Surfer's wave overlaid with flavor trend graphic

How to Surf Flavor Trends and Stay Ahead of the Swell in Food and Beverage Innovation

by Lisa Jackson | Aug 1, 2024

Yes, it’s true – vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry rank as the top three flavors launched across the North American food and beverage landscape over the past five years. The mainstays will always be part of the flavor portfolio. Tastes continue to evolve, however, and staying ahead of the flavor trends curve can help you find and ride the next big wave.

But how do you navigate the vast sea of possibilities with pundits predicting floral, fantasy, or familiar with a twist as the next winning trend to back? That’s where we come in. At FlavorSum, we provide the resources and expert insights you need to master the art of surfing flavor trends. From quarterly category innovation reports to comprehensive newsletters, we equip you with the knowledge to successfully ride the pockets of innovation. Dive in with us and discover how to stay ahead of the swell in the exciting world of flavor trends.

Spotlighting Flavor Trends

Trendspotting as we know it today likely originated in the mid-1980s, helped by futurist John Naisbitt’s ground-breaking book, Megatrends. His content analysis expanded a WWII technique used by intelligence officers to find clues in newspapers about enemy troop movements. Now, with 408 terabytes of data created daily, extracting the relevant information to guide your brand’s plan is a daunting task!

NAVIGATING FLAVOR TRENDS WITH FLAVORFOCUS

Did you know that more than 16,000 flavors launched in foods and beverages over the past five years, and roughly 3,000 new combinations or novel flavors emerged last year? Finding the next ‘it’ flavor requires analytical expertise, patience, and an understanding of the cultural and behavioral dynamics influencing shopper choice. While few predicted that pumpkin spice lattes would be influential enough to shift the flavor from niche to trendy to ubiquitous in the last 24 years, you can discover flavor trends with the right resources. A subscription to FlavorFocus from FlavorSum gives you insights into the top flavors launched in your category, the fastest-growing flavor profiles, and showcases examples of North American introductions. Our team also shares trending claims and uses point-of-sale data to identify the top-selling flavors.

The first page of FlavorFocus showing Q2 summary of launch trends in Refreshing Beverages

Here are a few highlights from our most recent FlavorFocus reports:

Monthly launches in refreshing beverages jumped 55% in the last year, and tropical flavors are among the fastest-growing profiles, as we predicted for 2024.

In the past year, almost 100 new bakery items have launched per month. Three of the leading growth flavors incorporate the sweetness and indulgence of hazelnut.

Flavored alcoholic beverage monthly launches in North America increased by 64% in the first half of 2024. Cocktail-inspired RTDs, like Cosmopolitans and Palomas, led the flavor trends.

Cultured dairy launches increased seven-fold in May 2024, riding the renaissance wave for yogurt and cottage cheese. While the category remains fruit-forward or ‘unflavored,’ growth areas include indulgence with flavors like strawberry cheesecake or elevated with premium flavors like vanilla bean.

North American flavored water and water enhancer innovation remained steady compared to 2023, but category activity doubled in the first half of the year. Waters are crossing into the non-alcohol space with profiles like mojito and going global with flavors such as lychee, passionfruit, and tropical punch.

Although ice cream innovation churns up to prepare for the summer season, North American innovation slowed in 2024. Brands are returning to some indulgent favorites like salted caramel, caramel, and chocolate with cookies.

Launches of sugar confections softened through early 2024, but pockets of flavor growth include apple and sour versions of tropical, grape, fruit punch, and blood orange.

Innovation in the gummy format in the vitamins, minerals, and supplements (VMS) category is showing signs of slowdown. Some brands are expanding beyond the single fruit flavor to launch tropical and berry + citrus blends.

FINDING FLAVOR NEWS YOU CAN USE WITH FLAVORHUB

Statista reports that Americans send almost ten billion emails daily, the highest amount worldwide. Of the more than 300 billion daily emails sent globally, how many do you think are ‘spam’? If you guessed 50 percent, you’re right! Unfortunately, the ‘spam’ rate is higher in America (roughly 80 percent).

Newsletters from trusted partners stand out like friends in a sea of, well, not friends. FlavorHub, the quarterly newsletter from FlavorSum, represents a carefully curated compilation of flavor trends affecting the food and beverage industry. We share topical information from our blog, e-books, infographics, FlavorScience videos, and webcasts. Our goal? To provide you with easy access to timely and relevant insights that can help guide your brand strategy. You’ll also get details about the latest solutions from FlavorSum!

Headlines from the latest edition of FlavorHub include:

Flavors Spotlight: Crafting Seasonal Flavors for LTO Success, where we explore tastes aligned with spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Solutions: FlavorSum Modulate, a suite of flavor maskers, modulation tools, and applications expertise that helps you create remarkable tastes.

Infographic: How to Write a Project Brief shares guidelines for describing the parameters of your brand in a flavor project brief.

New Product Development Documents: A Checklist for Food and Beverage Brands with all you need to know about the new product development documents for commercializing food and beverage innovations.

Read our Q2 FlavorHub here!

Sign up for FlavorSum Discover and get direct digital delivery of Flavor Trends

You’re always welcome to explore the FlavorSum website to learn about flavor trends, flavor solutions, and how we support your success. Subscribing to FlavorSum Discover, however, lets you choose the content you need. Sign up here today to begin getting expert insights about your category delivered directly to your inbox.

If you have questions about our resources or need more specific support with insights investigations, please connect with our team to learn more.

Author

Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson, Director of Marketing at FlavorSum, brings more than 30 years of market and consumer research experience to support innovation activities for food and beverage organizations.