Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/491359
62 STiR tea & coffee industry international Health and taste for global flavors Consumers continue to equate tea with health and wellness. Whether it's a ready-to-drink tea, energy drink using tea as an ingredient or their favorite cocktail with tea, consumers are seeking all the benefits tea delivers. Conse- quently, there are more beverages using tea flavoring or tea as an ingredient. Selecting the correct form of tea to use as an ingredient depends on its ap- plication. Flavoring tea or beverages with tea as an ingredient is an art in itself. "What works in green tea is not the best solution for applying to black, oolong, white or tisanes," noted tea expert, Wolfgang Boehmer, flavor chemist for Flavor Dynamics. Developing flavoring for single-serve tea capsules requires a different process than for that used in ready-to-drink teas. Categories of tea ingredients used in beverages include leaf tea, tea extract powders/liquids, tea essences and tea concentrates. In each category, Boehmer emphasized that quality and consistency of flavor is imperative for a successful outcome. "The entire process requires quality; if you don't have quality tea yet your flavor agents are quality, the outcome will not be good. You must start with quality tea," said Boehmer. Organic requests are still a small part of the flavor business, but purchas- ing beverages with "natural" ingredients is big. Due to end users' demand for organic and natural, flavor and syrup companies maintain a selection in their product portfolios. Still, the requests for those labels are small relative to overall orders. "Purity and authenticity of all flavors, said Colleen Roberts, director of sales at Flavor Dynamics, are made with 100% food grade, GRAS approved ingredients. In the annual 2013 New Product Development survey, published by Bever- age Industry in its January 10, 2014 issue, "healthy" and "natural" topped the list of consumer needs and interests for beverages. Three-quarters of respondents to the survey stated they will use natural flavors in 2014. Among those, three- fifths said this is an increase in their use of natural flavors from 2013. Within the growing natural flavorings segment, , Levi Andersen, bever- age product specialist, Kerry Food, parent company of DaVinci syrup said an increased demand for single origin flavorings from restaurants has spurred 4 new flavorings: Madagascar Vanilla, Turkish Hazelnut, Pacific Northwest Raspberry and Hawaiian Salted Caramel. "These syrups are a great fit because they are also all natural," said Andersen. Another growing concern among consumers that flavor companies are re- sponding to is "color" ingredients. The news media has raised public aware- ness about food safety, especially when related to behavior in children. Par- ents are advocating for pure, authentic product and a shift away from artificial products. According to the 2014 publication, Survival Guide, published by Food Product Design, color suppliers are developing more cost-effective, high-sta- bility natural colors. This report stated that globally, the use of natural colors increased to 66 percent of product launches from January 2009 to December 2011, compared to just 34 percent of new products containing synthetic or artificial colors. Europe has led the trend with 85 percent of its new products containing natural colors (from 2009 to 2-11), while North America and Latin America used natural colors for only about half of their product launches during the same period. Leatherhead Food Research reported the use of natural colors in new food and drink launches will continue to outpace artificial colors globally in the foreseeable future. Taste for global flavors Whether traveling for business or pleasure, people are being introduced to new tastes and flavors from different regions and cultures. Flavor companies have picked up on this. "Beverage companies recognize that flavor preferences vary in different cultures," said John Wilson, marketing manager for Allen Flavors Inc. in Plainfield, NJ. "In the US, flavor preferences differ by region; for example, in the north and western regions, sweet tea is popular, but in the Researchers at Flavor Dynamics, Inc.