Why More Brands Should Use Terpenes in Their Beverages

From energy drinks and RTD cocktails to relaxing teas, terpenes add flavor and aroma to various beverages without adding sugar or calories… and that’s just the start.

Everyone has a go-to beverage. For some, it’s a sports drink before working out. For others, it’s a calming tea in the evening. Sometimes, sparkling water helps people feel fresh and fancy. Whatever the case, you want to ensure YOUR beverages are what people reach for. 

That’s why more and more brands are using terpenes in their beverages.

Not only do water-soluble terpene solutions add flavor and aroma, but they align with many consumer shopping preferences, provide ease of use for brewers, are cost-effective, and so much more. 

Read on and discover why your brand should start using terpenes in your beverages today.

Skyfarm is built with terpenes so you can brew with recognizable fruit flavors without adding sugar, calories, or mouthfeel. There are no “off flavors,” potpourri, or floral junk. Just high-amplitude fruit flavor top notes that are perfect for a variety of beverages

Abstrax Terpenes Are “Clean Label” Friendly

At Abstrax we pride ourselves on the purity of our terpenes. We create solvent-less, GMO-free, filler-free, food-grade terpenes without heavy metals. For beverages, in particular, this is a phenomenal advantage. Not only can manufacturers use terpene flavor solutions without the risk of chemical additives, but our collections align with consumer preferences regarding clean labels.

In addition to containing zero calories and zero sugar, which appeals to health-conscious consumers, manufacturers can use simple language that’s easy to understand on their ingredient lists. Instead of long chemical-sounding ingredients that make some shoppers wary, brands can use phrases like “hops oil” or “natural flavors.” 

Terpenes Offer Greater Advantages Compared to Fruit Purees

Fruit-flavored beverages are popular for several reasons, but nailing the desired fruit flavor in a beverage takes a lot of time and effort. While fruit purees offer several advantages compared to whole fruit, brewing with fruit purees has its drawbacks as well. 

Sometimes flavors are muted, they can have an undesirable jam-like quality, they add calories and sugar, texture and haze, and let’s not forget price fluctuations and all the hours spent cleaning gunk from brewing tanks. Fortunately, terpene brewing solutions, like our fruit-flavored Skyfarm Series, simply don’t have these issues.

Skyfarm is TTB-approved, shelf-stable, and provides consistent flavor while taking up significantly less storage space than whole fruit or purees. These recognizable fruit flavors have greater scalability and ease of use, they’re less expensive, and they can multiply fruit flavors so brewers don’t have to use as much to infuse drinks with concentrated flavor. That’s just the beginning:

• Strong, recognizable fruit flavors and aromas
• More potent than other fruit flavors and/or extracts
• No added sugars or calories
• No additional haze or texture
• 100% utilization rate and ZERO yield loss
• Water-based emulsion
• No workflow modifications
• No risk of refermentation
• Use “Natural Flavors” on your ingredient list

Plus, you can even skip the messy tank clean-up. 

The Quantum Series is a suite of hop-derived, varietal-specific beverage solutions utilizing our innovative, ultra-low temp extraction technology to create the finest, most aromatic hop extracts on the market. Use “hops oil” on your ingredient list for a clean finished label.

Terpenes Help Promote Sensorial Effects

Sometimes, consumers want products that help them wind down. Other times, they want a euphoric burst of stimulation. Whether you’re formulating a beverage that facilitates creativity or a relaxing sense of peace, our AI Terp Effects can help.

These mood-enhancing terpene blends are crafted using machine learning and optimized to deliver specific effects based on over one million data points. Each AI Terp Effect blend is optimized for one specific mood effect. It’s a laser-focused approach to functional products that allows you to create predictable, repeatable, and scalable effects.

For THC drinks, this is a game changer. Have cannabis sparkling water that’s supposed to help consumers wind down at the end of the day? Want to give your functional CBD bev an edge over the competition? Use AI Terp Effects for a beverage formulation that more effectively delivers the experience your customers want.

Our AI Terp Effect formulas are crafted using machine learning in partnership with Dr. Avery Gilbert and The Effects Lab by budboard. These flavorless and odorless blends are optimized to deliver specific effects based on over one million data points. Use water-soluble AI Terp Effects for formulations that more effectively deliver the experiences your customers want.

What Beverages Benefit From Terpenes?

You might think that YOUR beverages wouldn’t benefit from terpenes...but you’d be wrong. The following is just a short, broad list of beverage categories that can absolutely benefit from terpenes.

Energy Drinks

This includes RTD coffee bevs for morning pick-me-ups, caffeine-fueled drinks designed to get people through the 3 p.m. lull, or sports drinks to help consumers power through workouts. Terpene brewing solutions can help brewers craft better-tasting energy drinks with a mood-boosting kick that consumers will love.

Beer, NA Beer, and Hop Water

Whether you’re brewing traditional beers, dipping your toes into the growing world of non alcoholic beer, or exploring the evolving hop water category, terpene brewing solutions and optimized hop extracts can help your brewery nail the flavors your customers crave.

From hop-derived and varietal-specific to ultimate flavor consistency year after year, our terpene-powered Optimized Hop Extracts solve many of the brewing woes associated with hops. Sustainability issues and shortages are a thing of the past, and brewers can even craft customized hop extracts that reflect the precise flavors and aromas they’re after.

Plus, manufacturers can easily experiment by blending Optimized Hop Extracts with other terpene brewing solutions for novel flavors and aromas customers have never tasted before. 

Omni Hop Profiles provide consistent hop flavor year after year, beer after beer. Through the power of terpenes and our world-leading analytics, Omni locks in the flavor and aroma from your favorite cut and delivers that consistently every single time. Use “Natural Flavors” on your ingredient list for a clean finished label.

Ready to Drink Cocktails

RTD cocktails are arguably one of the beverage industry’s most significant successes in recent years. With the increasing popularity of this category, terpene brewing solutions offer important advantages during a time when edging out the competition is vital. 

From exotic fruit infusions to unique botanicals, consumers are drawn to unique flavors. RTD cocktails are uniquely suited to this type of innovation, but changing consumer tastes also means that manufacturers must incorporate flexibility into their processes to keep up with trends. Terpene brewing solution’s ease of use is ideal in this scenario.

Functional Beverages

Increased interest in healthier lifestyles has many shoppers searching for beverages that provide more than just hydration. Functional beverages attempt to meet this demand with mood-related effects like relaxation, cognitive stimulation, etc. Some of the functional ingredients in these beverages don’t always taste great, though.

Not only can terpene brewing solutions infuse these beverages with flavors and aromas that balance the taste of functional ingredients, but AI Terp Effects can add additional mood-related effects that customers want.

THC Drinks

From high-strength THC drinks to low-dose CBD drinks, these beverages offer consumers several practical benefits over other cannabis consumption methods and even over alcoholic beverages. No matter what, though, they still have to taste good.

Terpene brewing solutions make it easier than ever for manufacturers to brew cannabis beverages with in-demand fruit flavors. Conversely, brewers can craft drinks with true-to-type cannabis aromas and flavors using terpene solutions like our BrewGas Series.

These are botanically derived cannabis profiles that can easily infuse drinks with all the complexities of cannabis flavor and aroma. They’re flowable, they don’t stick to the tank, and they contain no THC or CBD. That means they won’t influence the dosing of your finished beverage. 

The best part? While they don’t contain cannabis, they still smell like you just opened a bag of the dankest cannabis flower.

The BrewGas Series is a collection of TTB-approved, true-to-type cannabis profiles… without the cannabis. Infuse drinks with cannabis flavor and aroma with no THC or CBD to impact dosing — just the gassiest, skunkiest flavors with no added sugars, calories, and no workflow modifications.

Abstrax | Terpenes Make Brewing Beverages Easier

At Abstrax Hops, we provide novel solutions for beverage manufacturers looking to streamline, innovate, and gain a competitive edge. With our knowledge, technology, and extensive resources, we’ve crafted our BrewGas Series to provide true-to-type “dank” cannabis flavors and our Skyfarm Series to make it easier than ever to add the most aromatic fruit flavor top notes to beverages.

Want hop flavors and aromas? Our Omni Hop Profiles are derived from hop and botanical sources to create a true living record. It can be recreated forever thanks to our analytical mapping capabilities and botanical formulation expertise. Want profiles derived solely from hops? Our Quantum Series completely reflects the hops that go into the process like no other hop extractions do.

We also recognize that creating a successful, consumer-friendly product sometimes means formulating custom flavors that have never been seen before. Want to complement the natural flavors of cannabis with high-intensity Clementine? Do your customers love your Galaxy® forward beer but want a Kiwi twist? With terpene brewing solutions, it’s possible.

Contact us, and let’s get started today.