It all started with a conversation over dinner, when a friend in finance asked, ‘isn’t the role of innovation quite limited in the food & drinks space? What business models would we be disrupting? Would this be about the digitalization of systems, improvements in CAPEX of manufacturing plants, etc.?”

While it’s most certainly one way of viewing innovation from the business and operations lens, there is also another lens: The creative and design lens that lends us on the innovation of craft. I offer a starter for 6.

📈 WHAT'S PEAKING 📈

#1 TRANSPORTIVE SPIRITS: SPACE TASTE EXPERIMENTS & UNDERWATER AGEING

Liquid stories form the basis of product innovation in the drinks category. In the race to space, champagne brand Mumm has created its first product that can be tasted in space amongst other brands, while wine brands like Ocean Fathoms and Veuve Cliquot’s long term experiment Cellar in the Sea romances us with the idea of shipwreck stock by maturing wines under the sea, impacted by oxidization levels and ocean weather volatility. Perhaps what is most interesting is the observations these wine-owners have noted on how climate change is affecting our seas through their experiments with underwater ageing.

#2 ALTITUDINAL TERRIORS

From LVMH’s Ao Yun (2016) to Pernot Ricard’s beautifully designed the CHUAN by Neri&Hu and Diageo’s $75 million investment to build its first malt whiskey distillery in China, terrior new-makes in this part of the world have taken a nod from Japanese whiskey distilleries using altitude as a key differentiating factor - incorporating cultural cues of purity as part of its design principles - from the distillation process to its brand identities. Outside of the drinks industry, the focal point on altitudes has also been highlighted by Singapore’s Mandala Masters pop-up with MASL (meters above sea level), where Peruvian chefs Virgilio Martínez (Central) and Pía León (Kjolle, No.1 World 50 Best Female Chef) creates a menu inspired by stages of elevation in Peru, celebrating mega biodiversity and the many depths of their home’s local ingredients.

#3 ARTISINAL SMOKES

Switching into the world of food, the trend of spotlighting traditional recipes and cooking techniques by modernizing it might not be new, but it seems that the obsession with ‘modern Indian flavours over fire’ has reached peak hype in Singapore, with delectable restaurants like Revolver (boasting its own custom built woodfire grill, smoker and tandoor) and Meatsmith Little India ( the first Modern India BBQ in Singapore that mixes international flavours with American smokehouse BBQ). Just like the way Italians herald the traditional pizza ovens shipped from their hometowns like this one from Cicheti, I look forward to future explorations of traditional smoking methods from other parts of the world being used as a centerpiece in restaurants.

#4 INSECT CAVIAR

A recent ingredient at local-favourite bar NATIVE caught my attention recently: Ant Caviar. This marks the shift of insects as base ingredients often disguised through deep-frying and heavy seasoning to hero-ing insects as a premium seasoning.

Created with black ants known for its citric acid, the ants are packaged in a caviar-like jar. It is recommended to be used in replacement of lemon or lime, providing an added crunch. Apart from cocktails, it seems that Anty Gin has also experimented with red wood ants.

⚡ WHAT'S EMERGING ​⚡

#5 A NEW GENERATION OF DRINKERS: THE ERA OF ‘MICRO-DOSING’ & SOLITARY DRINKING

Louis XIII’s The Drop targets multi-hyphenate, spontaneous, nomads aka Gen Z’s with their Make It Yours launch. The best part? Making cognac into an accessory, and advocating for micro-dosing your alcohol intake. I’d love to have been in the gate meetings for this one (what behaviors and lateral categories were you sourcing inspiration from? 🧐​ ) - pretty genius.

In China, RIO’s Tipsy collection seems to have successfully captured the consumer set of young, single women who live alone and prefer to well, get tipsy alone with a low-alcohol and fruity drink.

#6 CREATING WITH THE CREATOR COMMUNITY: OPEN-SOURCE INNOVATION

Lastly, one can’t talk about innovation in craft without referencing the web3 creator’s community - a.k.a the explosion of community partnerships.

Taking reference from the fashion industry, the success of Tiffany & Co’s collaboration with Cryptopunk paves the way for how we might collaborate with digital artists, linking value between physical and digital assets. Gucci’s Vault on the other hand illustrates the role that luxury and image-driven brands can play in the digital space as curator - from mixing the old (its archives) with the new (partnerships with emerging cult brands) in terms of physical products, and building loyalty with a new generation of fans via gaming in the metaverse, much like Louis Vuitton’s game, Louis.

Within the food and drinks category, Johnnie Walker’s collaboration with Blockbar makes us re-think the model of how luxury products are sold - offering the added value of experiences, and in the future, the possibilities of NFT purchases as the gateway to loyalty and membership models - a social CRM system that might actually be ready for its time.

Outside of luxury, Coca-Cola earlier this year asks fans to imagine what pixels might taste like with Coca-Cola Byte launching a Coke collaboration with DJ Marshmello (who played to an audience of 10.7 million people in a virtual Fortnite concert a few years back). It further links passion points of music and gaming via its many initiatives found in Coca Cola creations. Within China, a metaverse music festival was launched as part of its summer recruitment drive. The vision isn’t entirely syncing up just yet, but the rationale for the brand shifting its platform to ‘Real Magic’ is clear.

In summary, brands today are asked to be more participatory than ever. I’d like to leave you with this: How are we re-thinking our brand strategies to foster open-source innovation with our brands?