Traditionally, specific countries are associated with specific drinks, for example tea in China, wine in France or beer in Belgium. Often a country is associated with more than one drink, for example vodka and tea in Russia or wine and coffee in Italy. It is the local heritage and culture of consumption that define these associations.
Work done by Euromonitor International’s Centre for Analytics, Modelling and Innovation (CAMI) seems to suggest that analysing drinking cultures alongside national food preferences might reveal additional correlations. There seems to be a relationship between sales of a particular type of alcohol and nuances of national cuisine. Beer sales, for example, correlate well with ketchup. Wine sales tend to follow cheese. And vodka sales correlate well with mayonnaise.
Vodka and Mayonnaise Sales, 2014
Source: Euromonitor International
Note: shaded area indicates confidence bands (the strength of linear relationship). More points covered by the shaded area indicates stronger relationship between variables.
Although correlation does not imply causation, knowing correlations can lead to insights - the demand for several categories can go hand in hand for other reasons, or it may indicate a symbiotic relationship.
CAMI analysis of consumption patterns is not an attempt to re-appropriate Euromonitor’s analytical or methodological narrative. Instead it should be viewed as a powerful tool for diving into Euromonitor’s unparalleled pool of data in the hope of gaining a fresh, ground breaking perspective beyond traditional and reliable if mono-dimensional performance metrics.