Van Leeuwen Ice Cream often attracts customers with gourmet versions of classics like vanilla and pistachio. But occasionally, the New York-based artisanal ice cream shop comes out with what it calls a “shock flavor,” like Hidden Valley Ranch or pizza.
Surprising flavor combinations — like sauce-flavored Jones Soda or Sour Patch Kids Oreos — are appearing more frequently in grocery stores and chain restaurants. Hershey recently launched pink lemonade-flavored Kit Kats, while IHOP and Lay’s launched Rooty Tooty Fresh n’ Fruity potato chips, designed to taste like pancakes with strawberry topping and a hint of bacon.
While it’s tempting to pass off these limited-time flavors as social media gimmicks, experts say there’s more to the story. Food companies are responding to changing and expanding consumer tastes while trying to keep brands relevant and distinct to gain space on crowded store shelves.
“We’re at a really exciting time in flavor development where consumers aren’t just one thing. You are not just a sour lover or a 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 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 – vanilla cream-filled cookies dotted with colorful pieces of sour candy – are one of about a dozen limited-edition Oreo flavors that Mondelez plans to launch this year. Braun said the company takes a year or two to develop these products, which stay on shelves for about nine weeks. She’s already thinking about future flavors that blur the lines between sweet, savory and spicy.
Offbeat combinations aren’t entirely new to the food and beverage industry. Hubba Bubba released a bubblegum-flavored soda in the late 1980s, for example. But manufacturers and their suppliers have become more sophisticated and efficient, making it easier to experiment and release limited editions more frequently, said Mark Lang, a food marketing expert and associate professor of marketing at the University of Tampa.
Kyle Shadix, who as executive head of corporate research at PepsiCo, worked on drinks like Maple Pepsi and a strawberry shortcake that Pepsi sold in Japan, said members of Gen Z are also driving innovation. They are diverse, adventurous and quickly learn food trends through social media, he said.
“They are every chef’s dream to create,” said Shadix, who is currently experimenting with many Mexican, Korean and Japanese flavors. “Gen Z will take us faster. We will start to see even more exploration more quickly than in the past because they are very open to it.”
Playing with flavors can boost brands in many ways. Sometimes they bring new customers to a brand. They can also encourage shoppers to choose the original 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 companies combine brands, they are trying to build an association in the minds of consumers. Peeps-flavored Pepsi, launched last year, sends the message that Pepsi is fresh and fun, Lang said. Mustard-flavored Skittles, launched last summer, made the 104-year-old French brand look fun.
Enter Kraft Heinz, which approached Van Leeuwen Ice Cream a few years ago about macaroni and cheese-flavored ice cream. Ben Van Leeuwen, the company’s co-founder and CEO, was initially dubious, but discovered that Kraft’s powder went 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 relaunched for a short time last fall.
“We will only make a shocking flavor if we can make it good and distinct. We’re not going to make a shocking flavor where the name is just shocking, but it tastes like vanilla,” Van Leeuwen said.
But new flavor combinations don’t always work. Van Leeuwen couldn’t eat more than a few bites of his company’s Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, which contained onion and garlic powder. And shocking flavors typically don’t end up on the permanent menu because of their lower “consumability,” he said.
“I think you would taste our mac and cheese and say, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ but do you want to take a pint of this mac and cheese out of your freezer when you’re watching whatever show on Netflix and eat the whole thing? Probably not,” Van Leeuwen said.
Candy brand Brach’s tackled this problem with its Turkey Dinner Candy Corn, a limited-edition 2021 version of the fall staple that tasted like turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, apple pie and coffee. Katie Duffy, vice president and seasonal general manager of Ferrara Candy Co., which owns Brach’s, acknowledged there was a “yuck factor.”
“We’ve learned from consumers that we don’t want something where they eat some candy and then throw it away because there are some things they don’t want to repeat,” Duffy said. “We want it to be a journey of delicious flavors.”
Brach’s recently introduced Easter brunch-flavored jelly beans and they hit that mark, she said. The sweet grains mimicked the flavors of blueberry pancakes, chocolate donuts, cold caramel beer, cinnamon rolls, berry smoothies, and mimosa cocktails.
Shannon Weiner, senior director of insights and analytics at Ferrara, said the company closely monitors social media to see which flavors are trending. People are increasingly looking for dairy-flavored desserts and sweets, she said. They also seek out more international flavors, like Tajin, a Mexican chili and lime seasoning brand that recently collaborated with Pop Tarts.
Lang believes that the more time people spend in restaurants or trying new foods, the more they seek out unusual flavors.
“We are animals in search of variety. We are constantly looking for something new and different; it’s in our wiring,” he said. “We like to experiment.”
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