Soda? Nah, We’re Drinking Yogurt

Soda is so yesterday. Drinking yogurt seems so much healthier. And it may well be. Along with 22 grams of sugar, you get lots of good stuff, like protein, vitamins, and minerals. The calories might be more than a 10-ounce Coke (220 vs 120), but there’s more nutrition. Those numbers come from the Drink Chobani brand, but many others are available.

Mintel reports that drinkable yogurt has replaced Greek yogurt as the hottest trend under the healthy halo of yogurt. This innovative way to get a sweet and seemingly healthy drink is growing at double-digit rates. The convenience of being able to gulp it down without having to stop to think about it seems to be a key driver. Mintel Senior Analyst Beth Bloom sees more innovation coming:

Yogurt drinks are becoming increasingly popular among US consumers, and as adoption of the yogurt drinks segment grows, so too does innovation. It’s one of the few food and drink spaces where launch activity sees brand-new products outpacing simple variations on form.

Now that soda is verboten for health conscious consumers, innovation is filling the void. Starbucks has sold 200 million pumpkin spice lattes since 2003 – that’s roughly ten billion grams of sugar. And they have a steady stream of innovations flowing. This year it’s a Chile Mocha latte with only 40 grams of sugar in a 16 oz cup.

With all this innovation, it’s easy to see that beverage companies will survive the demonization of soda. It’s like a game of whack-a-mole. Something new is always popping up.

Click here for more on drinkable yogurt and here for more on the Chile Mocha from Starbucks.

Drink Chobani, photograph © Chobani, LLC

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October 14, 2016