Is that time of year where everyone is talking about trends for 2026. Every flavour house is announcing their flavour of the year. Every report is predicting what consumers will want next.

And if you are food and drink brands planning for the next launch, you may be wondering, should I follow these trends?

The answer is, it depends.

Today I'm going to walk you through the biggest flavours and consumer trends for 2026. But most importantly, I'm going to show you how to evaluate whether they are actually right for your product.

Bold Global Flavours with Regional Specificity

The biggest flavour trend of 2026, which I'm quite excited about, is bold, global flavours with regional specificity.

I love it because I have the feeling I'm learning something while tasting something, if that makes sense.

We are going beyond the classic Asian inspired to actually specific regional profile. And I have to say, Indian cuisine, for example, has been a huge learning for me since I'm living in the UK. When I started to go to specific regional ones, I saw a huge difference. It really opened my mind and my palate to so much more specific flavour profile.

We are seeing things like aji amarillo from Peru, West African spices like Grain of Paradise. These flavours have so much more depth and complexity and also a story behind them.

The different type of peppers with more fruity, woody notes. When you get outside of the classic black pepper that you get on supermarket, you discover a whole new world of flavour profile and complexity.

Fermented Foods

Fermented foods are getting bigger and bigger and finally have their moment. Think about miso, kefir, kombucha or kimchi. They bring that deep umami and savory richness that consumers want more and more. And they obviously tie with the gut health trend, which is going to get bigger and bigger.

I have to tell you this story. The first time I had kimchi, my brain wanted to spit it out. Not that the taste was wrong, it was just because I never tasted anything like that before. My brain was in safe mode, protection mode, and just thought, this is not in our repertoire, so just spit it out just in case it is not safe to eat.

So I had to force my brain and I keep on trying it and now I'm just loving it.

Consumers are more and more familiar with this fermented taste and they want more in their product.

Botanical Flavours

Botanical flavours have been trending for years, but I think now we are moving away from the classic rose and their flour. We are adding more complexity and regional specificity with botanicals like mugwort, palo santo, gentian root. This is something we start to see more and more especially in functional beverages and low alcohol drinks.

Flavours of the Year

Every year, flavour houses announce their flavour of the year. And in 2026 we are seeing some interesting choices.

One of them is a dark sweet cherry. The dark sweet cherry flavour profile is supposed to be a bold and dominant sweetness with light sourness to provide a balance between some of the earthy notes and a little bit of almondy note. But not as much as all of the cherry flavours that you can see on the market, which are most of the time very almondy driven, which is not my favourite.

But this dark sweet cherry has more complexity. It has less almondy note, a little bit more sweet and a little bit more complex. And it meant to be versatile across sweet and savoury application.

Then this is a flavour I love. The second one is pineapple, which was apparently huge already in 2025. About 500 new beverages launched in 2025 had pineapple flavour. And it's showing up in everything from cocktails to confectionery. It's versatile, you have loads of different profile from the tinned pineapple to something that is caramelised and grilled.

These flavours are not just random picks, they are flavours that tap into what the consumers are craving in terms of emotional well being, positivity and a moment of escape.

Nostalgic Flavours with a Twist

Nostalgic flavours are having a huge moment in 2026, but with a twist. It's not just bringing back the flavours from childhood that taste exactly the same. It's about elevating them, making them more premium, more modern.

For example, birthday cake with a premium vanilla and high quality ingredients, cereal milk. Sophisticated retro puddings like tiramisu and pistachio showing up in chocolate bars.

This trend is all about comfort, but also about quality. Consumer want something that is familiar, but they want them to be done well with a premium touch.

Research have actually shown how the brain function with flavours. Flavour in a food and drink product is more likely to be liked by the consumers if it's familiar to them. The brain always tastes and come back to what you already know for safety measure.

You have to imagine when the hunters and the gatherers were eating some berries or plants or roots and they were getting sick or worse, they were dying. The brain was thinking, I don't want that to happen to me. So it was always trying to remember does taste like something that make me sick and almost die before or not.

Think about my example with kimchi. It's exactly what happened. My brain didn't record that taste, so he thought that was dangerous and poisonous and he wanted me to spit it out.

So the better you know your target consumers, the more you know what sort of flavours they are familiar with, the better you can have successful product that they are craving for.

Confectionery

Confectionery is getting bigger and bigger. That is incredible because this is one of my favourite thing is eating sweets. I have to say this is my sweet spot. In France you have hundreds of different sweets. Every time I go back to France, I have to go to supermarket and buy some of my favourite sweets or when some friends are coming to visit me, they always bring bag of sweets that I love.

This is very close to me because here in the UK there are not a lot of them. Even Haribos only have very few compared to the choice that you can have in Europe, especially Germany or France.

Confectionery is getting bigger with different type of texture, different flavours. We can talk about chocolate bars with different layers with wafer quinoa puff or crunch with a caramel chew, freeze dried fruit for a burst of flavour. Different layers of texture and different layers of flavours.

And we can extend it to protein bars or functional snacks or premium chocolate. It's all about creating a different experience.

Functional Ingredients

Functional ingredients is not going anywhere anytime soon. Consumers don't want their food or drink products to just taste good, they want them to have functional benefits.

Protein is still dominating and is not gonna slow down anytime soon. But fiber is the new protein. How many times have we heard that we are not consuming enough fiber that is good for gut health, that is good for mental health.

Adaptogen are going bigger and bigger. Not just about ashwagandha but more and more nootropics like the L-theanine for your focus, botanicals to calm and help your digestions. They are going everywhere in almost every single food and drink product.

Ingredient Replacement and Clean Label

This trend is driven by two things. One, consumers want more and more clean label. They want transparency. They want to know what ingredient you're putting in, why you're putting it in so they can trust your food and drink brand.

But the second thing is raw material volatility which is forcing food and drink brands to find an alternative. Whether is cocoa shortage or egg shortages. Brands have to rethink about their formulations.

For food and drink brands it means ingredients replacement. It's not just about sustainability. Sometimes it's a matter of survival.

Longevity and Healthy Aging

The last trend, which is very close to my heart, is longevity and healthy aging. This is not about helping just older consumers. This is about people at any age who want something that is more nutritious to support longer and better quality life.

We are seeing a huge boom in collagen for joint health, antioxidant for cellular health, and omega 3 for brain health. This is showing up in everyday products, not just in food supplements.

This is about positioning your product as a holistic wellness lifestyle. I don't think food and drink brands can only say if you have this amount of vitamins and minerals or collagen, you'll be fine. Obviously we know that it has to be part of a holistic lifestyle of making sure you do exercises, you do strength training, you do a little bit of cardio exercises, your diet is diverse and healthy.

How Do You Decide Which Trends Are Right for Your Product?

But here's the most important part. How do you decide which trends are right for your food and drink product?

Because trendy is not necessarily going to be right for your brand, your product and your target consumers.

For example, if you're developing a plant based protein with earthy note, this amazing pineapple flavour of the year may clash rather than complement your product.

For that I have a simple three step framework that I use with my clients.

Step 1: Does It Fit Your Base?

This is the most important question. If you have a plant based protein and you want to try this dark sweet cherry, it may clash completely, but instead a rich caramel flavour may work better. Your base dictates your flavour strategies always.

Step 2: Does It Fit Your Brand Value and Image?

If you're a food and drink premium sophisticated brand and you want to follow every single TikTok viral flavour trend, that may just clash with your brand identity. But the more elevated and premium nostalgic flavours, for example, that could be a better fit for your brand.

Step 3: Does It Fit Your Target Consumers?

Just because Gen Z loves a certain flavour doesn't mean your target audience will. If you're targeting health conscious professional functional botanicals may resonate more. If you're targeting families with kids, nostalgic comfort flavour with a twist may work better for you.

You Don't Need to Chase Every Trend

So if a trend doesn't tick all of these three boxes, it is probably not a match for you. But that's okay. You don't need to chase every trend. You need to make strategic decisions, especially around flavours based on your product, your brand, and your target consumers.

Launching a New Product in 2026?

If you're launching a new food and drink product in 2026 and you're not sure, you're a bit lost which flavour direction you should choose for your product, this is exactly where I help my food and drink customers with my Choose package.

We run structured testing, we identify the flavours that will actually work for your specific product, and we create a flavour strategy together.

Learn more about the Choose package