Cocktails & Mocktails Rub Shoulders in Bar Shelves
The market today offers a variety of flavoured kombuchas, cascara, collagen protein drinks, sparkling teas, mocktails and wine waters – all of which are sans alcohol. But alcoholic drinks are not going out of favour, just yet, comforts Prashant Gaurav Gupta, Centre Head, DLF Eemporio & the Chanakya. He has spent almost two decades in the hospitality and F&B sector and he firmly believes that the drinking trends change with every generation.
In post-modern urban India, food & beverage trends are constantly evolving and are going through continuous change. There has been a pronounced shift towards diet & lowcalorie drinks and a gradual increase in the sale of diet drinks and brands availability in the market. Guests prefer fresh and cold-pressed juices instead of canned ones and there is huge demand for coconut water and grapefruit juice which are being used for innovative cocktails and mocktails. This is how Prashant Gaurav Gupta, Centre Head, DLF Emporio & The Chanakya contextualises the changing paradigm in the industry. Identifying the hot new drinks, he says the market today offers a variety of flavoured kombuchas, cascara, collagen protein drinks (which also proposedly have many health benefits), sparkling teas, mocktails and wine waters – all of which are sans alcohol.“I would not say that alcoholic drinks are going out of favour, just yet. Taking the town by storm are the newer drinking phenomena like the light ciders, sakes and vinos. So, it is a mixed bag of trendy alcoholic and healthy non-alcoholic concoctions that are on the rise,” he observes.
Wellness Drinks
He says that there is a clear emergence of wellness drinks. “Our guests who dine with us do tend to consume alcohol while dining out and in as much as that, there has only been a growth trajectory. However, I would go on to say that people are becoming more experimental and open to trying new brews and crossover blends,” says Prashant. He says since guests nowadays are so well-travelled they do expect us to keep up with newer global trends that include liquors like sakes, micro-brews and craft beers. For the younger (within legal drinking age) consumers, wellness drinks and aperitifs find more favour — so preference for gin, Campari, vermouths and cocktails is on the rise. He also sees a very sizable portion of guests within the age group of 35 to 45 that is moving towards health drinks and innovative new wellness offerings. However, the age group between the brackets of 25 to 35 years are more fad oriented and open to trying new drinking trends, he adds. Given this consumption trend there is going to be a high demand for organic beer and low alcohol-based drinks. According to some industry reports, the global non-alcoholic beer market size was over 13 billion USD in 2016 and was to witness CAGR over 7.5 percent up to
2024, he adds.
