Extreme sensory experience on trend

EXTREME taste experiences are right on trend. Consumers seem to be developing a taste for foods with strong flavours - pungently spiced products and foods with unusual, exotic flavours or full-bodied richness are racing up the popularity stakes. And it is not just fiery foods with added chilli or cayenne pepper that are setting taste buds a-tingle. Flavours such as wasabi, caraway, and various curry blends and floral essences are lending beguiling flavour highlights to foods and beverages, and getting consumers all hot under the collar.

"The popularity of foods and beverages with fierce spiciness and intense flavours has spread beyond African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries: the hot, intense & spicy trend has also reached America and Europe," says Dominik Haug, global market segment manager Food at SIG Combibloc.

"Viewed in global terms, especially in the past year we've seen a whole host of product launches that have focused explicitly on intensity of flavour, and we believe this trend is going to continue in the next few years," Mr Haug adds.

Emphasis on intensity

Intensity refers to a full-bodied richness of flavour - whether it is chocolate with a particularly high cocoa content, coffee or mustard varieties with exceptionally strong flavour, extra-sour acid drops, beer with intense bitter notes, or juices packed with the mouth-watering tang of sun-ripened fruit. Many manufacturers specify these special qualities up front in their product names - such as products from premium manufacturer Amecke Fruchtsaft. With its 'Amecke intense' range, the company is deliberately emphasising the intense taste experience its product offers.

The Amecke intense juice range, available in Germany since October 2010, comes in Orange, Apple, Grape and Multivitamin varieties. According to experts of the Amecke Fruchtsaft company: "Taste is a particularly complex sense. It is made up of interplay of aroma perception, texture, and the sensation of flavour that is generated on the tongue. Intensifying the fruitiness, our Amecke intense juice range appeals to all the senses."

Even tea products are being concentrated to provide an even more intense flavour. Taiwanese company Tai Hwa Oil Industrial offers double the intensity by doubling the quantity of premium tealeaves in its new range of  'Cleanfield' brand Assam teas. The teas are available in Apple Milk Tea, Strawberry Milk Tea and Classic Milk Tea varieties.

"Assam is one of the most richly flavoured tea varieties in the world and is extremely good for the health. It has antibacterial properties and stimulates the circulation. Assam tea is also a natural aid to strengthening the immune defences. A drop of milk helps it go down even better. This makes our milk tea varieties extremely popular with consumers," Scott Cheng, general plant manager at Tai Hwa, explains.

Robust and fiery

It is not just beverages that are bursting with full, rich taste. Foods are also hitting the spot when it comes to flavour.

Mexican cuisine, for instance, is full of very intense flavours. Tim Kirchen, head of marketing & business development North America and Mexico at SIG Combibloc, says, "Mexico is famous for its savoury, fiery food - think of the many piquant salsas and pipiáns [A sauce made from ground sesame andadidas