Flavor Concentrates For Beverages
Flavor concentrates are the ideal solution for beverage makers seeking a wide variety of flavor options and easy application. Whether you are developing new flavors or refreshing an existing beverage, they can be the key to delivering the perfect taste for your customers.
Compared to natural juices, juice concentrates often are easier and less expensive to make. They can also provide more consistent sensory impact throughout the season, as fruit and vegetable juices vary from season to season.
Ready-to-Drink (R.T.D.)
Beverage flavor concentrates are a convenient way to add a new level of taste and variety to R.-T.-D. beverages, such as ice cream, yogurt, smoothies and meal replacement drinks. They can also help reduce the cost of manufacturing and deliver consistent results.
Many flavor concentrates are available in liquid, powdered or tablet form. In addition, some are in the form of fresh or frozen fruits, vegetables or herbs. Others are packaged as drops, allowing consumers to customize their flavors on-the-go.
Water-enhancing drops are one popular option, providing a wide range of options for added sweetness and flavor without adding sugar. Some are formulated with functional ingredients, such as caffeine for energy or electrolytes to aid hydration.
Other water-enhancing options include fruit and vegetable juice and puree concentrates, which are used to boost color, flavor or nutrition in R.-T.-D. products, often as a flavor enhancer in smoothies and nutritional shakes. Vegetable concentrates, such as jicama, can be infused with other ingredients to create complex flavors.
Vegetable concentrates are used for their color and flavor impact, but can also be a source of nutrition, such as potassium, which is often lacking in diets. Jicama juice concentrates are a good example of this, as they deliver a more neutral flavor and sweetness profile that can be enhanced with fruit and vegetable extracts and other sweeteners.
In addition to the fruit and vegetable extracts that are added to concentrates, some manufacturers offer a brewed tea extract to add a different sensory dimension. For example, Thaiwala in Portland, Ore., offers a flavored black tea extract that includes a blend of brewed black tea and Thai herbs along with cane sugar, organic caramel and vanilla.
The beverage industry is a beverage flavoring crowded space with competitors vying for consumers’ attention. Keeping up with the competition requires unique flavorings.
These flavors are crafted from high-quality, all-natural sources that provide exceptional taste and innovation. Trilogy Flavors offers more than 100 flavors for beverages – including beer flavoring extracts, natural wine flavoring and other extracts that can be used to develop unique and refreshing products.
Fruit & Vegetable
Juices and concentrates of fruits and vegetables are a great way to add a variety of nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals to your daily diet. Fruits and vegetables are also good sources of fiber, which can help keep you feeling full longer.
Concentrates of fruit and vegetable juices are an excellent choice for formulators seeking a clean, natural flavoring for a wide range of products. For example, a clear carrot juice concentrate is ideal for making a beverage that looks and tastes great without the addition of any additives.
Vegetable juice concentrates provide a natural alternative to artificial coloring, which can be costly and difficult to source. For example, a red beet concentrate can add color to beverages with no impact on flavor or sweetness.
The majority of vegetable juice concentrates are available in liquid or powder form and can be added to water or other drinks to add a touch of natural sweetness, color and flavor. They can be used to make beverages such as teas, latte, smoothies and juice-based iced coffees.
A wide range of flavors is available in concentrated powder and liquid form. Some contain a combination of vegetable and fruit flavors, such as jicama juice concentrate that provides a flavor and sweetness profile similar to apple and pear juice concentrates. Jicama juice concentrate is also a good source of potassium, a nutrient that many people are deficient in.
Most flavor concentrates have a shelf life of 1-2 years at room temperature. Some have a shorter shelf life, particularly those that contain citrus oils.
While a high intake of sugary juices may lead to an increase in cancer risk, research shows that fruit-based powdered juice concentrates can offer benefits such as decreased markers of inflammation and increased antioxidant levels (3). However, avoid concentrated powdered juices that are loaded with added sugars.
Vegetable juice concentrates are a natural and economical choice for formulators, as they offer the desired color and flavor in a simple labeling process. For example, SVZ’s clear carrot juice concentrate is an excellent option for producing beverages that look and taste great.
Coffee & Tea
Coffee & Tea flavor concentrates are a great addition to beverage products, adding a boost of flavor, nutraceutical benefits and a variety of functional properties. In today’s market, consumers are looking for clean label, nutrient-rich ingredients that deliver taste and functional benefits in one package. FFP has a wide range of clean label beverage ingredients to help you create delicious beverages that will keep your customers coming back for more.
Whether you are an RTD beverage manufacturer, a cold brew coffee expert or a home barista with your own artisanal craft tea, flavor is the key to success. For this reason, there are many specialty flavors available to enhance your creations.
In the beverage space, coffee extracts are a popular addition to lattes and other flavored drinks because of their familiarity among consumers. They also are used in energy drinks and nutraceuticals as a natural source of energy.
The extracts are derived from green coffee beans and can include chlorogenic acid and naturally occurring caffeine. Applied Food Sciences, for example, offers beverage flavoring CoffeeNectar, which is a powder derived from the coffee cherry, the fruit that surrounds the bean when it is picked.
This flavor concentrate is a convenient and cost-effective way to add the flavor of coffee to your beverages. It can be diluted in water or milk and is a great addition to tea infused spirits, beverage and cocktail mixes, confections, frozen desserts, and bakery items.
Another trending beverage ingredient is cold brew coffee, which has a smoother and less acidic flavor than regular brewed coffee. It’s often blended with fruit juice or botanicals for flavor, and sometimes added to sparkling beverages or with probiotics for a functional twist.
As the demand for brewed coffee and tea extracts grows, suppliers are helping formulators meet their needs by offering concentrates. Virginia Dare, Wauconda, Ill., for instance, carries a line of cold brew flavor systems that combine liquid and dry extracts with customizable brewing equipment and custom-mixing solutions.
Pure coffee extracts are often formulated to blend with other beverages, and they can be found in lattes, mocha drinks and milkshakes, but ingredient supplier Nielsen-Massey also has an emulsified coffee extract that is a low-added sweetener. It is Non-GMO Project verified and can enhance a beverage’s clean-label claims.
Ambient
Ambient flavored beverages can be a great way to provide consumers with the flavors they want in a drink without having to make it themselves. Oftentimes these are liquid blends of flavoring components such as fruit, vegetable, dairy and other ingredients. The blends can be easily diluted with water or another beverage to create the flavored beverage of choice.
In particular, these can be a great solution for consumers who do not have time to make their own drinks at home. In fact, many consumers are seeking out ready-to-drink (R.T.D.) drinks, such as iced teas, coffees or juices.
These concentrates can be used to create a wide variety of flavored beverages, from coffees to fruit and vegetable juices and even milk drinks. These flavored drinks can be infused with any of a wide variety of flavors, including sweeteners.
One popular type of flavored drink is a latte, which is made with hot or cold milk and is a popular choice among both adults and teens. These latte beverages can be steamed or poured over ice.
Flavor emulsions are also a common type of flavoring, which can be oil-in-water or water-in-oil based. These emulsions are often combined with other flavorings to form a blend of flavors that may include sugar, alcohol, and savory flavors.
The emulsions can also be made into powders, which can be added to dry blended drinks or seasoning blends for use in a variety of foods and snack products. These emulsions are also a cost-effective way to add an additional layer of flavor to a product, such as a sauce, cake mix, donut mix or other snack foods.
In addition, these emulsions can be used to enhance the appearance of various food products. These emulsions can be made with a variety of flavors and other ingredients, such as berries, chocolate, citrus fruits, herbs, spices, nuts and combinations thereof.
These emulsions can also be made from a wide range of sweeteners, such as sucralose, aspartame, stevia, monatin, luo han guo and combinations thereof. These sweeteners can be added in amounts of varying degrees to the emulsion to achieve the desired sweetness level, such as 2 degrees Brix or less.
