Functional drinks are more than just common thirst quenchers – thanks to their special ingredients, they promise a health-promoting, pleasant or stimulating effect. Especially restaurateurs who are looking for more variety and unconventional ideas for their beverage menu should give it some consideration.
Functional drinks – beverages with benefits
Whether plant-based diets, healthy snacking or healthy fast food – the food trends of recent years show how important health aspects have become in nutrition. Gastronomy has largely followed this development and enriches dishes with healthy ingredients and valuable supplements such as vitamins, minerals or proteins.
So, functional drinks are becoming more and more popular. These are non-alcoholic beverages that not only quench thirst, but also provide additional beneficial properties for the body. Functional drinks, also known as "drinks with benefits", contain certain ingredients designed to improve health, well-being, as well as physical and mental performance.
Functional drinks at a glance
Functional drinks come in different varieties and with different ingredients. Basically, they can be grouped into the following categories:
- Health drinks: promise positive results for the body's nutrient balance, are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, probiotics or antioxidants, e.g. multivitamin juices, ACE juices, drinking yogurts, smoothies
- Wellness drinks: support cell protection and strengthen the immune system,often with acerola, green tea, ginkgo, ginger, aloe vera or kombucha, e.g. functional juices, sparkling drinks
- Sports drinks: compensate for the loss of fluids and minerals during sports and have a performance-enhancing effect, with minerals such as calcium or magnesium, e.g. isotonic drinks, mineral waters with herbs, vitamins or oxygen
- Energy drinks: have an invigorating, performance-enhancing and concentration-promoting effect, with caffeine, guarana, taurine or sugar, e.g. classic energy drinks, mineral waters with caffeine
- Relax drinks: calm and relax, with melatonin, valerian, lemon balm, sage or elderflower, e.g. different types of tea, drinks containing CBD
Functional drinks goods in gastronomy
In gastronomy, the addition of functional drinks to the beverage menu offers great potential – in 2020, 68% of consumers picked a functional drink at least once. The corona pandemic and the resulting increased health awareness caused the demand to rise further. "Mindful drinking", or the conscious consumption of functional beverages, is more popular than ever and apparently more than just a passing trend. So if you decide to offer the healthy drinks in a restaurant or café, you should be happy about some new guests.
