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From OREO soda to s’mores-flavored noodle soup, the emerging flavor trends and popular flavors for 2025 are based on consumers’ desire for new and surprising taste experiences.
Last year marked an exciting chapter for Glanbia Nutritionals as we strengthened our flavor capabilities through another strategic acquisition. We had already welcomed Foodarom, a custom flavor designer renowned for its innovative, tailor-made solutions, into the Glanbia family.
Building on this momentum, we acquired Flavor Producers, a leading flavor house recognized for its expertise in organic and natural flavors and extracts. These partnerships reinforce our commitment to shaping the future of flavor, enabling us to deliver even more creative, high-quality, and sustainable flavor solutions—critical to meeting the trends ahead.
The popular flavors for 2025 will be bold, unexpected, and uniquely innovative, driven by blended, swapped, and fusion flavor profiles.
Flavor Producers’ AI tool, Tastewise, reveals a 57.8% year-over-year increase in demand for complex flavors.1 This includes combinations such as Sour & Savory, Earthy & Umami, and Spicy & Umami, reflecting consumers’ growing appetite for adventurous and multi-dimensional taste experiences—especially among younger consumers.
Almost one-third of US consumers aged 13-24 are continually looking for new foods and flavors to try, followed closely by 27% of consumers aged 25-34, reports Mintel.2 According to Mintel, nearly half (49%) of Millennials think unique flavors make a snack indulgent.3
Here’s a look at the flavor trends for 2025 that are meeting this demand:
The Sweet Heat trend is turning up the temperature on sweet foods and beverages, moving beyond Mexican chocolate and hot honey. Bold innovations like Hot Take Dr Pepper, a limited-edition soda with fiery pepper flavor and flame-branded cans, showcase how brands are spicing up their sweet treats to excite consumers.
Flavor Ideas: Chipotle brownie, chili lime watermelon, caramel cayenne, strawberry heat
Umami has been showing up in surprising places, from Jeni’s Miso Butterscotch Brownie ice cream to Johnnie Walker Blue Label Exclusive Umami whiskey, crafted with Michelin-starred chef Kei Kobayashi. Exclusive Umami whiskey boasts rich caramelized miso notes blended with hints of blood orange and red berry, adding savory depth consumers didn’t know they were missing.
Flavor Ideas: Tamari, miso, koji, black garlic, nori, porcini, truffle, Comté
Liquid Death’s Hot Fudge Sundae Flavored Sparkling Water shows consumers also find indulgent flavors in unexpected places. Another example is S’mores Cup Noodles, ramen noodles in a chocolate graham cracker-flavored sauce with crunchy marshmallows, transforming a savory food into a comforting dessert-inspired treat.
Flavor Ideas: Nutella, salted caramel, panna cotta, praline, chocolate coconut, turtle pie
The Flavor Swaps trend is driving increasingly innovative cross-category collaborations, with brands exchanging signature flavors in new ways. Standouts include the Oreo and Coca-Cola limited-time releases of Oreo-flavored soda and Coca-Cola-flavored cookies. With Oreo emerging as the fastest growing flavor (+433% YoY) in social media conversations around soda,4 these playful mashups capture consumer curiosity.
Staying ahead of flavor trends requires a deep understanding of consumer insights to anticipate evolving tastes and preferences. Using consumer insights helps brands spot new flavors and preferences before they become mainstream, giving them a competitive edge.
Conducting market research—like looking at social media conversations, tracking sales data, and engaging directly with consumers to gather feedback—can provide valuable clues. By staying connected to what people want, brands can create products that are fresh, exciting, and on target with what’s next.
Our flavor partners, Flavor Producers and Foodarom, have extensive innovation experience and broad portfolios that ensure all key flavor categories are available to our customers—including fruit, dairy, sweet, savory, masking flavors, and more.
Additionally, they excel in several key areas that just might inspire your next product innovation! These include:
Today’s flavor trends reflect a growing excitement among consumers—particularly Gen Z and Millennials—for unexpected, complex, and innovative flavor experiences. Food and beverage brands are responding with increasingly creative solutions, pushing the boundaries of traditional flavor combinations.
Innovation is key to staying relevant in the market, and we are pleased that through our flavor partnerships, we can support our customers with flavor expertise, customization, and cutting-edge solutions. Our natural and organic options, as well as state-of-the-art masking solutions for functional and plant-based proteins, ensure brands can create products that align with today’s needs.
Explore our rich array of flavor solutions with Foodarom and Flavor Producers. Contact Glanbia Nutritionals for more information!
