The following content originally appeared in issue 132 of Beverage Innovation, which you can subscribe to here.
The gradual decline of instant coffee consumption at home and the premiumisation of the at-home segment is increasing availability of speciality coffee. Consumers are now knowledgeable about coffee and brewing at home is rising, with 7% of UK consumers now having specialist equipment (V60, aeropress, chemex etc.) compared with 2% in 2014.
Food research agency Allegra sees gourmet vending units outnumbering branded chains, with 6,838 machines representing growth of 29% in 2015 and an estimated £280 million turnover. There are a number of moves worth noting in the finished product sector too. Here are our top picks.
1) Mocha iced coffee
Ready-to-drink iced coffee brand Jimmy’s Iced Coffee has announced a new variety, mocha. This refreshingly different blend of coffee and chocolate has been listed in Sainsbury’s, BP and over 1,200 Tesco Express stores across the country. Waitrose has also added the mocha variant in addition to skinny Jimmy for winter. The brand’s marketing campaign, last year centred around a rap track called ‘Keep Your Chin Up’ with 430,000 views in three weeks.
2) Magnesium coffee from Nestlé in Spain
In Spain, Nestlé has launched two new Nescafé Vitalissimo coffee blends, fortified with magnesium to help reduce tiredness and fatigue. The new instant coffee is available in natural and decaffeinated formats – both in 200g glass jars – and is designed primarily to appeal to the health-conscious over-40 market. A single 2g cup of Nescafé Vitalissimo with 200ml of semi-skimmed milk delivers 15% of the daily reference value of magnesium, said the brand. Magnesium plays an important role in bone health and contributes to 300 reactions in human metabolism.
Nestlé has claimed that the coffee, in addition to reducing fatigue, helps to contribute to muscle function, metabolism, normal dental and bone health and normal function of the nervous system. The innovation, which combines functionality with ‘silver – ie senior appeal’, extends a long line of recent functional coffee developments. Canadian start-up Counting Sheep Coffee introduced ‘Counting Sheep’ a coffee that helps you sleep. While Casa Espresso has developed a coffee specifically for cyclists. FoodBev also spoke to coffee brand True Start about its performance coffee for athletes that helps to regulate caffeine intake and improve recovery from periods of exercise.
3) Chocca Mocca
Quite possibly the last word in hot chocolate chic: two outlandishly elegant tins of 100% chocolate for drinking from Chocca Mocca.
4) De Longhi machine – coffee from your sofa
DeLonghi has launched a new coffee machine that can be controlled ‘from the comfort of your sofa’ using a smartphone. The PrimaDonna Elite allows users to create a coffee, wherever they are at home, using an app on their mobile. DeLonghi says it can create 100s of different varieties of drinks. Consumers can also set up personal profiles of their ideal aromas, temperatures and quantity of coffee and milk for each drink.
At £1,499.99, the machine is at the more expensive end of current offerings. Which? coffee machines expert Yvette Fletcher observed: “You need to reflect on whether you need all the features included in this coffee machine, given the price tag. We’ve tested fully automated bean-to-cup machines for a quarter of the price.”
5) Coffee Mate
Nestle coffee mate joins other companies allowing consumers to add flavours to coffee at home or in the foodservice sector. Sold in 750ml cartons the flavours vary from cinammon (canela) to vanilla light. Nestlé Mexico “Coffee Mate” coffee creamers are sold in aseptic carton packs from SIG Combiloc. What began in summer 2013 with three varieties of the popular products in combifitMidi 500 ml now includes 10 different flavours, offered in 500 and 750 ml volumes. All varieties are free from lactose and cholesterol, so well-tolerated. More flavours are in the pipeline.
6) Ground coffee cups
German designer Julian Lechner has combined used coffee grounds into reusable cups. He collects leftover coffee grounds from his local cafes in Berlin and combines them with natural glues and particles of wood from sustainable sources to produce a liquid that can be injection moulded to create usable objects. Once set into the required shape the material is hard and waterproof enough to withstand cleaning in a dishwasher. Lechner said: “The amount of daily coffee consumption worldwide is growing so the potential of reusing its waste for further uses is enormous.
7) Homeless train as baristas
The idea behind The UK’s Big Issue is a simple one: give homeless people the chance to sell a great magazine, earn a legitimate income and turn their lives around. What if selling a great coffee could do the same thing? A groundbreaking new brand called ‘Change Please’ is based on that very principle: tackling homelessness through the power of a popular product sold on the streets.
8) Coffee lemonade
Kaffeenade is from Berlin, Germany and is a new beverage mixing coffee and lemonade.The beverage uses the outer shells of coffee bean’s called the silver skins which become detached from the bean just before the end of the roasting process. Darren Wood spoke to Florian Dolling about how they create Kaffeenade at EUvend 2015.
9) Hot coffee in a ready-to-drink can
Hot coffee in a ready-to-drink can is not a new concept — in fact in Japan, it is a $15B industry. Entrepreneur Danny Grossfeld was on a trip to Japan when he reached into what he thought was a cooler to grab a can of iced coffee. Much to his surprise, the can was HOT– and ready to drink. Grossfeld launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring a version of the Japanese product to U.S. consumers, which caught the eye of Shark Tank producers.
Initially available in Espresso, Caramel, Vanilla Frappe and Hot Chocolate, the coffee (made from 100% Arabica beans grown in Sumatra) is served in aluminum cans (made of 70% recycled content) that are warmed to 140 degrees by a custom-designed HOT “fridge.” When opened, the cans emit steam and the fresh-brewed aroma expected from a delicious cup of coffee. Additional flavors, are planned.
10) Coffee consumption in China grows rapidly
Tea remains the most consumed hot drink in China but coffee is making significant inroads, according to a market review from insights provider Canadean.
In 2014, Chinese consumers drank 1.28bn kg of hot drinks, with tea account for 82% of the total volume. Despite holding a market share of 5.7%, coffee is expected to register compound annual growth of 15.4% between 2014 and 2019. Growth within the tea category is forecast to be lower, at just 5.6% during the same period. This will mean that the share of the hot beverages market dominated by coffee will rise from 5.7% currently to 8.4% in four years’ time. Tea’s share will decline.
According to Canadean, hot coffee is not only the fastest growing in volume, but also in value terms. The Chinese hot coffee market – worth $2.1bn in 2014 – is expected to reach $4.5bn by 2019. This means the value of the Chinese coffee market will increase at a compound rate of 16.5%.
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