One size doesn’t fit all

According to Hugh Evans, marketing manager at Synergy, it is important to adapt flavours to consumer palates in different regions, even if that means slight variations of the same one. The company has just launched a range of four mango flavours adapted to the unique consumer tastes in Europe, Thailand and Brazil.

Meanwhile another flavour trend that has expanded across different categories is the desire for hot and spicy. But manufacturers are now realising that ‘one spice doesn’t fit all’ and are offering varying heat levels to give consumers a choice in their heat preference, from spicy to hot to superhot, said Stanton.

“We see this mass customisation trend across a number of different categories. As an extension to this, we also observe naming the chili variants, [such as] peri peri, jalapeño, habnero, sriracha.​

“Taking this another step further, there are even heat targets for specific consumer groups: intense hot profiles and bolder flavours targeting men and ‘fruit and spice’ combos, to provide mild heat for families, such as ‘chili and mango​’.”