Alcoholic beverage trends to look out for in 2021
Tags: Alcoholic Beverage, Alcoholic Beverage Trends, Beverage, Alcohol

The beverage segment is a crowded space, with several different categories vying to cater to consumers’ hydration and thirst-quenching requirements. But, there’s a category in beverages that don’t fall in either one of them. An alcoholic beverage contains ethanol, produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar.

The alcoholic beverage trends have seen rapid change in the past few years. Consumers seek different beverage attributes at different times, depending on their need or states. New alcoholic beverage trends such as crafted beer, flavoured spirits, experience-based drinks and blended cocktails have made the alcohol beverage space more competitive for established formats like whiskeys and liqueurs.

Therefore, the alcohol industry needs to add value to their beverages to retain consumers and create meaningful differentiation. Here are some of the fastest-emerging alcoholic beverages trends in India, including Cocktail trends, new spirits and more.

Low-Alcohol drinks:

With consumers getting more conscious about lifestyles and price points, beverages with low levels of alcohol have become a huge turning point. With only a 30 or a 40 ml shot of spirit, brands can bring the costs down by 1/3rd and also make the drink healthier. This alcoholic beverage trend will surely attract more customers in the future, and the brands putting a more creative approach into it.

Sugar-free Cocktails:

Changing lifestyles and healthy diets are pushing consumers to reduce their sugar intake. They now seek healthy, better-for-you food and drink choices, and brands need to go that extra mile to convince consumers to stick with them. And with health becoming a priority and people going for spirit and water combinations, sugar-free cocktails with salt and acid balanced from the sugar in the aged spirit will be a new alcoholic beverage trend in India.

Hard Seltzer:

Hard seltzer was the fastest-growing alcoholic beverage trend on menus last year. These flavorful carbonated water beverages spiked with alcohol are appealing to both looking for low-calorie and low-sugar options. In the year ahead, we will surely be going to see brands considering new flavours, local collaborations, hard seltzer-based cocktails, and letting customers customize their hard seltzer with flavoured syrups or ingredients.

Craft Beer:

In the beer market, local brands are getting more prefered by consumers. The popularity of breweries and taprooms have enabled consumers to experience a familiar taste in their beer as well. While craft beer has been leading this market for quite some time, there are new opportunities for low and no-alcohol beer.

Organic wines:

As customers become more conscious of their choices, wine has started to gain traction in India. The upper echelons of the society are increasingly discerning of the wine production and quality of ingredients. Hence, organic and sustainable wine has risen in popularity in the most recent years. This shift in alcoholic beverage trends can be attributed to new alternative packaging alternatives, including wine in cans and the growth of rose wines in future.

Premium spirits:

With the demand for high-quality spirits increasing significantly, the alcoholic beverage trend of super-premium and high-end liqueurs and blends is on the rise. Hence, brands are now experimenting with new distillation techniques and the use of botanicals to elevate the experience of their offerings. Also, premium gin continues to be a consumer-favourite, with tea and botanical flavourings driving this trend forward for a sustainable future.

From hard seltzer to the premiumization of spirits, the alcoholic beverage industry is always coming with innovations. Meanwhile, consumers will seek out these experiences and drinks that they have missed in the past. In many ways, the upcoming will be a transition year as we get back to normal. But it’s also a year when these alcoholic beverage trends are going to rule the market.