While Mintel's recent report “Consumer Choices in the Beverage Aisle” covers all of the aforementioned beverage options, this analysis will focus only on those items with value-added ingredients. Hence, bottled water, seltzers and the like, while covered in-depth in Mintel's report, will be given little attention here. Furthermore, the June issue of Prepared Foods featured a category analysis of energy drinks and sports beverages, so those will be addressed only briefly as well. Please note that statistics referring to the category as a whole, however, include all of the various segments found in the Mintel report.
These products also cater to one of the leading trends facing the industry today: convenience. Many sports drinks and virtually all energy drinks are found in single-serving containers, though the packaging is found across the category's segments. However, while the single-serving option has multiple advantages (including suitability for on-the-go consumption and minimizing the risk of spills), the single-serving container has boiled down to a battle between plastic and aluminum. Plastic bottles can be resealed, but resealable aluminum bottles are on the horizon and currently are used with a number of energy drinks; they reportedly are the subject of a market test by Coca-Cola (Atlanta).