Your product base tastes bitter, fishy, or earthy. Let's fix that.
I help functional food and drink founders develop products from the ground up and choose the right flavour direction for challenging bases, so you can launch with confidence rather than keep second-guessing the formula or sending sample requests and hoping something sticks.
Sound familiar?
● You are developing a new product and are not sure which ingredients or flavour profiles will work for your target consumer.
● You need someone to take the product development process off your plate, from ingredient selection to a manufacturer-ready recipe.
● You are working with functional ingredients, marine collagen, adaptogens, plant proteins, and they taste challenging.
● Your co-manufacturer or flavour house keeps sending samples, but nothing masks those unpleasant notes properly.
● You do not know how to evaluate flavours objectively, so you are stuck saying "I like it" or "I don't like it" without understanding why it is not working.
You're not alone
Functional ingredients are genuinely hard to work with. What looks good on paper does not always work on the palate, and what works in a small-batch trial does not always scale.
Most flavour houses and co-manufacturers do not have the time or resources to truly understand how your specific base behaves, what is causing those off-notes, or how to build a product that holds up through manufacturing.
That is what The Flavour Fit Process is for.
Book Your Free 30-min CallTHE FLAVOUR FIT PROCESS
No generic samples. No guessing. Just a structured, science-led process built around your specific product base and your target consumer.
Here is exactly how it works.
Foundation (Flagship only)
I run a structured in-person workshop where we evaluate your current product alongside benchmark products from inside and outside your category. We look at the full sensory profile: colour, aroma, basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter), flavour, mouthfeel, and texture. I map out what is and is not working across all of those dimensions, and we agree on a clear direction before I start sourcing ingredients and running trials.
Formulation (all tiers)
I run trials in my lab, testing not just flavour directions but how each option affects the complete sensory experience of your product. That means looking at how different ingredients interact with your base across basic tastes, mouthfeel, texture, and colour, not just how they address off-notes.
Focused tier: focused rounds of trials.
Full and Flagship: an extensive deep-dive with more iterations across the full sensory profile.
Fluency (Flagship only)
I train you and your team in objective tasting language so you can move beyond "I like it" and start making confident, structured decisions. You will learn the difference between bitter and earthy, between fishy and marine, and how to identify which flavours are masking versus amplifying the off-notes.
Filtering (all tiers)
I walk you through each shortlisted direction, evaluating the full sensory profile together: colour, aroma, basic tastes, flavour, mouthfeel, and texture. I explain what is working, what is not, and why across every dimension, not just the flavour.
Focused: 2 virtual sessions.
Full: 3 virtual sessions.
Flagship: 3 in-person sessions.
By the end, you have a validated direction you are confident will work for your product and your consumers.
Fine-tuning (all tiers)
Based on your feedback from the tasting sessions, I go back into the lab and adjust. That might mean revisiting dosages, rebalancing basic tastes, improving mouthfeel, or addressing a texture issue that only emerged during tasting. This is the iterative stage where good becomes right across the full sensory experience.
Finalisation (Flagship only)
I stay with you through your first production run. Taste, texture, mouthfeel, and colour all change at scale, and most founders only discover that after it is too late to act. I run 2 post-production tastings evaluating the full sensory profile and make final tweaks so what comes out of the factory is exactly what we agreed in the lab.
Which tier is right for you?
Every tier follows The Flavour Fit Process and includes in-house trials, supplier sourcing, guided tasting sessions, and a manufacturer-ready recipe.
The Focused tier is designed for a specific and contained challenge where the brief is already clear and the scope is narrow. If your product is genuinely complex, or if you want me fully invested between sessions with more time for research, formulation, and deep trialling, Focused will not give you that.
With the Full and Flagship tiers, I spend significantly more time on your project between sessions. That time in the lab, in research, in formulation depth, is where the real work happens and where outcomes improve.
Most founders who come to me with a genuinely challenging functional product choose Full or Flagship. It is not just another round of trials and tasting. It is the depth I go into at every stage that makes the difference.
If you are not sure which one fits your project, book a free call and we will work it out together.
FOCUSED
From £3,000
Timeline: 2 to 3 months
Best if your challenge is specific and contained, and your brief is already clear. If your product is more complex or you want significantly more time invested between sessions, the Full or Flagship tier will serve you better.
What is included:
✓ In-house trials
✓ Supplier sourcing
✓ 2 virtual guided tasting sessions
✓ Manufacturer-ready recipe with full documentation
1 SKU included. Additional SKUs from £500 each.
Final investment depends on the complexity of your product
FULL
From £5,000
Most Popular
Timeline: 2 to 3 months
Best if you want a deeper process. This means I spend significantly more time on your project between sessions, which shows in the quality of the iterations.
What is included:
✓ Extensive in-house trials and flavour deep-dive
✓ Supplier sourcing
✓ Indicative commercial ingredient cost range
✓ 3 virtual guided tasting sessions
✓ Extensive guidance on e.g. packaging compatibility, manufacturing process and commercial scale-up considerations
✓ Manufacturer-ready recipe with full documentation
1 SKU included. Additional SKUs from £500 each.
Final investment depends on the complexity of your product
FLAGSHIP
From £7,000
Timeline: 2 to 4 months
Best if you want the complete Flavour Fit Process from discovery to scale-up, with in-person sessions and full support through your first production run.
What is included:
✓ Discovery Workshop
✓ Extensive in-house trials and flavour deep-dive
✓ Supplier sourcing
✓ Indicative commercial ingredient cost range
✓ Flavour Language Training for your team
✓ 3 in-person guided tasting sessions
✓ Extensive guidance on e.g. packaging compatibility, manufacturing process and commercial scale-up considerations
✓ Manufacturer-ready recipe with full documentation
✓ Scale-up support: 2 post-production tastings and final tweaks
1 SKU included. Additional SKUs from £500 each.
Final investment depends on the complexity of your product
Not sure which tier fits your project?
Book a free 30-min call and we will work it out together.
Book Your Free 30-min Call
Proof it Works: Vivo Life Case Study
Vivo Life was developing MindGrnd, a functional drink packed with adaptogens and nootropics. The problem? It tasted earthy, muddy, mushroomy, with black tea notes.
They'd tried working with flavour suppliers, but every flavour sample either didn't mask the off-notes properly or made the product taste artificial. They were stuck, the product worked functionally, but if it didn't taste good, no one would drink it.
With my Flavour Fit Process (Flagship tier), we built the flavour experience and the results spoke for themselves:
✓ The unpleasant base notes were masked
✓ Right flavour profile locked in
✓ 4.9/5 stars reviews
✓ Confidence restored
MindGrnd became one of their best sellers, a product people actually enjoyed drinking, not just tolerated.
Read the Case Study“The flavour challenges that once felt impossible are now solved.”
Salvatore Notaro, Managing Director @ Vivo Life
Your Questions, Answered
Can you help me develop a product from scratch, not just fix an existing one?
How is this different from the "free flavour development" my co-manufacturer offers?
I don't know how to taste or evaluate flavours. Will that be a problem?
What if my functional ingredients are really challenging to flavour?
How many flavour options will I get to taste?
Can you guarantee the flavour will mask the bitter/fishy/earthy notes?
Do I need to have my product base finalised before we start?
What if I'm still deciding between two different functional ingredients?
What if none of the first flavours work?
If your product is not quite where it needs to be, whether that is a flavour that is not landing or a formulation that needs expert input before it goes to market, let's have an honest conversation about what is going on and what needs to happen next.
I typically have two to three slots available per week.
Book Your Free 30-min Call