By DEE-ANN DURBIN (AP Business Writer)
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream typically attracts customers with gourmet takes on classics like vanilla and pistachio. But occasionally the New York-based artisan ice cream maker adds what it calls a “shock flavor,” like Hidden Valley Ranch or pizza.
Hershey recently released pink lemonade-flavored Kit Kats, while IHOP and Lay's Rooty released Tooty Fresh n' Fruity potato chips which might be said to taste like pancakes with strawberries and a touch of bacon. In the UK, Little Moons made fish and chips mochi ice cream in 2021, while potato chip brand Walkers famously celebrated Christmas with a Brussels sprouts flavored edition.
Typically, these are limited-time flavors, although occasionally they turn into so popular that they find yourself on store shelves permanently, as was the case with Lay's Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle Chips in 2019.
While it's tempting to pass them off as social media stunts, experts say there's more to the story. Food firms are responding to consumers' changing and growing tastes while attempting to keep brands relevant and distinctive to achieve space on crowded store shelves.
“We're in a really exciting time of taste evolution, where consumers aren't just one thing. You are not just a sour or sweet lover. “You want a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” said Kristen Braun, senior brand manager for Oreo innovation at a Chicago-based food and beverage company Mondelez International. “Companies are finding the freedom to explore a little more and be more creative.”
Sour Patch Kids Oreos – cookies crammed with vanilla cream and flecked with colourful sour candy pieces – are considered one of a few dozen limited-edition offerings Oreo flavors that Mondelez plans to release this 12 months. Braun said the corporate takes one to 2 years to develop such products, which stay on shelves for about nine weeks. She's already fascinated about future flavors that blur the lines between sweet, salty and spicy.
Unusual pairings aren't entirely recent within the food and beverage industry. For example, Hubba Bubba released a bubblegum-flavored soda within the late Eighties. But manufacturers and their suppliers have turn into more sophisticated and efficient, making it easier to experiment and release limited editions more often, said Mark Lang, a food marketing expert and associate professor of promoting on the University of Tampa.
Kyle Shadix, who as PepsiCo's chief research officer worked on drinks similar to Pepsi maple syrup and a Strawberry Cake Pepsi sold in Japan, said members of Generation Z are also driving innovation. They are diverse, adventurous and quick to select up on food trends through social media, he said.
“Every chef dreams of designing them,” says Shadix, who’s currently experimenting rather a lot with Mexican, Korean and Japanese flavors. “Gen Z will push us forward faster. We’re going to see more exploration even faster than we have in the past because they’re just so open to it.”
Playing with flavors can strengthen brands in a lot of ways. Sometimes they carry recent customers to a brand. They could also encourage shoppers to decide on the unique flavor, said Russell Zwanka, director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University.
“Sour Patch Oreos sound interesting, but no one wants to risk buying Oreos that don't taste good, so people buy both,” Zwanka said.
When firms mix brands, they struggle to construct an association in consumers' minds. Peeps flavored “Pepsi,” which got here out last 12 months, sends the message that Pepsi is current and fun, Lang said. Mustard flavored Bowlingwhich got here out last summer, made the 104-year-old brand French's seem playful.
Enter Kraft Heinz, which approached Van Leeuwen Ice Cream a couple of years ago for macaroni and cheese ice cream. Ben Van Leeuwen, the corporate's co-founder and CEO, was initially skeptical, but found that Kraft's powder mixed well with the Brooklyn-based company's ice cream.
Van Leeuwen's Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Ice Cream received rave reviews in 2021 and was re-released for a short while last fall.
“We will only do a shock taste if we can make it good and clear. We’re not going to do a shock flavor where it’s shock in name only but tastes like vanilla,” Van Leeuwen said.
But novel flavor combos don't at all times work. Van Leeuwen couldn't eat greater than a couple of bites of his company's Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, which contained onion and garlic powder. And shock flavors don't typically find yourself on the everlasting menu due to their lower “edibility,” he said.
“I think you would try our macaroni and cheese and say, 'Oh, that's good,' but would you like to grab a pint of that macaroni and cheese from your freezer when you're watching a Netflix series and eat something?” the entire? Probably not,” said Van Leeuwen.
Candy brand Brach's encountered this problem with its Turkey Dinner Candy Corn, a limited-edition 2021 version of the autumn staple that tasted like turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, apple pie, and low. Katie Duffy, vp and general manager of seasonal items at Ferrara Candy Co., which owns Brach's, acknowledged there was one “glaring” factor.
“We've learned from consumers that we don't want a product where they eat a bunch of candy and then throw it away because they don't want to do certain things again,” Duffy said. “We want it to be a delicious journey of taste.”
Brach's recently introduced gummy bears for “Easter Brunch,” and so they hit the mark, she said. The candy beans mimicked the taste of blueberry maple pancakes, chocolate donuts, caramel cold brew, cinnamon rolls, berry smoothies and mimosa cocktails.
Shannon Weiner, senior director of insights and analytics at Ferrara, said the corporate closely monitors social media to see what flavors are trending. People are increasingly in search of dessert and milk-flavored candies, she said. They're also in search of more international flavors; Tajin, the chili-lime condiment from Mexico, recently did a collaboration with Pop-Tarts.
Lang believes the more time people spend in restaurants or trying recent foods, the more they search out unusual flavors.
“We are diverse animals. We are constantly looking for something new and different; It’s in our wiring,” he said. “We like to experiment.”
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