Come summer, the warm and humid air makes it almost instinctive for us to peek into our refrigerators and pull out a chilled bottle of a refreshing drink. But the choice of beverage consumed differs from person-to-person, and even generation-to-generation. The U.S. has long lead the rest of the world as the highest soft drink-consuming nation.
Millennials may perhaps be divided based on their preference of soft beverages. A recent article suggests that according to research by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), soda consumption among high school students has dropped by 5% since 2009.
So, if this is the case, what is catching our fancy? Have we just stopped consuming soda or have we replaced our former-favorite aerated drinks with other sugar-sweetened drinks?
Anushka Sarkar, a high school senior from Easthampton, Massachusetts, confirmed the results of the research by admitting that she doesn’t like soda, and probably only drinks it “maybe once a month.”
Drinks like Vitamin Water and Propel Zero which are available in an assortment of flavors and bright eye-catching colors are gaining mass appeal and thereby have an advantage on sodas, colas and other aerated drinks. A casual perusal of the Facebook fan pages of these products are a testimony to their growing popularity. This could mostly be due to the image they project of being healthy, low-calorie drinks (Vitamin Water’s slogan is “Hydrate Responsibly”) whereas aerated drinks like Pepsi or Coke contain nearly twice the amount of sugar than these drinks do. Ultimately though, none of these drinks are actually really “healthy.”
Millennial Mary Hallquist, a middle school teacher from Burlington, Vermont, does not drink much soda or juice, but prefers seltzer, water and coffee or iced coffee instead. “Sometimes I will drink Starbucks Iced Lattes,” she said. “Personally, I used to drink more soda but stopped for health reasons.”
Not just these, but drinks like Snapple, bottled lemonade, fruit juice and other such drinks are also popular, yet their popularity is not escalating as much as that of energy drinks (hold the coffee), sports drinks and other similar drinks with oodles of caffeine and sugar content.
“School overloads students with so much work, that life without caffeine doesn’t seem like an option at all to people. Also, it just seems like having stuff like Vitamin Water and Coke is way cooler than having plain water. So the consumption of all these beverages is getting embedded deep into the social norms for a normal teenager,” Sarkar adds.
Looking at the bigger picture and the general lifestyle of Millennials in the U.S., most of us are students or young professionals who are engaged in trying to pack in a 72-hour-lifestyle within 24-hour days. This demands considerable amounts of energy and focus from them. They inevitably turn to energy drinks which give them that sugar rush, thus helping them to cope with their fast-paced lives.
Also, beverage companies and other operations are trying to capitalize on this generation’s love of innovation and personalization to offer them all sorts of new beverage varieties. “I think people drink so many sugary drinks because they are addicting and they are heavily marketed towards our age group,” Hallquist adds.
Then of course, for those old-fashioned at heart, there’s good ol’ plain water, the real and original elixir of life. It contains none of the bright colors and fancy flavors, but nothing quenches thirst and keeps you hydrated better than water. “I don’t drink anything else,” says Trang Thai, a college senior from Boston. Nothing is even remotely as healthy. Tian Xu, a recent college graduate, adds to the same “I like soda, but I drink water most often.”
Photos by Roscoe Van Damme, The Seafarer, and Joelogon.
