2025 Food and Beverage Trends: Aligning Flavors With Evolving Shopper Needs

Deciding which food and beverage trends are relevant for your brand can help you generate quick wins or frame your long-term plans. Trend watchers often counsel you about specific actions like sourcing locally, using sustainable packaging, and offering online ordering. While individual activities have value, a broader, integrated approach incorporating multiple trends can help you build a cohesive vision for the future.

Part 1 of our exploration of trends to watch in 2025 shared insights about how the evolution of North Americans’ behaviors and expectations influences food and beverage innovation. As you strive to create connections with your brand, investigating how flavors can create desirable experiences is a valuable part of the development process. Our 2025 flavor predictions examine themes linked to interests in serenity, premium, provenance, and daypart personalization.

Seeking Serenity

A glance at news headlines, your social feed, or your to-do list after your last meeting about new deadlines can accelerate your heart rate. As anxiety levels rise, your feelings of control, judgment, and productivity often diminish. Like many people, you may turn to foods, beverages, supplements, or phone apps to alleviate the stress of daily living and calm the ‘fight or flight’ response. Stress-relief solutions are often temporary, however, leading to an increased desire for serenity, a learned emotion that can help people feel more resilient when dealing with challenges.

The shift toward a serene state of mind is growing and affecting food and beverage trends. A review of social discussions reveals the following statistics:

PURSUING HOLISTIC HEALTH

Unlike a symptom-based approach to wellness, holistic health addresses health’s physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual components. The goal? Achieving a balance that leads to serenity and extends beyond people to include communities and the environment. The 2024 IFIC Food and Health Survey reveals more people are following specific eating habits to feel better and protect their long-term health.

More North Americans understand the links between what they eat and the interconnected health of the performance of their brain, digestive system, heart, immunity, and mood. We expect growing demand for foods, beverages, and ingredients designed to meet holistic health goals and support the pursuit of serenity.

COMFORT REDEFINED

Comfort foods and their connection to stress-reducing dopamine and serotonin underpin recent survey results showing 70% of Americans would choose comfort over gourmet meals. We anticipate an evolution in comfort food in 2025 in recognition of the growing desire for well-being.

With conversations about healthier comfort foods up more than 5% in the last year, look for more food and beverage brands revamping the classics by:

FLAVORS THAT CUE SERENITY

People are investigating flavors and ingredients to help them realize serene experiences. Specific tastes linking more often to goals for serenity and healthier comfort foods include:

Premium, Please

Elevated eating is a known food and beverage trend among North Americans, but how brands can deliver premium experiences is changing. The increased interest in premium reflects the cultural shift toward food activism since shoppers seeking control associate premium claims with higher quality (Mintel). Premium is an active topic in the social space, with discussions up by 14% in the last year. Innova reports that about 2 in 5 shoppers globally plan to spend more on premium food for in-home consumption in 2025 to deliver mental and physical benefits.

PREMIUM —  INSIDE AND OUT

We often link indulgence with premium foods and drinks, and premium/indulgent flavors continue to influence food choices among 20% of North Americans (Innova). But people evaluating ‘premium-ness’ are more likely to consider the entire brand in 2025, meaning formulators and marketers need to consider ingredient selection, packaging, and messaging.

For example, innovations with premium claims are more likely to offer functional benefits, deliver cleaner ‘free-from’ formulas, and demonstrate heightened environmental concern.

While current economic conditions restrict premium purchases for some shoppers, premium positionings are feasible to meet the needs for budget-friendly options. Brands offering high-quality ingredients, giving back to communities, or incorporating some sustainable manufacturing processes can build a premium reputation that people trust enough to occasionally buy.

FROM SIMPLE PLEASURES TO COMPLEX CRAVINGS

Premium’s connection to indulgence often leads brands to develop complex taste experiences. Associations between premium and complex flavors increased by 80% in social discussions.

Over the last five years, almost half (47%) of North American food, beverage, and health launches featured combination flavors, with 10% of combo flavors featuring more than 2 profiles (Mintel). Profile examples showing growth include adding fruit and citrus to a berry flavor (like raspberry, pineapple, and passion fruit) or mixing berry, beverage, and spice notes (such as strawberry tamarind margarita flavor).

But simplicity is a viable path to meeting desires for an upscaled food or beverage. Discussions about simple flavors increased by 17% in the last year, and classics like chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla continue to rank as the leading flavors launched in North America. Posts linking simple flavors to coziness grew by over 80%, with brands delivering a luxurious experience with premium versions of ‘the basics.’

PREMIUM-IZING FLAVOR

Premium flavor profiles generating buzz across complex, simple, and cozy include the following.

Examples of complex premium flavors are:

Simple flavors connected with premium experiences include:

Simple, cozy flavors that can provide luxury are:

Tell Me a Story

When we share a story, we connect with others because they relate to similar experiences they have had in their lives. Storytelling unlocks how people see each other and unites them through commonalities. For brands, stories can open doors to attract new buyers, facilitate understanding of value propositions, and influence loyalty.

Flavor stories as a food and beverage trend grew by 54% in social discussion. Some of the fastest-growing types of flavor stories have plotlines that share how brands are:

The story you choose will resonate with shoppers when it aligns with your brand guardrails.

REGIONAL ROOTS

Place and terroir matter when people are selecting foods and beverages. Sharing a flavor’s origin story helps people connect the brand to a region known for producing superior or unique flavors. Recognizable provenance, like Key lime, Alphonso mango, Rainier cherry, or Tahitian vanilla, elevates the quality perceptions of familiar tastes and aligns with interest in traceability. Adding regional stories to a flavor can bring exotic locales closer to home.

Although provenance is not a new food and beverage trend, regional flavor expansion will likely continue in 2025. We expect more brands across various categories— from snacks and ice cream to beverages and cookies to tap into regional inspirations.

LOCAL LEGENDS

Local flavors as a food and beverage trend jumped 35% in social discussion as brands bring famous tastes into new categories. Flavors embedded in local culture and identities are gaining broader recognition across North America. For example, people are incorporating Faygo soft drink flavors into popsicles. St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake flavor is now in cocktails and ice cream, and Louisiana’s famous beignet flavor is moving into coffee, ice cream, popcorn, and spirits.

Finding the right local legend for your brand will take some time as you research the market and assess which flavor(s) make sense to your product buyers. Look for tastes anchored in a strong, universally resonant storyline (like whimsy, celebration, or uniqueness) to provide focus.

Legendary flavors often tap into universal human experiences—such as the joy of discovery, the pleasure of indulgence, or the excitement of something new—making them appealing to multiple generations.

STORIED FLAVORS

Flavor stories getting buzz in the social landscape and likely to build momentum in 2025 range from familiar to novel, with fast-growing profiles including the following:

Legendary flavors making a comeback through cross-over innovation in 2025 include:

Meet Me in the Moment

Snacking continues to meet nutritional needs, accounting for half of 2024 eating occasions and attracting almost half of North Americans to the snack cabinet three or more times daily. The line between meals and snacks is increasingly blurry, with 35% more shoppers adding snacks to their main meals. Taste expectations, nutritional concerns, and desired experiences are always evolving, creating challenges for brands as they strive to deliver at the right time and place in 2025.

Because snacks are often meal replacements, leading (and fast-growing) nutritional needs expressed in the social landscape include familiar ingredients like protein and fiber. Shoppers are savvier about nutrition and health, leading to more conversations about elements like electrolytes (hydration), amino acids (energy), and omega 3 (heart health).

Taste expectations echo familiar food and beverage trends with growing interest in rich, intense, sweet and savory, and tropical profiles.

Foods and beverages in any form, from main meal component to snack, are rarely daypart agnostic. FlavorSum’s research can help you identify how best to meet your buyers in the moment next year.

EVOLVING NUTRITIONAL GOALS, SUNRISE TO SUNSET

In the morning, people choose foods and beverages that provide energy and support their health. About half of the shoppers in our survey want satiety, with 40% saying they’re looking for a treat. Morning selections align with goals, led by foods like nuts, yogurt, and energy bars and beverages like coffee, tea, functional water, or energy drinks.

By afternoon, the desire to indulge takes priority, although people still want energy sources to carry them through the day. Texture plays a more active role in meeting goals leading to food choices with crunchier formats. Hydration and energy drinks are go-to’s, along with more indulgent RTD coffees or teas.

As the sun sets, cravings for indulgence peak, according to more than 70% of our respondents. Midnight noshers also name indulgent food and drink as their first choice, but more mention portion control and energy as goals. Evening options lean into richer, often less healthy foods like cookies or ice cream, and late-night beverages tip into cocktails or wines.

TASTE CHOICES SHIFT WITH TIME

Links between flavor and function often drive food and beverage trends, with emerging flavors aligning with evolving functionalities. But flavor choices also align with dayparts and the associated nutritional goals.

Morning flavor selections tie to profiles with health halos like berries or tree fruits. Bakery-inspired and cheese flavors also fit with morning. People prefer a slightly muted flavor intensity, even with indulgent flavors. For example, lighter chocolate, honey, or vanilla generates more interest than dark chocolate or caramel. Spice profiles, such as cinnamon, ginger, or paprika, are also on the gentler side of the spectrum.

Intensity can ramp up in the afternoon with brighter citrus fruits, bolder cheese flavors, richer chocolates, or hotter spices. Flavors with health cues retreat slightly, although berry and tree fruit profiles are still frequent choices.

Decadent flavors have the highest appeal in the evening, like richer chocolates, indulgent bakery tastes, and robust cheese profiles. Spice levels tone down slightly through flavors like smoked paprika and garlic.

FLAVORS FOR DAY AND NIGHT

Emerging flavors gaining traction during specific dayparts as we head into 2025 include some known and novel profiles.

Morning flavors

How Will You Create Experiences Through Flavor in 2025? 

As you map your brand direction for 2025, partner with FlavorSum to create the taste profiles that meet shopper needs and align with your brand value. We’ll support your success with insights, flavor creation, applications, and commercialization expertise. Contact our team today!

Download an infographic summarizing our 2025 Food and Beverage Flavor Trends here.