One crucial factor for creating a high quality vending drink is the ingredients. The quality of the ingredients used in hot beverages is extremely important for the final result of the drink. You will never be able to offer consumers premium quality vending beverages if you use ingredients of poor quality, no matter how much money you invest in modern high-tech vending machines.

Vending ingredient companies have for many years researched the development of milk, cream and cocoa products which, in combination with the right types of coffee, attain a quality that matches the drinks sold in high street coffee shops. The development has been dramatic and we now have premium quality vending ingredients on the market that without doubt can live up to high street coffee shop standards. A premium quality product ensures that the consumer goes back for another drink. If the quality is good, the price is less important and that leads to increased sales and profit in the vending trade.

At Eurogran we are welcoming the recent focus on the quality of ingredients with open arms. Eurogran has always been about high quality products specialised for vending. Our mission is to give everybody the opportunity to drink high quality instant drinks and we pride ourselves in offering products made only from the best pure natural raw ingredients, cocoa, coffee and milk.

Nutritional and ethical focus

More and more consumers care about their health and where the food and drink we consume come from. Two major trends can clearly be seen on the vending ingredients market in respect of this development. The first trend is the growth of healthier beverage products with a better nutritional profile and the other one is the increase in Fairtrade certifications.

Nutritional focus

With the consumer media focusing more and more attention on the popularity of lowcarbohydrate diets, organic foods, and overall nutrition and health, vending operators have sought to accommodate these trends by offering an increasing selection of nutritional products in vending machines. In fact, several leading vending ingredient manufacturers have announced a commitment to healthier product options.

We have seen a strong interest in high quality beverage ingredients made from pure raw ingredients with a good nutritional profile such as pure 100% granulated milk powders and chocolate powders with high cocoa content. There is a clear shift from creamers with a high fat content towards pure milk products with a low content of fat.

There is also a tendency to shift from thin chocolate products containing lots of sugar and fat and only little cocoa powder towards darker products with high cocoa content and less sugar and fat.

This is clearly a result of the recent focus on nutrition and obesity. Modern science reveals that cocoa is good for us. Cocoa contains powerful antioxidants which help to protect our bodies against the age-accelerating effects of free radicals. Cocoa also contains vitamins and minerals like potassium, magnesium, copper, calcium and iron. In addition, cocoa is a source of two “feel good” substances; phenyl ethylamine and serotonin, that are naturally released when we are happy, in love or feeling passionate.

To get away from the problem with the high calorie content in for example chocolate products and coffee creamer, which may contribute to obesity, innovative companies have found a solution in producing light chocolate and milk products. These lighter alternatives have for a long time been known for not being as tasteful and of a poorer quality than the regular products. However, many of the lighter products on the market today can be hard to distinguish from the regular ones. Both the taste and the quality have improved dramatically.

Ethical focus

As people are increasingly aware of the dark sides of international trade, we want the opportunity to choose products that have been produced and sold under fair conditions. Consequently, cocoa and coffee products labelled Fairtrade have become more and more popular. The Fairtrade label on a product guarantees that small, independent farmers get a fair price for their cocoa beans, coffee beans and sugar and that workers employed on estates get fair wages as well as fair working conditions*.

Let us all work on the premise that these positive trends will continue to develop. We hope that quality, health and responsibility will be even more important issues when the customers make their choice from the vending machine in the future.

^{*Source: National Fair Trade Organisation}

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