Vietnam’s TH Group has added new ice cream to its portfolio. The three new products are natural durian ice cream coated with buttery crispy peanut in the white compound cover, natural coconut ice cream coated with coconut threads in the white compound cover and strawberry-vanilla ice cream.
Osotspa has made available its C-vitt functional drink in carton to capture new target consumers and occasions. C-Vitt is the number one functional drink in Thailand, a position it has maintained for the third consecutive quarters since the third quarter of 2018.
C-vitt, the vitamin drink product of Japan’s House Foods in a joint venture with Osotspa, comes in a 140ml glass bottle and available in three flavours – lemon, orange and pomegranate. C-vitt achieved a 149% year-on-year growth in revenue in Q1 2019 after posting a 75% growth for the full year of 2018. C-vitt is similar to House Foods’ C1000 vitamin drink sold in Japan.
C-vitt has 200% vitamin C content (of the recommended daily dosage), which is comparable to the vitamin C in 6 lemons.
The new C-vitt is sold in 125ml carton.
The Thai functional drink maker Sappe PLC has unveiled kombucha and job’s tear drink at Thaifex 2019, which was held at the end of May 2019.
The Keaf Sparkling Kombucha drink is designed to support healthy gut and liver. The kombucha is brewed from fermented Assam tea leaves harvested from over hundred year tea trees grown in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. Keaf has a mild taste from natural ginger extract.
The ingredients are carbonated water 58.4%, vinegar assam tea 39%, winter melon concentrate, natural ginger flavour and ginger extract powder. The drink does not have sugar and is vegan friendly.
Keaf is a product under Sappe Innostudio, which is a brand under Sappe to promote local goodness and innovation from Thailand.
MeVative Job’s Tear Drink
MeVative Job’s Tear Drink with Job’s Tear Pieces Low Sugar/Oiginal is another beverage under Sappe Innostudio. Job’s tear is originally from Southeast Asia and is consumed for medicinal properties in traditional Asian remedy. The drink is free from soy, dairy and gluten.
The key ingredients in the low sugar formula drink are job’s tears drink 92%, job’s tear seeds 5% and sugar 3%. The original drink has 5% sugar.
MeVative won the SIAL China Innovation 2019 Finalist Grand Award.
Sappe plans to launch Keaf and MeVative at the end of 2019.
Kombucha is still a relatively new concept in Southeast Asia and is mostly fermented at home by aficionados. There are quite a number of small players in the kombucha scene selling online and in retail such as Pure Luck (Thailand), Cha Cha (Malaysia) and Bushwick (Singapore) but generally, Southeast Asian understanding of kombucha is still limited.
We do feel that with the current preoccupation with gut health, kombucha is expected to have a fertile ground in Southeast Asia since consumers are able to relate to fermented vinegar drink, which does not have yeast culture, while kombucha has.
Job’s tear drink is not something new in Southeast Asia and is commonly consumed in Singapore and Malaysia as Chinese pearl barley. MeVative will be a good alternative drink for consumers who want something familiar.
Sappe has also introduced Shootz, a sport drink (electrolyte drink), made from the natural ingredient of aloe vera.
The Heineken 0.0 non-alcoholic malt beverage is finally available in Malaysia. Heineken has made available the non-alcoholic brew in Singapore (Nov 2018), Australia, New Zealand and in Thailand targeting consumers who desire moderate alcohol consumption.
Heineken Malaysia managing director Roland Bala said “we are introducing Heineken 0.0 to give our consumers a new option, so that they can stay in control while having fun, and we look forward to the support of Malaysian consumers,” reported The Star.
Heineken 0.0 has a recommended retail price of RM8.40 per bottle, while the price in bars is RM14 per bottle. It will be available in bars, restaurants and stores in July 2019.
Heineken 0.0 is fully imported from the Netherlands and comes in a 250ml glass bottle. In Singapore, Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) is installing a de-alcoholiser at its brewery by the third quarter of 2019. Once completed, the Singapore brewery will be able to produce Heineken 0.0 for the region.
The alcohol-free drink is not halal.
The Golden Duck Co has up the ante in mala snack with the launch of its Sichuan Mala Hotpot Fragrant Mix in Singapore in April 2019. Mala snack is trending in Singapore. The fragrant mix has three essential ingredients – fish skin, fried mushroom and fried bean curd skin tossed with mind-numbing mala.
The Sichuan Mala Hot Pot is rated Spice Level 6 and Numbing Level 4. The price is SGD 7 per pack.
Launch of Gardenia Brown Rice & Oat Soft Grain Loaf
SINGAPORE, June 2018 – More people are consuming wholegrain rice in Singapore for better health. The new Gardenia Brown Rice & Oat Soft Grain loaf is specially designed for consumers who are health conscious and wish to enjoy the goodness of brown rice and oats at any time of the day!
Brown rice grains are known to be harder to chew, but Gardenia worked with our supplier to specially mill brown rice into a fine flour texture to create the soft, nutritious and yummy bread. This loaf emits the fragrance of brown rice, and is so soft that one can simply eat it on its own.
With this latest addition, Gardenia has a variety of 14 wholegrain products endorsed with the Healthier Choice Symbol by Health Promotion Board, Singapore. This provides grocery shoppers with more wholegrains alternatives, as more Singaporeans seek to replace their intake of refined carbohydrates with complex carbohydrates which is essential for a completed and balanced diet.
The nutritious Gardenia Brown Rice & Oat Soft Grain Loaf contains selenium, a vital mineral that increases our body’s immunity and promotes healthy metabolism. It is also high in calcium for bone health and protein, providing essential amino acid in the building and maintenance of body tissues. What’s more, the Gardenia Brown Rice & Oat Soft Grain Loaf is packed with Vitamins A, E & D*!
The Gardenia Brown Rice & Oat Soft Grain Loaf is retailing at S$3.30 and is available at leading supermarkets, hypermarkets and selected convenience stores. For our brown rice lovers, you can now enjoy the nutritious brown rice without even turning on your rice cookers! Grab a loaf today!
To celebrate summer, Thailand’s Vitamilk has debuted a new mango variant for its Vitamilk soy milk. In addition to the mango flavoured Vitamilk, the company has also rolled out soymilk with almond oat with 40% less sugar in the first quarter of 2019. The oat comes from Sweden, soy from Canada, while the almond is imported from the US.
This product is vegan-friendly. It offers protein from soy, low in fat and low in sugar. The soy milk content is 89.75%, almond milk 5%, sugar 4% and oat 1%. The drink has been certified as a Healthier Choice.
Indonesia’s OT Group has launched Teh Legit Kental, an RTD tea with 2x tea extract, 2x more benefits and 2x more taste. The tea claims to have antioxidants, thearubigins and theaflavins. It is naturally sweetened with rock sugar.
Teh Legit Kental is manufactured by PT CS2 Pola Sehat and has the jasmine taste.
This RTD tea positions itself as a traditional tea to connect with modern young consumers who want to enjoy the taste of authentic Indonesian tea.
The indulgent chocolate drink has not lost its lustre in Indonesia. After GarudaFood unveiled Chocolatos chocolate drink in 2018 and PT Sekawan Karsa Mulia Jakarta with its Dynakat Dark Chocolate Drink around 2018, it is now the turn of OT Group to unveil Tango Drink Velluto. Tango is OT Group’s best-selling wafer brand.
Tango Drink Velluto Italian Chocolate with Malt marks the extension of the Tango wafer brand into the RTD drink category. Rival wafer brand Nabati has the Nabati Combo comprising Nabati wafer and instant chocolate powder in one product. It is not surprising to see further cross-category expansion by brands as they search for new consumption occasions.
Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Incorporated (CCBPI) has jumped into the plastic reduction bandwagon, which is sweeping the entire food and drink industry globally. The company has announced it would be spending PHP 1 billion (USD 53 million) to set up a food-grade recycling facility in the Philippines to collect, sort, clean, and recycle used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles.
This investment will represent the first major investment in a recycling facility in Southeast Asia. According to GMA Network, CEO Gareth McGeown said the recycling plant will be launched and operational in 2020. The project is a joint venture between Coca-Cola and two partners comprising a global green technology provider and a domestic company.
The recycling facility will have a yearly capability to process 16,000 metric tons of plastic bottles that can be turned into new plastic bottles, benches, plastic chairs, textiles and other purposes.
CCBPI also has plans to ensure recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic will make up 50% of the company’s plastic bottles by 2030. By 2025, to goal is to have all its packaging 100% is recyclable.
The company has also announced the launching of the Viva! bottled water made from 100% recycled plastic.
