Pioneering fermentation

Realising that fermentation was a growing trend in the food and beverage industry, Nestle - one of the biggest players in the field and a regular client for Innoleaps - were looking to create a product that took advantage of the rising sales of fermented drinks. This market had doubled over the last five years as consumers looked for a healthy alternative to fizzy drinks, refocusing their attention on authenticity, naturalness and digestive wellness. An obvious starting point was Kombucha, a lightly effervescent, sweetened tea drink that had really started to take off - especially in the Nordics, where it was among one the fastest growing markets.

At the same time, Nestle knew its coffee portfolio was in need of expansion beyond its existing offerings to better attract young, new consumers. The corporate was therefore keen to strike the right balance by launching a beverage that hit the sweet spot in incorporating both the Coffee RTD and fermentation categories. 

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A gap in the market

Because refreshing drinks are normally unhealthy and unnatural, the project’s main goal was to produce a coffee and kombucha style drink while addressing the pain points of the consumer, that is, finding a healthier alternative to traditional beverages. As Kombucha’s taste is polarizing and the drink is not yet broadly known in all operating countries, we quickly needed to answer the questions: Who are our target consumers? What is the job to be done? Why do people consume Kombucha? How should we position our product?

We started with Kombucha inspiration from early adaptors, such as the health benefits for the gut but found much bigger consumption drivers at play, including the demand for a delicious coffee taste coupled with a refreshing experience. And due to there already being wide offerings of Kombucha across some markets such as the USA, Australia, UK, we also needed to understand if this coffee-Kombucha concept would resonate in other markets. 

Focused on two brands in the Nordics, and tested the coffee-Kombucha concept within two markets across three channels: direct to consumer, an ecommerce platform and within three retail outlets: a restaurant, a bar, a health store.

We also provided a differentiated product offering of fermented coffee as there were only 10 products recorded in global market research provider Mintel, versus 1592 Kombuchas. As a result, Nestlé’s first coffee-Kombucha, North Wind, was born.

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Wide appeal

The resulting “live coffee” product is a clean label, organic-certified canned drink which stands as a healthier alternative to existing refreshing beverages containing just 30kcal per 100ml, 50% less sugar than coke, 60% fewer calories than other cold coffee rivals. 

North Wind went from lab to shop test within less than 6 months. We found great appeal in the market from the target consumers as well as a wider audience for this test product, selling more than 2000 cans in the test phase and discovering sizable market opportunity so we can successfully launch this product in the Nordics.

The next step for 2021 and beyond for this project is to explore the healthy, exciting refreshment opportunity beyond fermentation.