I remember sitting in meetings at McVitie's, listening to the marketing team go back and forth. "We don't want to upset our core consumers, they love the product." And then, almost in the same breath: "But we also want to attract Gen Z and millennials."

Both things. At the same time. From the same biscuit.

And every time I heard it, I thought: you simply can't. What a boomer expects from a biscuit and what a Gen Z expects are completely different things. The sweetness level, the texture, the boldness of the flavour profile. These aren't small adjustments. They're different worlds.

And when you try to land in both worlds at once, you usually end up landing in neither.

If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone. And more importantly, it's fixable.

1. When "safe" becomes the riskiest choice

Shelf space in UK retail is limited. A product that resonates with no one doesn't stay there for long. And yet, trying to please everyone with your flavour is one of the most common mistakes in food and drink product development.

It usually starts with good intentions. A brand wants to grow its audience. They don't want to lose loyal consumers, but they also want to reach new ones. So they look for a middle ground in the flavour profile. Something not too bold, not too classic. Something that works for everyone.

That middle ground is very often a product that works for no one.

2. The brand that got it right

I was at the Nourish conference organised by the Tastebuds Collective recently, and James Smith, the CEO of Condimentum, gave a presentation about their next generation of mustard.

Mustard, here in the UK, is often seen as a boomer condiment. Having lived here for ten years, I've noticed it rarely makes it onto the table. James and his team wanted to reinvent it for Gen Z and millennials, and what struck me was their clarity. They knew the product as it stood wasn't going to attract a younger audience. So they did the work.

They looked at data, researched trends, and took the time to understand what their target consumers were actually eating and which flavours they were drawn to. They developed genuinely exciting profiles: hot honey, smoked barbecue, mango & habanero chili

And when they tested truffle, despite it being everywhere as a trend, it didn't land with either millennials or Gen Z. Which tells you something important: trendy is not the same as relevant to your specific consumer.

That clarity of focus is what made the difference.

3. The cost of making assumptions

A client came to me with a marine collagen product. Their target consumer was women who had given birth but hadn't yet reached menopause. On paper, that sounds specific. But in practice, that's a demographic range of roughly 25 to 50 years old.

In terms of flavour expectations, a woman in her late twenties and a woman in her mid-forties are in very different places. One might want something more experimental and exotic. The other might prefer something more subtle, more sophisticated, more botanical. Neither is wrong. But they're not the same consumer, and they won't respond to the same flavour profile.

When they came to me, they already had a direction in mind: sophisticated, botanical. It sounded beautiful. The problem was, marine collagen is fishy. It's musty. Layering delicate, botanical flavours over those off-notes is almost impossible. The product simply doesn't allow for it.

That brief hadn't come from understanding the base or from testing with their actual consumers. It had come from looking at what competitors in the category were doing. There's a difference, and it matters.

I had to show them what was actually working with their base, what masked the off-notes. None of it matched the botanical aesthetic they'd planned. But once they shifted focus from "the flavour we want" to "the flavour our consumers can actually enjoy," everything changed. The reviews changed. The feedback changed. The product started making sense.

If you're wondering whether your own flavour direction is genuinely aligned with your consumer's palate, that's a question worth answering before your next round of samples.

4. Why your consumers' brains matter more than their opinions

Here's something that gets overlooked in flavour strategy. The more familiar a consumer is with a flavour, the more likely they are to enjoy it. This isn't just a preference thing. It's neuroscience.

Your brain runs a constant safety check on everything you eat and drink. It compares what it's tasting with everything it's ever tasted before. If it finds a match, it relaxes. If it doesn't, it goes into mild alert mode.

The first time I had kimchi, my brain genuinely panicked. I'd never tasted anything so fermented, so pungent, so completely unfamiliar. My instinct was to spit it out. Not because it was bad, but because my brain had nothing in its database to tell it this was safe.

When I moved to the UK and tasted Volvic lemon water for the first time, the product I'd loved in France for years, I was genuinely shocked by how sweet it was. Same brand, same product, completely different formulation calibrated for a different palate. For anyone in the UK, that sweetness is completely normal. For me, it was revolting.

Your consumers' palates work exactly the same way. They have a database built from everything they've ever eaten. The closer your product sits to something already in that database, the more likely they are to enjoy it and come back for it.

This is why knowing your target consumer's palate is not a nice-to-have. It shapes every flavour decision you make.

5. How to actually research it

If you already have consumers, talk to them. Not just "what flavours do you like?" because, to be honest, that question almost always gives you the same answers: chocolate, caramel, vanilla. I saw this happen repeatedly at McVitie's, year after year, project after project. Always the same three. Completely useless if you have no understanding of which flavours can actually work with your base.

Ask them what they currently buy and genuinely enjoy. What do they love about your product in terms of taste? What do they wish was different? What restaurants do they go to because they love the food, not just because it's nearby? You're trying to map their palate, not just survey their opinions.

If you haven't launched yet, go to them directly. Free sampling at specific events, pop-up stands, beta tester groups. The important thing is that you're collecting feedback from the right demographic, not just anyone who happens to be there. Trend reports from Mintel, Innova, or Euromonitor are also worth your time. Many have free versions available, and they give you a strong picture of what different generations are drawn to.

6. The part most brands skip

Consumer research only takes you so far if you haven't started with your base.

If you're working with functional ingredients, adaptogens, plant proteins, marine collagen, omega-3, your product already has a flavour before you add anything. Earthy, bitter, fishy, cardboardy. These notes don't disappear because a trend report says botanical flavours are popular with your demographic.

Flavour strategy always starts with the product first. What does your base actually taste like? Which flavour directions pair well with it? Which ones mask the off-notes and which ones make them worse?

Only once you understand your base can you meaningfully apply what you've learned about your consumer's palate. Because the question isn't just "what flavour does my consumer want?" It's "what flavour works in this product and also resonates with this consumer?"

Those two things have to meet. When they do, you end up with a product people want to come back for, not just try once.

7. Your challenge this week

Write down three things your target consumers buy regularly because they genuinely love the taste. Which flavours are they drawn to? What do those choices tell you about their palate?

Then ask yourself honestly: does my current flavour direction reflect what they already enjoy and expect?

If you're not sure, that's a completely reasonable place to be. Most food and drink brands at this stage haven't approached product development from this angle, and that's not a failure. It's just a gap worth addressing.

If you're ready to close that gap with a structured process, from understanding your base to choosing a flavour direction that truly fits your consumer, the Choose Package is where that work happens. We start with your product, map your consumer's palate, and build a flavour strategy that gives your product a real reason to stay on shelf.