Magazine: All the colours of the rainbow at the the bar

Thanks to its low alcohol content and smooth taste, liqueur perfectly fits into the current alcohol trends. According to Sára Palcsó, Zwack Unicum’s marketing director, in the last few years the liqueur category was developing nicely, with cream liqueur being one of the key segments: sales in the latter grew by 2.7 percent last year, mainly due to the excellent sales performance of Baileys products. Classic liqueur sales were up 8.5 percent in 2020. Consumers mainly enjoy Fütyülős liqueurs as a shot because of the brand’s past, but more and more people try it in cocktails and long drinks too. Most people have Baileys simply on ice, but the real gourmets also use it when baking cakes or have it as an ice cream topping or added to a cup of coffee.

The premium category is developing faster

Bence Szanyó, brand manager of Heinemann told our magazine that sales in the liqueur market are declining or staying put at best in a year-over-year comparison. The good news is that the segment of premium liqueurs has managed to strengthen. In 2020 liqueur sales stagnated in the retail channel. Heinemann is the distributor of special fruit liqueur brand Berentzen, which realises the majority of sales in the HoReCa channel and its main target group is young consumers. Heinemann targets premium customers with the Austrian chocolate liqueur product Mozart. The company realises 85 percent of total sales in the retail channel.

Seasons also matter

We learned from Dr Zoltán Szedlacskó, CEO of Miskolci Likőrgyár that they manufacture and sell herb-based bitters, and cream- and sugar-based liqueurs for domestic market. He added that consumption of the latter decreased in the last 15-20 years, especially among young consumers. The majority of their cream- and sugar-based liqueurs are sold in the Easter and Christmas periods. Bitters sell the best in winter; the company’s bitter brand is called Avasi and they also have a product range called Dream.

Ms Palcsó talked to Trade magazin about the dominance of the fruit, coffee and chocolate flavours in the liqueur category. She explained that the almond version of Baileys is made exclusively of plant ingredients, in accordance with the growing popularity of the vegan diet.

Fast and slow trends

Mr Szanyó told that liqueur makers are using more and more natural product ingredients, and they don’t put artificial colours and flavour enhancers in their products any more. Another trend is lower sugar content. At the same time the growing demand for liqueurs with a lower alcohol content – which is rapidly spreading in Western Europe – is only occurring slowly in Hungary. Heinemann will soon roll out the coffee variant of Mozart chocolate liqueur and has recently put the strawberry-rhubarb and raspberry-peach Berentzen liqueurs on the market.

Ms Balogh from Törley senses growing demand for special new flavours in the liqueur category. A good example of this Angelli Pistachio, which is a bit salty. She believes that the creamy liqueur base can be combined with numerous new flavours.

Dr Szedlacskó revealed that Miskolci Likőrgyár has been focusing on product packaging in its innovation work recently, surprising customers with a seasonal packaging design: their walnut liqueur is available in Easter and Christmas gift box variants too. The CEO added that plans include reimagining the formerly popular dairy cream liqueur Milky and putting it on the market again. //