Brands rush to quench thirst for ‘functional’ beverages
New drinks are vying for consumers’ attention with exotic ingredients and wellness marketing
Supermarket drink aisles are starting to look a lot more like a pharmacy. There are drinks made with mushrooms that supposedly improve mental clarity and juices packed with bacteria that claim to enhance digestive health. Water infused with collagen promises better skin and energy drinks offer to help burn body fat.
Welcome to functional beverages – drinks designed to do more than just taste good or hydrate. What started in the late 1980s with caffeine- and vitamin-laced energy drinks like Red Bull has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. Hundreds of brands are vying for consumers’ attention with exotic ingredients and wellness-focused marketing.
Feeling stressed? Try a drink with ashwagandha, a shrub long used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Want to enhance your workout? There are drinks containing chromium, a mineral that may boost metabolism. Want to get in a party mood without alcohol? Companies are making non-alcoholic spirits and beers infused with ingredients like guayusa, a leaf containing caffeine and antioxidants.
Nutritionists say the general trend of consumers seeking out healthier drinks is a good one. But experts also say people should be cautious and read ingredient labels, especially if they are pregnant, taking medication or have other health issues.
“Someone who’s running a marathon has different needs to someone who’s commuting to work,” says Martha Field, assistant professor in nutritional sciences at Cornell University.
The US Food and Drug Administration regulates ingredients and requires drink labels to be truthful, and the Federal Trade Commission can step in if companies make false claims. In 2013, the FTC determined that Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice was deceptively advertised as clinically proven to treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease and prostate cancer.
But functional beverage makers generally make less specific claims and the science behind them is sometimes inconclusive. SkinTe, a sparkling tea, says it “supports skin hydration and elasticity” with three grams of collagen in a 340ml can. But last year, Harvard Medical School researchers said there was no solid evidence that collagen drinks or supplements enhance skin, hair or nail growth.
Negative reactions can also happen. Panera Bread faces at least two lawsuits claiming its highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade led to the deaths of people with heart conditions.
“It’s important to remember everything has the potential to be both toxic and safe, depending on the amounts. The dose makes the poison,” says Joe Zagorski, a toxicologist at the Centre of Research on Ingredient Safety at Michigan State University.
In the past 50 years, drinks from Ovaltine to wheatgrass juice have had their moments as nutritional supplements. What’s different now is social media, which allows the rapid spread of information about less familiar ingredients, Field says.
Two of the latest to generate a buzz are adaptogens – plants and mushrooms that have been shown to help the body respond to stress and fatigue – and nootropics, which are natural or synthetic cognitive enhancers like caffeine, ginkgo and amino acids.
Trends ebb and flow. US sales of prebiotic and probiotic drinks more than tripled last year, while sales in the more mature kombucha category rose just 8 per cent, according to data compiled by consulting firm AlixPartners.
“Consumer savviness on functionality of ingredients has really increased,” says Sherry Frey, vice-president of wellness at NielsenIQ.
For some, the health claims in functional drinks are secondary. Amy Cassels, a health and fitness coach from Magnolia, Texas, says functional drinks appeal to her because they typically contain natural ingredients, such as fruit juice as a sweetener. She enjoys Poppi, a prebiotic soda, as a oncea-day treat.
“When I drink something like that, I do not believe that I am nurturing my health by drinking that. But I’m not harming my health either,” Cassels says. “It’s a guilt-free indulgence.”
A big share of the drinkswith-benefits market is geared toward people who want to curb their alcohol intake. Londonbased Three Spirit makes nonalcoholic drinks with more than 60 ingredients, including guayusa and schisandra, an Asian berry, that it says mimics the sense of relaxation and social lubrication drinkers get from alcoholic drinks.
“Fundamentally, alcohol is the ultimate functional drink,” Three Spirit co-founder Dash Lilley says. “People don’t just drink for flavour. It helps people socialise, helps people unwind, helps people perk up. So we thought we could do that really well by coming at it from a new angle.”
Randy Burt, a managing director at AlixPartners who studies F&B, says functional drinks align with a decades-long shift towards healthier diets and habits. He does not see demand for the drinks slowing down. Euromonitor, a market research company, expects global sales of functional beverages to grow 7 per cent each year until 2027.
In the US, sales of functional beverages jumped 54 per cent to US$9.2 billion between March 2020 and March 2024, according to NielsenIQ. Functional beverages now make up about 10 per cent of the total US non-alcoholic drinks market.
Frey says sales slowed a little in the US last year, partly owing to their relatively high cost. Twelve cans of Olipop, a prebiotic soda, sell for US$35.99 on Amazon, while a 12-pack of Dr Pepper costs US$6.48.
“Consumers are making trades, saying ‘Maybe I’ll still purchase this, but I won’t purchase it as frequently,’” she says.
“At the end of the day, if someone would ask me, ‘Should I be drinking these for my health?’, I would probably say no, and stick to whole foods as much as possible,” says Corrie Whisner, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions.