all in 2015 and one million more adults choosing to eat and drink out of home (M&C Allegra, Top of Mind brief February 2016) the need for interesting soft drinks has never been more important.

“This is where we have responded by developing drinks that have unique and complex flavours and provide an experience that means consumers feel they are still getting a treat when they are in a pub or bar.

“A good example of this is our latest piece of NPD, sparkling lime and jasmine. It has an initial bitterness that is followed by the sweetness delivered through hyssop, lime flowers and juniper berries. The taste is complex but the drink is really refreshing, providing the credible alternative to alcohol that consumers are looking for.”

All Fentimans’ drinks are produced using its botanical brewing process, which takes seven days. “This gives each of our drinks the unique taste and mouthfeel that we are known for,” says Ward, who adds that the process has been passed down through generations of the Fentimans family since 1905.

“This puts us in the fortunate position that we appeal to the consumer demands of heritage, care and time in production and clear difference in taste. Add to this that we use all-natural ingredients, including the finest Chinese ginger root and rose oil from the famed Kazanlak valley, and we tick all the boxes.”

Fentimans is a relatively small company but still it has a sales team that visits as many bars and pubs as it can and it also carries out staff training to make sure the staff are able to communicate the unique production process to customers.

New to the premium adult soft drinks arena is Nix & Kix, which has already won several awards. Stockists include bars and restaurants in London, Brighton and Edinburgh in the UK.

The thing that makes these drinks stand out from the crowd is their ‘cayenne kick’. Designed to appeal to adult palates and those who dislike sugary, excessively sweet drinks, the still drinks come in Mango & Ginger, Cucumber & Mint and Peach & Vanilla flavours.

Nix & Kix co-founders Kerstin Robinson and Julia Kessler say: “After a long stint working in the corporate world and enjoying London nightlife, we reached an age at which one (or a few) vodka and energy drink mixers on a night out just wouldn’t do.

“We wanted to be able to enjoy our active social lives without having to drink alcohol continuously. Our taste buds had changed too, but all the soft drinks available were either too sugary or too bland. So we set out to create a new, exciting flavour to be enjoyed at home or while out and about in bars.”

It’s great to see so many interesting adult soft drinks available – bars now need to take a punt on them as, after all, premium drinks mean premium profits.