Daniel Thwaites : 2019 Drink Trends

Monday the 7th January 2019

Fruit flavours, eye catching colours and long-established drinks continue to top the list of best sellers, according to Thwaites.

The brewery and pub company has continued to see drinkers enjoy the surge of new gins and fruit ciders on the market, while old faithfuls like vodka, prosecco and Thwaites Original remain popular favourites.

Some of the key findings from drink sales at Thwaites in 2018 were:

• Flavoured gins and coloured gins are continuing to rise in popularity

• Fruit ciders in bottle and draught formats have overtaken sales of traditional cider

• Like last year, light versions of tonics have once again outsold full fat tonics

• Demand for new beer flavours is continuing, including non-alcoholic beers.

Simone Gardner, Drinks Development Manager at Thwaites, said: 'Customers are continuing to seek new flavours that are often masking the taste of traditional drinks, so fruit ciders and flavoured gins and rums are proving popular.

'Despite the gin market becoming saturated, it is still continuing to rise taking interest away from sparkling wines and other spirits. Of our top 10 selling spirits, five are gin products and the demand for pink gin in particular has been staggering.

'There has been talk of spiced rum becoming the next big thing and we are starting to see an increase in products and demand from customers in this area now.

'But despite the trends, there are some drinks that just keeping staying popular and are still featuring year on year in our top sellers, including Sauvignon, Merlot, vodka and Jagermeister.

'And there is a still a lot of interest in new beer flavours being developed by our in-house brewery. A number of the beers that were brewed for special occasions during 2018 proved so popular our pubs are wanting access to them all year round, including 1918 that commemorated the Armistice Centenary and Juniper for Joy which was inspired by the gin boom.'