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 colors found in nature or the produce aisle are certainly going to increase curb appeal. Purple is the “it girl” of the color world right now. From the Purple Wall at the Disney’s Magic Kingdom to VooDoo Doughnut’s vegan “Grape Ape” glittery treat to New York Fashion Week’s catwalks full of lavender frocks, shades of violet are swirling around today’s consumers.
At Sensient, we spend a lot of time listening to consumers, so we can better understand their food and beverage preferences. Recently, we put the purple trend to test across two different beverage applications by conducting 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?
Consumers preferred the purple colored beverage in both 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 color from fruit and vegetable juices is a way to deliver these attractive superfruit shades.
Authentic Purple Shades from Natural Color
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 color technology, the go-to solution for shades of purple was a blend of Red #40 and Blue #1. This blend achieved a rather grayish purple. Therefore, developers typically increased the synthetic usage rates, so the beverage’s color 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 color extraction technologies. With innovations like Butterfly Pea Flower Extract, a pH stable blue is able to provide a base foundation for vibrant purples today. In addition, natural purples can be achieved from other available fruit and vegetable juices for color.
Red #40 + Blue #1
There are a number of benefits to these superfruit shades of purples including…
CLEAN, ATTRACTIVE AND BRIGHT PURPLE SHADES
REPLICATES THE COLORS OF AUTHENTIC, RIPE SUPERFRUITS
VEGETABLE JUICE OR FRUIT JUICE LABELING
INGREDIENTS
lemon juice, agave, blackberry juice concentrate, natural flavors, fruit and vegetable juice for color, citric acid
KOSHER, PRESERVATIVE-FREE, AND GMO-FREE OPTIONS AVAILABLE
FORM OPTIONS: LIQUIDS & POWDERS
CLEAR AND CLOUDY SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE
If considering a natural color 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 color is very cost effective compared to other beverage ingredients like natural sweetener systems and flavors.
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 color solutions to create the perfect purple for your beverage or dairy product. Contact us down below!
