Chinotto, soda and lemonade: traditional drinks resist fashions

The chinotto, the gassosa, the limonata. There is a piece of Italia that is drunk, and that Italians have never stopped loving. Indeed, they claim it: for 8 out of 10 consumers, soft drinks even deserve to be recognised as ambassadors of Italian taste in the world. This is the picture taken by the survey "Consumption and Perception of Soft Drinks in Italia", carried out by AstraRicerche for Assobibe - the Confindustria association representing companies in the sector - on a sample of 1,004 interviewees aged between 18 and 70, conducted on the occasion of the National Day of Made in Italy.

According to the survey, the soft drinks sector - which is worth almost 5 billion, but which is going through a complex moment, like many other consumer goods, but on which the danger of the sugar tax also looms large - is not just any sector: for Italians it is a cultural heritage, even before the industrial one. 71% of those interviewed say they particularly appreciate traditional drinks - chinottos, sodas, lemonades - and more than half are convinced that these products are appreciated abroad (58%), representative of Italian style (54%) and recognised excellences in the world (53%). Numbers that say a lot about a sector that counts 80 companies and 100 factories distributed throughout Italy.

Supporting this international vocation are, according to consumers, three main strengths: the centrality of the aperitif as a globally appreciated ritual (38%), the quality of raw materials from Italian agriculture (38%) and the distinctive taste (34%). All values that are particularly felt among Millennials. Typical local ingredients, such as Sicilian citrus fruits and Alpine herbs, then meet with favour among 7 out of 10 Italians.

Asking an Italian what a soft drink evokes means opening an archive of memories. According to the survey, for 76% these products evoke summer and holidays, for 68% moments with friends, for 57% small everyday pleasures. But it is perhaps the most intimate data that best reveals the depth of this link: for more than 1 in 2 Italians (51%) soft drinks are associated with childhood memories. The most evocative are colas and orangeades - cited by 1 in 3 consumers - followed by aperitifs (22%) and sodas (21%), the latter especially among seniors. Among Gen Z, on the other hand, it is energy drinks that occupy that emotional space (22%).

On the consumption side, cola (29%) and iced tea (23%) are confirmed as the most popular products. The characteristics considered fundamental are taste (91%) and thirst-quenching capacity (86%), but for more than 6 out of 10 Italians, the Italian origin of the product also counts.