FDBusiness.com

ADM’s WILD Flavors and Specialty Ingredients business unit (WFSI) is expanding its portfolio to include new concepts featuring nuances of mint. Well-established options on the beverage shelves as well as tablets can enhance their profile by including the characteristic kick of minty freshness, the company believes.

The flavourists at WFSI have developed two concepts for new still drinks and carbonated soft drink applications. Both of these creations are based on tropical fruits but are said to be very different in terms of their mint profile. For example, the sweet and aromatic taste of passion fruit is rounded out with a hint of a fresh peppermint with menthol. As a contrast, the second composition emphasises spearmint, which is described as having a green and leafy flavour profile that is an excellent match for “peely” watermelon.

Ginger ale, ginger beer and tonic are popular soft drinks in and of themselves, WFSI notes, but they are also favourites when it comes to mixing long drinks and cocktails. In the past five years, the number of new product launches involving ginger ale and similar products tripled (Mintel GNPD, 2016), thereby showing their increasing relevance on the European market. New impulses for this growing and diversifying segment come from “fresh” creations with mint. WFSI offers three new kinds of CSD: “Citrus & Mint,” “Ginger Ale & Mint” and “Tonic & Mint” can each be enjoyed straight up, on ice or as a mixer with vodka or gin.

For tablets WFSI has developed what it describes as colourful granulates which offer a burst of freshness. Manufacturers can work with “Spearmint Green” and “Peppermint Blue” in different applications to create a truly cool response to the ongoing demand for unexpected product innovations, the company claims. Colouring foodstuffs such as safflower and spirulina give the granulates natural and cheerful colours: grass green and sky blue.