Rethinking Packaged Drinks for Changing Tastes

The “new generation” has always sought new and novel drink options. Package printers and converters can help their beverage brand customers by helping them rethinking preferred formats for Gen Z’s and millennials’ favorite drinks, such as alkaline water.

The Essentia Water 2 Gallon Box begins rollout at retailers including CVS and Walmart in September 2021, with full distribution in early 2022. | Credit: Essentia

This new format for Essentia Water ionized alkaline water might be more familiar to earlier generations as wine packaging. By adopting bag-in-box packaging for its alkaline water, Essentia has created a new product that addresses both modern tastes, lifestyles and ethical buying habits.

The large-format packaging works well in the home at a time when consumers are working and playing in the home more often. Yet the 2 gallon bag-in-box offering also is more portable than water in more traditional 5-gal. water cooler jugs, which transitions well as more Americans return to home offices, gyms and events. Finally, the box-in-bag format is generally considered by consumers to be a more sustainable offering than water bottles. Each external box is made with recycled corrugate and is 100% recyclable, while the bag inside uses 80% less plastic than eight 1L bottles by volume.

In a statement announcing the Essentia Water 2 Gallon Box as the first-ever, large format offering of the company’s ionized alkaline water, Scott Miller, CEO of Essentia Water, said "This is an example of true product innovation in our category and our latest step in developing products that are both good for consumers and better for the planet. Our 2 Gallon Box product innovation was led by extensive consumer research and a commitment to develop a larger format that would ensure the same overachieving taste of Essentia. This new multi-serve offering is made to fit more ways we live while also supporting a better environment."

The company also noted that ike its bottled counterparts, the 2 Gallon Box contains Essentia's ionized alkaline water with a pH of 9.5 or higher. The specially formulated bag and spout keep air out, extending freshness and consumption over time, as confirmed by internal testing and research for multi-serve uses.