With 83% of users turning to TikTok for product reviews, according to Luth Research, food and FMCG brands can make use of the video-focused social networking service to reach a keen audience.
Recipe videos have as many as 3.2 billion views, adds Next Home. The online clothing retailer looked at TikTok views, Google searchers and Instagram hashtags, to discover the most popular beverage concoctions that consumers are attempting to recreate in their homes.
Hot beverages feature high – no surprise when much consumer research points to shoppers demanding at-home indulgence and restaurant quality experiences: an after-effect of the COVID lockdowns.
A new twist on widely loved whipped cream iced coffee, Dalgona Coffee tops Next Home’s list of the easiest and most popular TikTok recipes with 583 million views on TikTok and nearly 600,000 hashtags on Instagram.
Dalgona Coffee is essentially a whipped coffee, consisting of coffee, sugar, and hot milk. The whipped coffee cream sits on top of iced milk, giving a twist to the classic iced coffee drink. The photogenic beverage has also spawned the Dalgona Martini, which boasts 47,100 TikTok views.
Image supplied by Next Home
Hot Chocolate Bombs became a TikTok sensation, according to Next Home, after the owner of a US bakery shared her recipe. The chocolate bombs are added to a mug and hot milk is poured over, which results in the chocolate bomb exploding into the milk creating a hot chocolate drink. The TikTok video has seen 308,700,000 views and the recipe has had 245,000 hashtags on Instagram.
Image: Getty/porosolka
With 24,800,000 views on TikTok, and over 1500 hashtags on Instagram, Angel Milk has seen the biggest increase in social searches in a year -- up 1971%, claimed Next Home. This ‘perfect last-minute dessert drink’ can be enjoyed hot or cold and takes just three minutes to prepare. It contains milk, sugar, vanilla extract and sprinkles, and is said to be reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream.
Image supplied by Next Home
The Oreo Mug Cake consists of just two ingredients -- Oreo biscuits and milk -- and is one of the quickest to recreate, taking just five minutes in total. The video has seen 144,800,000 views on TikTok and 1500 hashtags on Instagram.
Image: Getty/ed_ya
Hot fudge is another upcoming hot beverage trend as consumers seek options beyond tea, coffee and chocolate.
British artisan brand, Fudge Kitchen, recently launched a Vegan Drinking Fudge Selection. “Drinking Fudge is pure indulgence in a mug – or glass,” it announced. “It’s equally good in a cold mix, made into a frappe or even in a fruit smoothie.” Each box contains 6 flavours: moreish mint, tangy orange, chocolate caramel, original salted caramel, ginger spice & classic chocolate.
Image suplied by Fudge Kitchen
As well as wanting to recreate restaurant-quality experiences at home, consumers are also seeking functional foods with benefits, another after-affect from the pandemic.
Earlier this year Tastewise, the AI-powered real-time food intelligence solution that predicts changing consumer needs based on over 78,000 restaurants and delivery menus, 20 billion social interactions, and 115,000 home recipes online, shared the top consumer food and beverage trends for 2022.
One trend was hot beverages with adaptogens for functional health. Leading adaptogens come from the world of fungi, with reishi and cordyceps taking the top spots. They are particularly relevant for hot beverages, with one third of reishi and cordyceps discussions featuring tea or coffee.
Consumers see adaptogens as having medicinal properties (with interest rising +50% YoY); particular emphasis is on functional health benefits such as stress relief (+25 YoY) and brain function (+22% YoY), Tastewise noted.
Examples might include an ashwagandha latte, or Sweet Revolution’s latte created using a chicory root coffee-alternative blend and enhanced with Lion's Mane Mushroom powder.
Another example is HotTea Mama, which has created specialist tea blends aimed at menopausal women after spotting a gap in the market for products that target this issue.
The brand selected natural herbs that have been used for millennia to support with some of the most common symptoms - from irregular periods and heavy blood flow, to anxiety, lack of sleep and hot flushes. These include Raspberry Leaf, which it claimed can lessen heavy menstrual flows; Ginseng, believed to improve mood changes, and increase length and quality of sleep; Gingko Biloba, said to improve blood circulation and cognitive function; Liquorice, which it said can help reduce the occurrence and length of hot flushes; and Valerian, which it claimed reduces stress and anxiety, aid sleep.
Image: Getty/RHJ
