It’s not news that sugar intake has decreased over the last decade. A combination of factors contributes to this decline, including better labeling and consumer awareness, public health campaigns and dietary trends.
That said, sugar hasn’t completely fallen out of favor. In fact, it’s nearly a guarantee that if you’re operating a restaurant/bar/bakery/café/c store, most of your customers have a sweet tooth.
Post-pandemic, Datassential reported in 2022 that people were craving sugary indulgences more than ever. It isn’t necessarily that we’ve all decided ‘ah what the heck let’s eat whatever we want.’ Rather, most people have decided that life is too short to eliminate and demonize individual ingredients—like sugar. A balanced approach to eating is simply more enjoyable.
This is evident more than ever when looking at Datassential’s Top 500 report for 2023. In that top 500, of the top 10 chains with the highest CAGR in total units, half were LSR Coffee/Bakery or LSR Dessert Snack. The other category that saw a huge spike in CAGR unit? Salad/healthful.
A little salad here, a little sweet there.
The perfect sweet tooth offering
It’s not enough to put a cookie on your menu and expect that to pique the interest of your customers. Because while sweet stuff is trending, so too are some other not-so-obvious features, and people with a 1, 2 or 3 in the tens place of their age expect brands to deliver something exceptional.
All Friends is that something exceptional you need. It’s the perfect sweet tooth-tickling menu item.
It taps into the “social media” food trend. On the Datassential’s menu adoption cycle, “social media food” has entered ubiquity territory. If you don’t know what “social media food” is, go out to dinner and look around. If there is a person snapping a pic of their food, you might be at a restaurant to serves social media food.
Boldly colored beverages (being grasped by perfectly manicured hands) like All Friends are the quintessential social media food. The vibes are flawless. Customers have a high tolerance for high prices on premium beverages, so don’t be afraid to give it a price point that maximizes profit.
Yes, your customers are likely to have a sweet tooth. But your Gen Z (and Millennial) customers want to feel good about what they’re eating, even when it’s a bit of an indulgence. Because balance. All Friends has functional benefits and no artificial ingredients. Your customers will love that All Friends has real sugar in it—but less than the typical sugary soda.
Sustainable packaging is important to the Gen Z and Milennials you’re targeting. That’s why we packaged All Friends in a fully recyclable aseptic carton. Our carton packaging is mainly composed of paperboard made from wood, a renewable resource. All the wood used to make the paperboard is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and comes from responsibly managed forests.
Your beverage menu is the best place to start to leverage the sweet tooth of your customers. Reach out to us today so we can help you get started.
