Trend/Countertrend, or "Tilting Back Some Stingers"

The binge and purge concept has long been close to the heart of many Americans. We love our excesses, and the existence of concurrent trends and countertrends illustrates our simultaneous tendencies toward polar opposites. We indulge in a slice of decadent cheesecake for dessert, but vow to hit the gym--or go running or do psycho-booty pilate tai chibo, whatever the trend may be--tomorrow morning.

The emergence of products that combine these sentiments within one neat little package--even when they lack the science (see "malternative" below)--strike me as keenly savvy. Marketing pundits have dubbed such offerings as "healthy indulgence." Think ice cream fortified with omega-3s and fiber. Or antioxidant-infused chocolate (there's even a trademarked brand along these lines; see http://www.heronutritionals.com/healthyind/index.html).

Or, if fusion beverages, sometimes called "malternative" drinks (see http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=malternative),  are more your thing, consider the recent releases along these lines from Miller Brewing Company and Anheuser-Busch. However, these offerings lean more toward perceived health, which can also prove profitable... 

The Miller product is Mickey's Stinger (see http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/05/22/daily37.html), a malt beverage infused with caffeine, guarana and taurine, all ingredients common to the energy-drink market--which shows no sign of slowing, by the way (see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11768178/site/newsweek/ and http://www.bevnet.com/news/2006/05-26-2006-red_bull_alaska_airlines.asp). On the Anheuser-Busch side of the fence, we have Tilt (similar to the company's recent fruity B^E drink), another malt beverage with added goodies like caffeine, guarana and ginseng (see http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2005-08-08-bud-tilt_x.htm). (Notice that nobody calls these drinks "malt liquor," which could either stem from brown-bag-40 cultural stigma or maybe state to state legal vagaries; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt_liquor. Now 40-oz. energy brews might be another story…) These drinks clearly are marketed as an amalgam of energy drinks and beer, but the beverages likely don't deliver any real benefit, only perceived physiological effects (see http://her.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/1/98).

Another beverage that takes this tack is Peels, which I recently spotted at the local grocery store (see http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A8407). The version I tried is flavored with blueberry and pomegranate. Just putting those fruit names on the label creates a perception of health.

The next step might be to take these beverages completely over the line into health by including proven, healthful ingredients like antioxidants and fiber. Of course, we'd have to carefully toe a line or two there... But we're already pretty good at that trick.