New coffee flavours enter diaspora

SALADA Foods' additional instant Mountain Peak coffee flavours have entered a new space for taste buds and it's going international.

Three new coffee flavours, Cinnameg, a blend of cinnamon and nutmeg flavours; Coconut Cappuccino, and Caramel, launched in March 2022 and according to its Commercial and Corporate Affairs Manager Kerrian Johnson, they have been doing well since.

"We have been growing significantly and this has become one of our very valuable product lines since March," she said during an interview at the Jamaica Observer Food Awards tasting Tuesday evening at the AC Hotel.

With the products on display, a proud Johnson reclaimed that the products were once on shelves but was removed to revamp their flavour profile. Its return is now claiming a broader demographic.

"We really love that blend [cinnameg] because it speaks to a more mature demographic who knows how to put nutmeg and the cinnamon in the coffee, while our younger demographic gravitates to cappuccino and caramel," she said.

After more research in coffee and discovering its many spin-off recipes, Salada brought back the product with the intention to not only satisfy curious taste buds but also engage coffee enthusiasts to try their hands with instant coffee creations with a product that makes the process easier.

"It's a three-in-one product which has cane sugar, creamer and the flavoured coffee. We know this is where people want to go, everybody is a barista at home," said Johnson enthusiastically.

At first, the product slowly made its way off the shelves. Consumers' lack of familiarity with the product led to Salada stepping up its marketing strategies.

"We did a lot of sampling, we did a lot of advertising, we have our ads out and we went all over the island to push this product," she expressed.

In just over a year since its launch, Johnson, while not offering its profit margins or distribution targets, says one of the flavours has been flying off the shelves.

"We can't keep our coconut cappuccino, this is going like hot bread, coconut cappuccino number one, caramel number two and cinnameg number two," Johnson revealed to the Business Observer.

Johnson also did not offer its growth target either locally or internationally, instead, she said the focus for Salada is on expanding its distribution footprint.

"We're now trying to get our flavoured portfolio into our existing market," she said. She further added, "We have already started in the Caribbean and going into the diaspora and going to England as well."

But hot beverage is not the end for the largest soluble coffee factory in the English-speaking Caribbean, according to Johnson its innovation pipeline is buzzing.

"We are a hot beverage company but we do have some other spin-offs from our hot beverage line that's based on the capabilities of our factory," she said.

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