While the beverage category has been traditionally focused on sweet, hops offer a more complex, dynamic flavor profile that has something much more interesting to offer consumers.
That means they’re increasingly being found as an ingredient beyond beer and in other categories: from soda in beverages through to pies in the food category.
A big hopportuity
Grown in moist, temperate climates, hops provide complex flavor characteristics.
Depending on the types of hop – and the way they’re broken down into components such as essential oils – that can bring many different profiles. It could be citrus notes, that add a fresh edge to drinks. Or it could be a more piney, earthy or grassy notes: offering a profile that isn’t so commonly found in food or drinks.
That opens up possibility to bring a host of new flavor profiles to drinks beyond beer. That’s particularly important as consumers seek out increasingly sophisticated, adult flavors.
And hops don’t just come with one flavor: different species and different extraction methods bring out different notes.
That’s what makes them such a versatile and intriguing tool in creating adventurous new taste profiles, according to flavor and ingredient company ADM.
Ready to innovate? Off you hop...
Hop waters, for example, are already seeing growing success in the US: with the non-alcoholic beverages already blurring the line between beer and water.
And in alcohol-free beverages, the complex flavor profile offers something that might otherwise be lacking.
But ADM believes the potential goes well beyond that. The company has set out hop R&D and innovation as a priority area for the business: not least with the recent acquisition of UK-headquartered natural hop extract business Totally Natural Solutions.
It has built up a toolbox of hop extracts and oils that can be customized to different applications: and the sky is the limit.
That starts with beer (hop products can be used to help adapt beer to different styles); then has an important role to play in alcohol-free beer (ADM offers a specialist range of 100% hop derived products to help tackle off-notes in low and no alcohol beers).
After that? The sky’s the limit.
“Hops can be used for so many different areas of brewing and beverage applications,” explained Breeze Outhwaite, head of applications at Totally Natural Solutions.
“The great thing about our products is we’re going to be able to offer hops to a wider range of consumers and customers. This is likely to be very interesting in terms of applications in soft beverages – for example, these floral and citrus complex sensory profiles can really add depth in soft drinks – or potentially in something like energy drinks, because of the health and wellness attributes associated with hops traditionally.
“Also, they bring really really unique sensory profiles. For example, spicy is a fraction that comes from hops: this pairs really well with fruity flavors such as raspberries and other berries, these could create some really interesting cocktails and other applications.”
But it’s not just about beverages: hops can go further than this.
“Beyond that, in food we supply a bittering product into pies: which is a really really different way to think about hops.
“And there’s some other attributes that hops provide: we are researching their antimicrobial properties as well for much broader applications.”
