PRECISION
TASTE IS STRONGEST WEAPON ON BEVERAGE BATTLEGROUND |
Source: |
LAKEVILLE-MIDDLEBORO, Mass |
Date: |
9/3/99 |
URL: |
http://www.oceanspray.com |
Description: |
Taste has always been a powerful
weapon for juice companies competing for a place in the fruit-based beverages market. But
these days, battles in the juice war are being fought with greater precision. Precision
taste, that is. |
Contact: |
Chris Phillips (Manager,
Corporate Communication & Public Affairs )
Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.
One Ocean Spray Drive
Lakeville-Middleboro ,MA 02349
phone:(508) 946-7318
fax:(508) 947-9791 |
Taste has always been a
powerful weapon for juice companies competing for a place in the fruit-based beverages
market. But these days, battles in the juice war are being fought with greater precision.
Precision taste, that is.
"Taste is what drives consumers to keep buying a product," says Catharine
Powers, M.S., R.D., a national expert on taste. Powers teaches "The Physiology of
Taste" at the Culinary Institute of America. Citing a recent Food Marketing Institute
survey, Powers added that taste is one of the top determining factors in food preferences.
"Today's consumers are looking for a more 'adult' sophisticated and complex
taste."
Cranberries, like lemons, are naturally very tart so the fruit juice must be diluted and
sweetened, providing consumers an interesting more bitter than sweet taste, says Powers.
Developing a new product involves many taste tests and consumer focus groups to determine
just the right combination to entice consumers' taste buds. Ocean Spray's distinctive
taste along with the health benefits of the cranberries keeps consumers coming back, says
Jay Dravenstadt, Senior Principal Scientist for Ocean Spray.
"With precision taste, we've gone beyond the single dimension of taste and are
calibrating our products to appeal to all the senses. Dravenstadt says. "When we add
Georgia peach to cranberry juice, we want a flavor so real consumers smell fresh peaches
and even imagine the fuzz."
The process begins with a single idea developed by the R&D team. Then a "Sensory
Evaluation" group tests different formulations to verify or refute Ocean Spray's
taste assessment. Early on, Ocean Spray goes directly to the consumer as part of the
research process with in-home testing. With this method, researchers gain a better
understanding of the initial impressions and effect a product has on the consumer. This is
especially true with aroma.
"Ninety percent of what we taste is directly related to aroma," said Mark Vasi,
Ocean Spray flavorist. "That's why you can't taste anything when you have a
cold." A member of the Society of Flavor Chemists, Vasi is one of only about 100
people in the country who work exclusively on
product taste.
As he works with the product development team, Vasi's goal is to give every Ocean Spray
product the distinctive taste the company is known for. A high-quality, flavorful juice
product has great potential but often lacks distinctive taste. So to achieve the ultimate
taste goal, Dravenstadt, Vasi and the team have honed three components of the R&D
process to ensure precision taste by bringing flavors and aromas together.
Innovation in Action. Thanks to proprietary technology, Ocean Spray's taste experts can
identify and recreate the true essence of a flavor by enhancing the aroma of the product.
"When you bring the drink to your mouth, you get a fresh aromatic impact that makes
you want to drink it again," said Vasi. "Adding different flavors with
distinguishing scents enhances the aromatics of the product so the consumer gets the same
taste as freshly pressed juice."
Picking the Best. Securing the best fruit has a significant impact on flavors because the
fruit can vary widely from source to source. Working with growers and suppliers, Ocean
Spray devises tight fruit specifications that become part of the proprietary formula.
These specifications ensure Ocean Spray gets the best fruits, picked at the height of
ripeness for superior flavor.
"We're insist upon quality and consistency in fresh, true-to-the-fruit taste. We
don't settle for average, run-of-the-mill ingredients," said Dravenstadt.
Consumer Palate. Ocean Spray goes to great lengths to monitor increasingly sophisticated
consumer taste buds. The company makes extensive use of taste panels not only to identify
what they think tastes good, but also to get a glimpse of what's next.
Developing the next generation of Ocean Spray beverage flavors may take as little as two
to four months or as long as a year. "It's always up to the consumers who test the
product to tell us when we're finished," says Dravenstadt. "Flavors can be
complicated and taste preferences are highly subjective, but consumers know when we've hit
the precision taste mark like only Ocean Spray can."
Even though the development team smiles with pride when they see new flavors hit the
shelves, they're always focused on linking precision taste with the next power flavor.
"We have to keep up with fruit popularity trends and agricultural advances which lead
to improved fruit varieties, from cranberries to kiwi, that are introduced each year. We
need to be able to predict what the next fruit flavor to intrigue consumers' palates is
likely to be," Dravenstadt said.
As Ocean Spray perfects the precision taste technology, the company continues to stock the
pipeline full of new cranberry juices and juice blends, creating a new wave of cranberry
enthusiasm.
"Consumers want the health benefits cranberry juice offers, but they also want
extraordinary, distinctive and precise taste. Ocean Spray delivers on all those
fronts," he added. "We created this category, we grew it and we're still the
leader, but we have to compete like never before. Precision taste is a weapon we plan to
use to stay on top."
Ocean Spray's commitment to precision taste was recognized recently when the company
received an American Taste Award from the American Tasting Institute in San Francisco.
This award went to Ocean Spray's line of 100 percent juices, which contain cranberry juice
blended with specific varieties of other fruits. Besides Ocean SprayĆ Premium 100%
Cranberry and Key Lime, Cranberry and Georgia Peach and Cranberry and Granny Smith Apple,
the company recently added three new flavors: Cranberry and Concord Grape, Cranberry and
Pacific Raspberry and Cranberry.
Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. is an agricultural cooperative owned by 920 cranberry
and citrus growers throughout the United States and Canada. With annual sales of nearly
$1.5 billion, Ocean Spray holds a long-standing position as the nation's leading producer
of canned and bottled juice drinks.
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