Tiki Beverage Trend Inspires New Symrise Flavor Concepts

21 Mar 2017 --- Symrise’s Marketing and Consumer Insights Group has been exploring the exciting Tiki beverage trend that has become a major draw across the nation, resulting in the launch of a line of beverage concepts known as “Tiki Time.” From traditional bars and clubs to Tiki-themed hot spots, these fun cocktails are currently enjoying a major resurgence.

Symrise have seized the opportunity to create a series of Tiki beverage concepts featuring innovative flavors such as passion fruit, ginger beer, mango, banana, Curacao, coffee, grapefruit, lychee, hibiscus, falernum and coconut. Using these flavors, as well as the more traditional and familiar pineapple, orange, spice, lime and lemon tastes, Symrise has developed an enticing collection of concepts to assist product developers. 

Marianna Biancardi, Senior Marketing Consumer Insight Specialist with Symrise’s Marketing, Sensory and Consumer Insights Group said, “Tiki beverages, the elaborate, fun-based cocktails that were introduced in the early thirties - making a comeback in the fifties and sixties - have captured the interest and enjoyment of influential Millennials and Baby Boomers. Our team ventured out into the field to get a first-hand look at the return of the Tiki phenomenon by visiting some of the trendiest Polynesian-inspired Tiki bars in the country.”

Recent launches tracked by Innova Market Insights include Mcstevens Tiki Party Key Lime Mojito Mix, which features the claim: “Get your Hawaiian party started with Mcsteven's Tiki Drinks! Craft a delicious key lime mojito with this mix.”

Ms. Biancardi described how the Symrise flavor team explored lounges, foodservice outlets and neighborhood watering holes in Portland, Alameda, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Denver and New Orleans. They discovered exotic Tiki creations like “Bikinis After Dark,” the “Wild Watusi,” “Otto’s Octane,” and the “Paralyzed Polynesian.”  Served in everything from goblets with Tiki god faces to sophisticated cocktail glasses, these cocktails featured a wide variety of both popular and niche ingredients. “We recognized the opportunity to exploit this trend by using our breakthrough knowledge of tropical flavors to create a harmony of exotic tastes in Tiki-type drinks such as mai tais, zombies, scorpions and hurricanes. In addition, we created ground breaking Tiki concepts using Typarom, one of our key technologies.” 

Ms. Biancardi explained that formulators who want to feature tequila, whiskey, rum, brandy and similar alcohol notes while limiting the amount of sprits in the final product, can find a solution in Symrise’s Typarom technology, which mimic the flavor of spirits and their maturation. In addition, another of Symrise’s recent initiatives, All About Rum, has yielded significant insights into the way rum is used in Tiki drinks. She concluded, “When you look at our entire process – going on field treks, talking with mixologists, conducting consumer insights and developing new flavors and concepts – it becomes clear that we are well positioned to assist customers who want to maximize the opportunities created by the Tiki trend.”