“Beauty from within” products generally aim to benefit skin health, but are ingested rather than applied topically. Some of these ingredients include vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, Aloe vera and pine bark extract, as well as fruit- and vegetable-based products that have naturally occurring vitamins and carotenoids.
Ingredients, especially natural ingredients, that offer an energy boost are attractive to younger consumers. These include caffeine and caffeine-containing herbs like guarana, yerba maté and kola nut, Panax ginseng, and amino acids such as L-taurine and L-arginine.
Supplemental ingredients for women’s health are especially of interest to peri- and menopausal women. Phytoestrogens, dong quai, black cohosh and red clover are all ingredients suited to beverages marketed to aid women.
Antioxidants are perhaps some of the most-talked-about ingredients added to beverages or available naturally in many juices. This speaks to the popularity of beverages such as pomegranate juice and green tea. Products such as goji berry, açaí berry, grapeseed extract and multi-berry blends are all in the antioxidant category. Pure ingredients that have antioxidant properties include alpha-lipoic acid, blueberry extract, coenzyme Q10, polyphenols, soy isoflavones and citrus bioflavonoids.
Vitamins and minerals are easily accepted by consumers, because they are already familiar with many of them. “Vitamins and minerals are one of the few categories that consumers are willing to take based solely on faith, because they know it is good for them, and they don’t expect to feel different or experience a noticeable therapeutic effect,” offers Gutierrez.
Making it drinkable
In addition to choosing targeted ingredients, manufacturers of nutraceutical beverages must also create an acceptable product. As a stepping-off point, formulators may want to ask if the consumer wants the flavors of these beverages to have a “healthy” aura or can they be more indulgent? There really is no clear answer, says Reid: “Both have their places and can be mixed and matched to provide more variety in choices. The most popular shake flavor is still vanilla, but add a little dark chocolate fudge and it becomes more indulgent....yet still healthy. The tropical fruits are still driving the new flavors in many categories, mainly due to their perceived nutritional benefits due to higher levels of favorable antioxidants, but they also are very exotic and novel when it comes to their flavor profiles.”
But choosing the base flavor is only half the battle. Nutritious, functional ingredients can come with everything from a bitter taste, to an unpalatable flavor, to an unpleasant mouthfeel. A drink that has off flavors or an odd mouthfeel won’t attract many customers, even if the beverage is way above average in its healthful benefits. This can be a challenge, because not only do some ingredients carry their own flavor burdens, some may not dissolve well or can quickly degrade on the shelf or interact with other ingredients in the beverage formulation.
“The first major characteristic of concern with any ingredient added to a beverage product is that of taste,” says Gutierrez. He notes that many nutraceutical ingredients have unpleasant, mainly bitter notes that could require creative formulating to mask―caffeine and ginseng are two such notorious ingredients. “More often than not, a product is sent back to be reformulated numerous times until the most sensitive of palates is satisfied,” he says.
Often, young entrepreneurs with a new idea for an energy drink approach Gutierrez and ask him to come up with an acceptable product. They want the beverages to have all the perceived desirable ingredients at sufficient levels without realizing the off flavors that may result.
The simplest approaches to flavor or odor masking, Gutierrez explains, are diluting a product with an inert carrier or blending in a suitable flavor that overpowers the unpleasant taste or odor, or doing a little bit of both. Tart flavors, such as citric acid, malic acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), are ideal for masking bitter flavors. Salty products also are effective for masking a bitter aftertaste and improving mouthfeel.