Summer flavour trends

Summer is a time where consumers desire healthy, refreshing and fun food and beverage options to enjoy with their friends and families. Here’s a perspective on satisfying summer flavour trends:

Lemon and blueberries:  Many beverage companies are latching on to blueberries and lemon for the summer by creating alcoholic lemonade with gin in refreshing flavours, such as blueberry. The tart taste of the lemon and the blueberry aroma brings cocktail and cake lovers the taste of the summertime.

Avocado:  Move over avocado toast! Avocadoes are becoming a popular ingredient in alcoholic beverages, giving them a natural creamy texture without having to use cream or milk. The fruit also provides a sensational mouth feel without any added “bad fats” and calories, which appeals to consumers’ latest demands for healthier food and beverage options. An appealing aspect of the avocado is its neutral taste, making it pair well with almost any ingredient.

Soursop:  The soursop fruit, a prickly looking green fruit that is local to the Caribbean and South America, has been used for centuries in tropical climates across the world because of its purported healing properties. Today, it is used for its flavour, which is described as a sweet taste somewhere between strawberries and apples, with a slight citrus note and underlining hints of banana, vanilla and coconut. This flavour can be found in confectionery and alcoholic beverage applications, and the tropical aroma and taste will bring foodies to the beach, even if they are just sitting by a pool or at home.

Matcha:  Matcha is powdered green tea: This summer, matcha is making its way into bars in the form of green matcha beer. Tea houses are taking matcha tea and adding it to a rice-based lager from Japan to create a crisp and refreshing beverage, while still offering that lush, sophisticated intricacy that comes from the matcha tea. While matcha is a new trend, a nice cold beer is a summer classic that will now have a new flavour kick.

Floral Flavours:  Frozen drinks and snacks provide some of the tastiest ways to cool down in the summer heat. This summer’s trending frozen treats are utilizing floral flavours, such as fresh watermelon, white grapefruit and orange blossom, made into drinks like “frosé,” a slushy drink made with frozen rosé wine. Orange blossom flavouring adds a delicate floral note with citrusy hints, which is perfect for warmer weather.

“This summer’s flavours are all about a blast from summers past, but with a twist,” said Greg Kaminski, executive research chef at Synergy Flavors. “Consumers still want nostalgic summer classics, such as tastes of lemonade and fruit popsicles, but they are also more adventurous and crave something new and exciting. Food scientists, chefs, bartenders and manufacturers are all working to create new experiential flavours for food and beverage applications to meet consumers’ demands for flavours that bring back memories in new and refreshing ways.”

Kara Simon is the director of marketing at Maritz Motivation Solutions.