By Emmanuel Laroche VP Marketing and Consumer Insights, Symrise NA
In our 2017 Symrise NA Flavor Report we have introduced a new trend called “Tamed Heat”. Tamed Heat refers to spices such as ginger, turmeric and cayenne. Tamed Heat has been recently introduced on many Chef Menus across the country after gaining in popularity at fresh juice shops for health and wellness benefits and natural energy boost.
CLICK HERE to see the Top Trends from the 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show
After the 2017 Winter Fancy Food Show we wrote “move over matcha as turmeric and other warming spices are taking center stage and crossing over into various beverage and food categories. Looking for a better fuel for their demanding everyday lives, more people turn to natural products that boost their health including spices like ginger, cayenne, caraway, saffron and horseradish.”
The recent 2017 NY Summer Fancy Food Show introduced a wide range of products containing ginger: from craft soda to ice cream, from jerky to cocktail mixer, from yogurt to granola. As a main flavor or as a complementary note, ginger was all over the show. Ginger appears on over half of U.S. menus today and ginger shots have become the latest celebrity-driven superfood craze.
At the show I had the opportunity to taste a turmeric latte. With its anti-inflammatory properties turmeric moved out of the fresh juice store to many food categories: 100% growth in the past year in the beverage food service industry and almost 40% growth in the food service appetizer category. We can conclude that turmeric has almost become mainstream when it is featured on the Pret a Manger menu or on many cocktail bar menus.
CLICK HERE to see the Best of 2016-17 Fancy Food Show Trends
Mintel predicts that 2017 should be a record year of product introductions containing turmeric.
Turmeric is a tropical plant that originates and is predominantly produced in Southern India - eighty percent of its production is located in India. The trend of Indian Revival which appeared on the market in 2016 contributed to the turmeric growing popularity in ready to serve meals and snacks.
We recommend two distinctive paths for product development leveraging turmeric:
1. The first one is surfing the healthy halo of turmeric with creating flavor associations inspired from the fresh juice shops such as Turmeric + Ginger, Honey and Lemon or Turmeric + Carrot, Apple and Lemon.
2. The second one is to develop distinctive exotic tastes taking the inspiration from the cuisines where turmeric is used as an ingredient such as Indian cuisine, Moroccan cuisine, Jamaican cuisine, Hawaiian cuisine and Caribbean cuisine.
Symrise can help you create targeted, bold flavored new concepts in the Tamed Heat Culinary and snack categories. Symrise value-added seasonings bring the best of the spice world together with culinary inspired flavors. Our Spice Exploration series can help bring global Latin and Asian flavors to your brands with our libraries from North Africa, Southeast Asia, Regional Mexico and Latin America while our recent Heatonist Hot Sauce series can deliver on sweet heat and smoke concepts. Please contact your Symrise account manager if you want to learn more about or yearly flavor trend report. To learn more click here: https://in-sight.symrise.com/contact/
