Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/35876
Lite Touch THIN-DUSTRY FOLLOW-UP The T LABOR-INTENSIVE SKINNY COCKTAILS CAN BECOME A WAIST OF TIME, BUT NOT WHEN MASTER OF MIXES LITE COMES TO THE RESCUE he number of people who consume low-calorie products has nearly doubled during the past decade, illustrating the growing demand for thin-minded food and beverage alternatives. Master of Mixes Lite is opening new doors for easy-to-prepare, refreshing summer cocktails. THE TASTING PANEL talks to Theresa Martin, Marketing Manager for American Beverage Marketers, a leading worldwide producer and marketer of liquid cocktail mixes, and creators of the new Lite cocktail mixers from Master of Mixes. THE TASTING PANEL: What prompted the introduction of the Lite cocktail mixers at this time? Theresa Martin: We’ve watched the food side of grocery products explode with low-calorie options over the last several years. In addition, light beer has been a mainstay in the beer category for quite some time. As a company focused exclusively on the cocktail mix category, we realized that a low-calorie cocktail mix offering could expand the category to consumers who typically would shy away from cocktails in general for various health reasons (i.e., calorie content, sugar content, etc.). This anecdotal evidence led us to believe there was a viable market for low-calorie cocktails. We introduced Margarita Lite in March of 2010, and its immediate and continued success validated these fi ndings. Master of Mixes cocktail mixes are premium cocktail mixes that use premium ingredients so if we were going to offer a low-calorie option we wanted to make sure it tasted good. We don’t want consumers to try Master of Mixes Lites and walk away with that empty feeling—like Master of Mixes Lite cocktail mixes are available in three varieties: Margarita, Sweet n’ Sour and Strawberry Daiquiri/ Margarita. Each fl avor is blended with premium fruit juices, such as California strawberries, Lisbon and Eureka variet- ies of lemon juice and Key lime juice. The natural fruit sugars are enhanced by the addition of sucralose, America’s most popular non-caloric sweetener. 104 / the tasting panel / july 201 1