This article was initially published in the October issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe, click here.
While the gin category led the way in consumers’ appreciation of botanicals, the health & wellness trend is driving the use of natural extracts further still. Richard Woodard reports.
One of the key factors underpinning the ongoing gin boom has been the inexorable rise in the use of more esoteric botanical ingredients; both to create a distinctive flavour and, often, to reinforce the story of a brand’s heritage and provenance.
As consumers have delved more deeply into this world, the love of unique botanical flavours has migrated beyond gin, into an array of other product categories, such as vermouths, aperitivo drinks and no- & low-alcohol drinks. Even vodkas have explored the botanical sphere through the likes of Ketel One Botanical, Grey Goose Essences and Belvedere Organic Infusions.
Many of these have a history and heritage of their own, while others are entirely new. According to Paul Scanlon, co-founder & director of triple-distilled non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ Mahala Botanical: “Brands are increasingly finding new, more innovative botanicals to use, such as cloves, honey bush or buchu in the case of Mahala Botanical, as the use of juniper lessens and brands try to find more creative/innovative ways to distil and/or blend their products.
“The challenge to make a great-tasting spirit is even higher in no & low, due to the absence of alcohol. The skill of the master distiller is to create a fantastic spirit with natural botanicals without adding artificial flavourings, as this is the ‘easiest’ way to replicate the taste profile of alcohol, but of course not the healthiest.”
At a time when consumers are more curious than ever about how products are made, using man-made flavourings is unlikely to win fans beyond the lowest price levels. “If you go down the artificial extract-driven route, what happens to authenticity and heritage?” asks Jim Long, owner & MD of UK botanical supplier StarSpice Ingredients. “Even if people are making a lower-alcohol product, they’re increasingly showcasing the botanicals — sometimes even more than gin brands.”
One such example is Decem, a range of low-alcohol (10% ABV) lighter ‘spirits’ that lists its botanicals prominently on the packaging. According to Long, having a low- rather than no-alcohol premise is a good way to balance abv reduction with an appealing flavour. “It doesn’t have to be zero,” he says. “It can just be lower and that helps a lot with the production process and flavour delivery.”
Organic and natural demand
Whether your product is no-alcohol, low-alcohol or full-strength, similar consumer trends apply, with quality, ‘natural’ cues, sustainability and transparency all to the fore. “Liqueurs with high-quality and natural ingredients are very interesting,” says De Kuyper Royal Distillers global marketing director Godelief van Erve.
“In addition, the use of organic botanicals keeps growing as sustainability becomes more and more part of consumers’ lifestyle. That’s also why we converted all botanicals in our new Rutte Dutch Dry Gin to organic.”
This view is echoed by Julian Fernandez, global marketing & innovation director for spirits at Zamora Co, owner of Villa Massa Limoncello and Amaretto, as well as Giardino Vermouth. “Nowadays,” he says, “consumers are more demanding and are looking for high-quality, natural ingredients and botanicals.
“We are used to working with top-quality ingredients, for example, PGI Sorrento lemons for our limoncello or Sicilian almonds for our amaretto. Our vermouths have been crafted in much the same way, using only the best all-natural ingredients from specific regions of Italy.”
Van Erve also pinpoints transparency as a key issue. “Single origin has become more important,” she says. “Consumers want to understand the origin of the ingredients and the distillation process. They’re showing an increased interest in original craftsmanship.”
Scanlon highlights the US and Western Europe as the regions where consumers display the most curiosity about botanicals, adding that questions around sugar content, gluten, vegan credentials and so on are also growing in influence. “Consumers are looking for stories around brands, where they’re made and where their ingredients are sourced,” he says. “Why drink healthy, mindful beverages if they’re going to contain a lot of sugar or artificial flavourings?” In this way, recipe and sourcing become part of the story of the brand.
A new-to-market non-alcoholic product, such as Mahala, has no heritage to speak of, so it has to rely on quality and a distinctive brand identity to stand out from the crowd. Others, however, can use history and origin to their advantage.
“The Mediterranean is the source of all kinds of citrus and aromatic herbs and we’ve seen a comeback for a range of citrus-led spirits, liqueurs and fortified wines,” says Giuseppe Gallo, founder & CEO of Italicus, the 20% ABV, bergamot-infused aperitivo in which Pernod Ricard acquired a 50% stake in 2020. “Italy has some of the richest provenance of DOC and DOP wines and fruits, like the DOP Bergamotto from Reggio-Calabria used in Italicus, or the Marsala DOC fortified wine we use in [bittersweet aperitif] Savoia Americano.
“Around the world, we’ve seen growing interest in natural and vegan products, with consumers more conscious about what they drink and willing to pay a bit more for products that are made this way.”
Luca Missaglia, managing partner in Amaro Santoni, a 16% abv aromatic amaro, places the brand firmly in the low-ABV category, also highlighting its reduced sugar and “elegant, subtle bitterness” — factors that he says resonate especially in Italy, across the Mediterranean basin, and in the US and Canada, with Asia and Central Europe promising future markets.
“I believe you can really make your product stand out from the crowd through the messaging and communication, but also the quality, taste and functionality, as well as a focus on ethics,” Missaglia says.
The botanical theme is an increasingly interesting thread for all manner of alcohol brand owners to pursue, but when it comes to awareness and exploration of a broad range of botanical ingredients, nothing comes close to touching gin, which continues to reinvent itself in line with prevailing consumer trends.
Gin still the mainstay
“We’ve seen a lot of interest in fresh and uplifting botanicals being popular at the moment,” says Natasha Curtin, VP of Bacardi-owned Bombay Sapphire Gin. “We recently launched Bombay Citron Pressé, which uses a 100% natural fruit infusion and has no added sugars or colours, making it stand out from other lemon-flavoured products.”
Curtin also highlights the recent launch of the berry-flavoured Bombay Bramble, and says that, as global travel starts to open up again, consumers are eager to try new “worldly” flavours — such as the 2021-launched Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru, made using Murcian Fino lemons.
“There should be different gins for different moods and occasions,” says De Kuyper’s Van Erve. “Travelling and culinary experiences make people more curious about new flavours, and this curiosity could be leveraged even more for new taste profiles in gin and gin cocktails.” As an example, she mentions the Gin Basil Smash cocktail serve, which she says makes “a perfect match” for the celery leaf botanical used in Rutte.
There’s clearly still mileage in gin exploring new combinations of botanicals as the category continues to expand around the world, while premiumising in its core markets. In April, for example, La Martiniquaise launched Gibson’s Botanical, a new premium London dry gin distilled in small quantities and displaying herbaceous and spicy flavours.
Originality, sustainability, provenance and authenticity are all important trends in botanical-based drinks but, as Missaglia reminds us, eventually only the market will dictate which ideas are successful, and which fall by the wayside. “Botanicals are the core of any aperitivo or amaro cocktail,” he says. “But, in the end, there will only be two results: a drink that consumers like — or one that they don’t.”
This article was initially published in the October issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe, click here.
