Beverages

Applications > Beverage Applications

A wide variety of clean label beverages have resulted from recent advances in natural colors. From cola to cognac, iced-tea to isotonics, from root beer to real beer, we offer you a world of technical expertise in caramels and natural colors for all your beverage applications.

• Beer and Malta
• Carbonates
• Cider
• Cocoa/Coffee
• Dairy (Milk-based drink)
• Dairy (Milk Alternative)
• Dry blends
• Energy drink
• Flavored water
• Juice-based drink
• Protein drink
• Sports drink
• Tea
• Spirits and Liqueur

Selecting the Appropriate DDW Color for Your Beverage

DDW (D.D. Williamson) manufactures more than 100 different liquid caramels and burnt sugars and 20 different powdered caramels in addition to our wide variety of natural colors for food and beverage products.

Did you know…?

Orange, Red Orange, brown and yellow are the top colors in new beverage launches, according to Innova Market Insights (2012). In recent months, beverage formulators have proportionately increased requests to DDW for red beverage coloring.

Choose a type of beverage application from this page to see how DDW’s broad range of natural colors could help you.

If you have any questions or need further assistance with your particular application, then please contact us. As a world leader with over 140 years of innovation in the development and supply of coloring, we are happy to help!

Heat and Light Stability -
Once we understand your project requirements — including packaging, acidity, and Vitamin C content — DDW Scientists can help formulate the optimum color solution for your packaging (UV light transmission) and heat processing conditions.

Critical stability factors with certain naturally derived colorings include light and pH of the beverage. The packaging choice can greatly protect the colorant if using a can, tetra-pak, shrink sleeve or UV coating.

pH Level -
Another critical stability factor in working with naturally derived coloring is the pH of the beverage system. The same coloring may show one hue in a neutral system and another hue in an acidic system. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) can either help or hinder stability, depending on the coloring.

Contact us for a personalized product recommendation or select a type of beverage application below.

Select the Right Caramel Color for Your Beverage:

You can also use this chart to view a comparison of our caramel color products in beverage applications:

Synthetic Alternatives

Here are some replacements for synthetic colors (specifically, the six synthetics known as the “Southampton Six,” which studies indicate may be linked to hyperactivity in children):

Beverage and Food Coloring Competition for Students

Today’s food science students are the innovative food technologists of tomorrow! We’re proud to offer an annual competition for food science students attending North American universities.

Our annual competition challenges food science students to create innovative naturally colored food or beverage applications for the chance to win a FREE trip to the IFT Annual Meeting and Expo, in addition to a trophy award presentation and publicity for their entry.

Learn more about the competition and how to enter.