The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 40

Food 08.02.02 1 7 PHOTOGRAPH: RANKIN TrT' 4BBM Bottle weary Why is it that modern drinks seem to be aimed more at our eyes than our palates? Albert Hill reports packaging overrides the quality of what's inside. The emphasis has been deliberately put on the packaging because of the audience it is aimed at." If alcopops are all mouth and very little trousers, then, it's no surprise to see that clothing company French Connection has launched a range of brightly coloured, fizzy alcoholic drinkables. With its FCUK marketing campaign considered to be one of the most successful for years in impact terms, all that was really needed was to stick its cheeky labels on to bottles of luridly coloured liquid and watch them sell. When Chivas wanted to turn affluent young socialisers into whisky drinkers, it put a soft-tasting blended whisky in premium packaging rather than play up the quality and tradition behind the product. With its distinctive squat shape and swirling label design, the Chivas Revolve bottle certainly looks good, but Eyears still reckons that "getting people to ignore the associations of your grandpa drinking whisky at 10 in the morning is nearly Port producers Amorim have launched an attempt to make the fortified wine into a hip tipple by selling it in a minimalist black bottle, and some companies have even devised whhe cognacs in an effort to tempt younger drinkers away from their alcopops and, another favourite, vodka.

It is, of course, vodka's distinct lack of flavour that helps to explain its huge market share. But the perfect drink for zealous marketeers to try their magic on is mineral water. In the UK, the mineral water market is worth 70Om a year, with that figure set to double by Despite the hype surrounding natural foods, naked chefs and organic everything, taste is fast becoming the food and drink industry's forgotten factor. Image, it seems, is a faster way to the stomach (and wallets) of today's young consumer. You could be forgiven for thinking that some food and drink companies were in the business of design rather than nutrition.

Tesco realised long ago that slick packaging and the liberal use of culinary buzzwords can seduce young, affluent eaters. Its Finest range has been a steady success since its launch in 1998. Sainsbury's has its own Taste the Difference selection. Somerfield has just caught up by launching its So Good line complete with gold and black packaging. These ranges might sell themselves as superior-tasting sandwiches and ready-made meals, but what they also offer is the alluring image of elitism.

A beef in whisky and molasses sauce on kibbled wheat bread sandwich (from the Taste the Difference range) might sound like a taste sensation, but it is more likely to be half eaten by a customer who has had one too many overpriced dinners in their lifetime and likes to think it the sophistic led choice. It is on the drinks shelves, though, that the real posturing is going on. Drinks are far more limited in their variations than food, but more important is the alarming lack of interest in distinctive flavours, particularly among younger drinkers. It has led to a style of presentation that does its very best to make foodstuff's, or at least drinkstuffs, look as unnatural but as stylish as possible. Jaspar Eyears runs Alchemist Management Services, the company responsible for making Che in London, Ghengis in Newcastle, Water in Brighton and the Nocturne bar in Bristol into some of the country's most desirable drinking destinations.

His experience has taught him that youngsters reared on alcopops have turned into unsophisticated adult consumers where flavours are concerned. "There is now a whole generation of drinkers who have been drinking alcopops since they were 16. When they get into the real world at 18, their palettes don't like anything else." They do, however, know the value of, say, a matt-black bottle. Stephen Wright, buying manager at Selfridgcs food hall, singles out alcopops as "products where the 2005. And in this sector, it really is all about image: those who can tell their Evian from their Volvic are rare indeed.

Enthusiastic to share in such a growth is the Welsh-based, Italian-owned company Ty Nant. Its cobalt blue bottles certainly got it noticed in the 1990s. Now Ty Nant wants to make a similar impression on the plastic bottled water market. Ty Nant wants this so badly that it has commissioned fashion photographer Rankin to create a series of promotional photographs and paid an undisclosed sum to run it on eight consecutive pages in the Apri) edition of uber-trendy Dazed Confused magazine. Later in the campaign, Ty Nant plans to go after some serious product placement, hoping for a (costly) cameo role in the new Star Wars film, although it might have to settle for a bit part in Hollyoaks.

Leaving nothing to chance, Ty Nant has made sure that its new plastic bottle, which took a full two years to develop, will give us something to talk about. Designed by Ross Love-grove (a sort of Welsh Philippe Starck), it is designed to "evoke the flow of which, in its organic way, it does, although some might say it looks like a plastic bottle that's been left on a radiator. If this smacks of trying too hard, even Evian, a clear market leader that already has a perfectly good bottle, has felt the need to put out extravagantly designed packaging. Its Millennium Teardrop bottles were marketed as a collector's edition for that rare breed that, er, collects mineral water bottles. Needless to say, there are still plenty on sale.

But if it's technological chic you're after oh, and something to drink, too then Piper Heidsieck has the answer. The mini-bottles of several champagne brands have been a staple component of many a glitzy night out of late, and most conspicuous has been Pommery's Pop. Packaged in bright blue glass with a silver-foil top, it defies the conventions of champagne presentation. Its creators describe it as a "nomad" product something designed to be drunk on the hop. Now Piper Heidsieck's 200ml Baby Piper bottle is about to hit the party Liquid bottt for Ty Nant was assigned to 'voka tho flow of water' circuit.

Clad in an ingenious bright red thermal high-tech material, the champagne remains cold while the drinker's hands stay warm. It comes complete with its own essential black and gold straw. While there's no doubt that the packaging has a certain allure, what it doesn't do is remind us of the quality of the product Piper Heidsieck is an excellent champagne made by-Daniel Thibauh, who is no stranger to winemaking awards. The champagne market has been image-led for years. The Perrier Jouet brand commissioned art nouveau bottle designs for its more exclusive vintages as long ago as the end of the 19th century.

And indeed, it's a product area that can sustain its integrity at the same time. But while there's nothing wrong with a modern-looking label and bit of smart design, God forbid that the drinks market should ultimately become one where style completely displaces content wfcrto kilo tho drinks in0rfcot uaA- tiw f.w fnww rpvv nwmwcK.