2022 Flavor of the Year

2022 Flavor of the Year Embodies Desire for Food, Beverages That Are “Better for People and Planet”

When most people hear the word “botanicals,” they probably think more about shampoo than dairy. However, there’s plenty of opportunity in the dairy space with this year’s selected flavor, as it plays well into consumers’ desire for clean labels options, the interest in flavor adventure and the importance of consuming products that are natural and have health benefits. Teas, herbs and spices are being incorporated into dairy products like yogurt, not only for naturally derived taste but also natural ways of coloring food. Botanicals can also be used as additives that complement dairy products by adding fiber and natural forms of caffeine. Yes, it’s new and different, but it’s another opportunity for dairy to continue to meet its consumers where they are with what they want to consume.

Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned fragrance and taste company, is excited to announce its 2022 Flavor of the Year, Magical Botanical, responding to a transformed society’s need for enhanced well being and creativity.

A LIMITED EDITION CREATIVE COLLECTION

“This is our 10th Flavor of the Year, something our customers have really come to look forward to,” said Emmanuel Butstraen, president of Firmenich’s Taste & Beyond division. “To help serve the consumer-driven diet transformation with food and beverages that are better for people and planet, we aimed to develop a creation that embodies this transformation. We tapped into the extraordinary talent and creativity of Firmenich flavorists across the world to create something entirely new, inspired by the transformative and healing notions of botanicals.”

The Magical Botanical flavors were designed around a core of intriguing botanical ingredients and culinary herbs of natural origin and traceable sourcing that are also known for their healing and immunity-supporting powers. Firmenich creators paired these ingredients with dynamic elements of surprise and delight, transforming them into great-tasting flavors. The resulting flavor collection was designed to inspire new creativity in a wide variety of applications across sweet goods, savory foods and beverages.

CREATIVITY FROM COLOR AND TRENDS

This marks the first time Firmenich has created a new flavor by blending a variety of natural elements for its Flavor of the Year launch. This year also brings the unveiling of a sensory partnership between Firmenich and the global color authority, Pantone. Inspired by an unprecedented moment of global transformation, both Firmenich and Pantone

have chosen to introduce entirely new creations as the Firmenich Flavor of the Year and the Pantone Color of the Year, respectively.

Pantone Color of the Year 2022 is PANTONE 17-3938 or Very Peri, an entirely new periwinkle blue hue enhanced with a vibrant violet-red undertone. It was created by Pantone using the universal language of color to reflect these uniquely transformative times.

“Like Pantone Very Peri, Firmenich’s Flavor of the Year aims to capture the emerging themes we’re seeing in the world around us by translating new trends and consumer emotions into positive sensory experiences,” said Mikel Cirkus, global creative director, Taste & Beyond.

INSPIRED BY TRANSFORMING MARKETS

Firmenich’s consumer and market data tell the same story. Its proprietary Flavor Knowledge Portal, fueled by Mintel data, leverages more than 10 years’ worth of data across millions of launched products to uncover patterns and trends around food and beverage innovation. This data reveals that even before COVID-19, food and beverage companies began accelerating their bets on botanicals.

“Hot drinks, alcoholic drinks and baked goods are the most common applications, and we also see substantial numbers of brands talking about botanicals on packaging in applications from sauces and snacks to juices,

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dairy and nutritional drinks. In sensory terms, this is driving growth in the use of flavor notes that we classify as flowery, herbal and tea tonalities within our AromaSphere flavor description system,” said Firmenich Global Head of Human Insights Jeff Schmoyer.

THE MAGIC OF COMBINING BOTANICALS

“To stretch our creativity even further, this year we challenged our flavorists to create blends of botanicals that fit these trends and also are evocative of the Pantone Color of the Year 2022.

Botanicals lend themselves naturally to creative blending in food and beverages. Over the past decade, the use of combinations of flavors had been on a steady increase in launched consumer packaged goods, cresting at 45% of all launches in 2018,” Schmoyer remarked. “While we’ve seen a slight slowdown in the launch of multiway blends during COVID as manufacturers focused on single hero ingredients with benefits (such as our 2021 Flavor of the Year, ginger), there are clear indicators that consumers have become considerably more creative at home in the kitchen and are hungry for more interesting and complex flavors outside the home, as well.”

In the most recent wave of Firmenich’s global consumer tracking across 22 countries, the top three behavior changes noted by consumers during the past year were “a major improvement in cooking ability,” “becoming more passionate about food overall” and “increased use of herbs and spices.” According to Schmoyer, “All of this points to a surge in intentional consumer creativity and interest in learning to work with and combine nature’s most aromatic and culinarily relevant plants to create unexpected food and drink experiences for the future.”