Latest trends in vegan drinks
Traditionally, it has been much easier to classify drinks as vegan friendly than foods. However, not all beverage manufacturers clearly label what is vegan and what is not, leading to some confusion among consumers. Peter Link, editor in chief of Vegconomist, sets the record straight.
The question which must be asked is: what constitutes vegan? Of course, there are always the safe vegan drinks, such as water, tea or a black filter coffee. With other beverages, however, it is far more difficult to know if the product is vegan or not. Is it enough to have no animal ingredients at all, or must the drink also be made without the use of animal products?
For the purpose of this article, we will define vegan beverages as those that do not include animal products in the production process.
Juices, soft drinks and wine
Most juices, soft drinks and wine do not contain any animal-based ingredients. Nevertheless, many of them are filtered through gelatin; thus, are not created without animal products.
As an alternative to gelatin, manufacturers can turn to animal-free replacements. For one thing, there are numerous vegan-friendly gelatins that are made from algae, such as agaragar or alginate. For wines, mineral clay, such as bentonite, is usually used. However, this process is significantly more complex and expensive than with animal gelatin. The process is performed differently for wine than for other vegan products because filtering not only makes the drink clear but also changes its taste and preservability.
In the case of soft drinks, the choice is now very wide. The Coca-cola Company states that all of its soft drinks, such as Coke, Fanta and Sprite, are vegan. Even its biggest competitor, Pepsico, for the most part no longer uses animal ingredients in the production of its drinks.
Energy drinks including Red Bull, Monster and Relentless are also all vegan. The widespread belief that the ingredient taurine comes from a bull is false. It's true that the word sounds like the Latin “taurus,” which means bull, and used to be extracted from the bile of the animal. Nowadays, however, the substance has nothing to do with bulls. Anyone who enjoys their energy drink these days gets a synthetically produced substance, which is absolutely vegan.
Vegan drink trends
When it comes to vegan drinks, one often reads about various types of milk substitutes: almond, soy, oat, cashew and coconut milk, to name just a few. If you want to live vegan but don't want to give up your chocolate, strawberry or otherwise flavored milk, you don't have to. Companies such as Elmhurst and the food giant Danone now offer milk
alternatives and yogurt drinks in a wide variety of flavors.
Even Starbucks’ drinks are now available as vegan. The coffee-house chain is famous for its coffees with milk, ice cream, spices and various syrups. In collaboration with Swedish oat milk producer Oatly, a range of espresso and chocolate shakes were added to the chain's menu in early 2021.
Indian Lassie and other regional milk specialties are also being translated into vegan options. The popular yogurt drink, which is consumed in a variety of ways in large parts of Eastern Europe, Asia and Turkey (where it is known as ayran), is also available as a cashew-based milk. With this, the Canadian producer Plant Veda won several awards and the reputation that their alternative even surpasses the original.
Barista milk for vegan coffee
For vegan coffee connoisseurs, it looked black for a long time as there were no good alternatives to caramel-colored milk coffee. Whether it was coconut, oat or soy milk, everything tasted too strong and did not provide the right creaminess for a coffee latte or cappuccino. Thankfully, this is no longer the case with a range of products available from Oatly, Alpro, Fly and other manufacturers.
Smoothies remain the perennial favorite
Simply adding fruits and vegetables to the blender along with some ice or water remains a winning formula. You don't even have to use the most exotic ingredients; just combine what is in season in your own region. There are also plenty of high-quality ready-made solutions from international suppliers like
Innocent and local manufacturers such as German True Fruit.
Plantopia and other similar startups are breaking new ground by processing fruit into drinks differently. While they use a lot of the same ingredients as smoothies, they also use peas or chickpeas to end up with so-called blends.
Such innovations ensure that living a vegan lifestyle does not limit one’s choice when it comes to drinks, quite the contrary. These days, there really is a vegan alternative for pretty much everything. Foregoing has ceased to be the order of the day, and the more people realize this, the wider the range will become in the future.
These days, there really is a vegan alternative for pretty much everything.