Summer Food Trends

Phil: Eating well just publish their 10 food trends that will be everywhere this summer. What are they?

Sally: I can't wait to get your feedback on these Phil. Okay. Passion fruit.

Phil: Passion fruit's not new. I mean, we've been talking about passion fruit for 10 years. Okay. 

Sally: We have seen this one on the list, cucumber everything yeah. Which is great for us, cuz we're growing cucumbers in our garden right now. 

Phil: So you can, you can bring them down a Kroger and sell them at Kroger. 

Sally: Baby Bok Choi. Matcha. Which matcha is something we've been seeing on list for a while now and lavender. I think as a flavor that this is you're seeing this more in beverages, you're seeing this in desserts, cocktails, hibiscus. How about this, Phil? Would you like to try some Everything Bagel Seasoning Ice Cream? 

Phil: No, no. I mean, I, I really, when I look at this list and I just actually had, somebody sent us a sample of lavender water. It, it was horrible, you know, it, it just, lavender is not, at least for me in my mind, lavender is an aroma. I'm not sure that it's a flavor. The everything bagel seasoning, somebody's trying way too hard. Matcha, that's been on a list for a long time, low alcohol drinks, and canned cocktails and the whole canned cocktail thing really stupefies me. And right before we went live, I got an email. Data Essential just has a new survey out or some new analysis. And it's because of the Jack and Coke collaboration. Pre-made cocktails, aren't going anywhere. They say 79% of millennials and 78% of gen Zers today drink hard sodas, seltzers and lemonades, 15 and 14% higher than the general population. 

Phil: 31% of gen Zers say they also exclusively or almost always drink hard sodas, seltzer, or lemonade. IRI, the other day on Wednesday, produced their 2021 New Product Pace Setters Report. And I'm gonna read you the top 10 food and beverage new product pacemakers for 2021. So this is based on sales data, Dr. Pepper and cream soda. I've never even seen Dr. Pepper and cream soda. But that's number one. Sparkling water, Corona, hard seltzer, high noon sun sips, Oatley truly iced tea, Michelob ultra organic seltzer, Impossible Burger, Life Cuisine Minute Maid zero sugar. So of these 10 they're 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8 out of 10 are new beverages and combinations of beverages and not to pick on any brand. So let me do that, but what bothers me about these canned sodas? It brings me back to Bartles and James, when they first came out up with you know, the wine coolers, it was actually made with wine and then they switched to beer. 

Phil: But they didn't tell anybody. And the sales went right out of the market. And I know this is gonna be hard to see, but if you look closely at the ingredients here, what they are is filtered water, alcohol, pure cane sugar, natural flavors, real lime juice concentrate, citric acid and sodium benzoate. So the problem that I've got is they're not identifying in this canned margarita. What, what kind of tequila it is, number one. And I think that most people, that order margaritas, when you go out to a restaurant order a particular kind of tequila, whether it's Don Julio or Patron or whatever else. And I think they're really missing an opportunity by not partnering with a real alcohol brand, such as Jack and Coke is doing with Jack Daniels. Really smart marketing there to be able to do that. And also the other thing that bothers me, and I like margaritas, for me, the ratio is probably, you know, two ounces of tequila, half an ounce of fresh lime juice, half an ounce of Quantro. This only has 2% juice, two percent juice. So there's no way to see, so there's no way that these, this can taste anything like a margarita, if there's only 2% juice. Doesn't fly.

Sally: I agree. And that is a great idea. You know, thinking about the partnerships, you know, why can't a tequila company partner with a beverage company to brand a cocktail like that. It's so amazing. What all is out there? I Googled canned cocktails and you can get an Old Fashioned, you can get a Mimosa, you can get a Mai Tai. So there's, there's tons of opportunity for liquor companies to make these partnerships happen. 

Phil: Yeah. And I just think from a consumer standpoint, you're gonna have more credibility with the consumer, if you're saying what's in it. And you've gotta, you know, I mean, this says on there, real cocktails made with real ingredients by real people.You know, put some Don Julio or something in it. 

Sally: Some real tequila. Yeah. 

Phil: Real Tequila.