Superfruit Shades in Beverages
A Superfruit a Day Keeps the Blues Away
Today’s consumers want more out of their everyday food and drink. They are eating not only for taste but function as well. Especially as consumers adopt healthier lifestyles, that beverage with benefits sitting on the shelf is going to look a lot more appealing. Beverage brands embracing the colours found in nature or the produce aisle are certainly going to increase curb appeal. The bright, artificial shades of Blue #1 and unrealistic flavours like Ocean Breeze are dwindling away, especially for the wave of Millennial consumers looking for natural ingredients and flavours. We spend a lot of time listening to consumers at Sensient, so we can better understand their preferences, and our data indicates a preference away from shades of unnatural blues. We conducted two national surveys asking the following question… If a new food or beverage product was being introduced into the market that was only made from all-natural ingredients and offered a superior nutritional profile, which of the following visuals best represents your expectations of the product’s look?
Purple actually beat out blue in each of our surveys. So what’s the driving factor behind the purple preference? It is the healthy connection to anthocyanin-rich, purple Superfruits made by consumers.
Superfruit Shades of Purple
Many beverage developers are capitalizing on this opportunity by enticing consumers with healthier hydration offerings connected to Superfruits.
Purple colour from fruit and vegetable juices is a way to deliver these attractive superfruit shades.
Authentic Purple Shades from Natural Colour
Juice drinks, enhanced waters, or carbonated beverages can attract consumers with these powerful shades of purples, invocative of ripe fruit nutrients and antioxidants. Before the days of advanced natural colour technology, the go-to solution for shades of purple was a blend of Allura Red and Brilliant Blue. This blend achieved a rather grayish purple. Therefore, developers typically increased the synthetic usage rates, so the beverage’s colour intensity would mask the gray notes. The greatest technical challenge with purples was the limited sources of natural blues for the base foundation of a natural blue + red solution. Fortunately, we have come a long way with major improvements in botanical sources and colour extraction technologies. With innovations like Sensient’s Natural Blue, a pH stable blue is able to provide a base foundation for vibrant purples today. Natural Blue colour solutions exhibit the truest shades of superfruit purples. Blue shades from Gardenia also make great purples when blended with natural reds. Now, there’s really no need to compromise on purple fruit flavours when formulating with natural colour.
There are a number of benefits to these superfruit shades of purples including…
CLEAN, ATTRACTIVE AND BRIGHT PURPLE SHADES
REPLICATES THE COLOURS OF AUTHENTIC, RIPE SUPERFRUITS
VEGETABLE JUICE OR FRUIT JUICE LABELING
INGREDIENTS
lemon juice, agave, blackberry juice concentrate, natural flavours, fruit and vegetable juice for colour, citric acid
KOSHER, HALAL, PRESERVATIVE-FREE, AND GMO-FREE OPTIONS AVAILABLE
FORM OPTIONS: LIQUIDS & POWDERS
CLEAR AND CLOUDY SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE
If considering a natural colour conversion for your purple beverages, cost-in-use is very dependent on target shades. Higher usage rates are typically necessary to achieve your deep Açaí and concord grape purples. But as a whole, natural colour is very cost effective compared to other beverage ingredients.
These power purple shades are crossing into other categories as superfruits gain even more popularity. Here is a variety of other applications featuring these intense purple shades of Superfruits.
Want to get started on your power purple shades today? Our application specialists are ready to tailor natural colour solutions to create the perfect purple for any product. Contact us down below!
