October 6, 2025 – The Innova Market Insights #3 Top 10 Trend 2025 is Wildly Inventive Flavors. This flavor trend recognizes that consumers are looking for extraordinary product features, including taste and flavor. Companies can be wildly inventive by innovating with surprising flavor mash-ups to excite and wow consumers.
Category Mash-Ups Generate Excitement
According to consumer trends research by Innova Market Insights, younger generations, namely Gen Z and Millennials, seek new experiences in flavors. They also show willingness to consume food and beverage products at different times of day other than their typical eating occasion. Brands can innovate and excite with cross-category product mash-ups that combine flavors from different categories associated with different times of day. Innova is monitoring the blurring of lines for categories and meals, so cross-category mash-ups are on trend. Companies with brands in different food and beverage categories are in a perfect position to create exciting flavor combinations.
Collaboration Across Brands for New Flavors
Consumers globally have favorite brands and favorite flavors within those brands. Cross-brand collaboration helps brands to attract each other’s consumers toward new food and beverage products with new and unusual flavors. This creates a win-win-win situation for each partner and for the consumer. A twist on cross-brand collaboration is to bring back a retired flavor that has nostalgia vibes as a relaunch across several brands and formats.
Hot, Hot, Hot Spicy and Swicy Drive Trends
Flavor trends show that today’s consumers not only enjoy and are attracted to flavor fusions, but they also enjoy spiciness, especially when paired with a complementary taste like sweetness. Consumers are intrigued by flavor combinations and attracted to spiciness. Millennials in particular say in consumer trends research that they will pay more for products offering new flavors. So, excitement is growing around spicy, spicier, flaming hot, and swicy, the combination of sweet and spicy.
Consumers enjoy sensory stimulation from foods that are spicy, flaming hot, or swicy. Consumer trends research from Innova shows that they are most likely to look for and try new flavors like hot and spicy flavors in add-ons and accompaniments such as seasonings, toppings, and sauces. In fact, swicy – sweet plus spicy – is a groundbreaking 2025 flavor. On the other hand, consumers are less likely to experiment with flavors in sweet bakery, desserts, and ice cream. The takeaway for manufacturers and brands is not to shy away from hot, hot, hot flavors and to look for new ways to deliver swicy.
Food and beverage producers should not hold back on making products that are hot, hotter and flamin’ hot nor exploring new variations of spicy to keep sparking consumer imaginations.
Targeting Generation Z
Flavor trends reveal that more than any other generation, Gen Z consumers are excited about discovering and trying new tastes and flavors. According to consumer trends research, discovery of new flavors is part of their enjoyment and excitement. They are particularly enthusiastic about exploring new foods with Asian and African flavors. This generation also travels to various social events and takes part in virtual experiences. That is why flavor innovation, as well as texture innovation, is so essential for attracting the Gen Z consumer. Fresh flavors and spicy flavors are particularly relevant. Brands also can connect with Generation Z through online and offline social engagement and rewards that appeal to this generation’s attraction to fun and adventure in life and in flavors.
Flavor Fusions Speak to Millennials
Brands can use flavor fusions to capture the interest of Millennials. In consumer trends research, Innova learned that about half of consumers around the world are interested in flavor fusions and combinations, and they are willing to spend more to try them, reflecting current flavor trends. Companies can employ strategies for novel flavors such as cross-brand flavor-flavor collaborations to create new sensory excitement and cross-category mash-ups with favorite flavors combined to create new and imaginative flavors.
Ongoing Flavor Innovation
Flavor trends show that crazy new flavors are attention grabbers. One way to keep up the flow of new flavors and show flavor innovation is through limited edition and seasonal launches with new and unique flavors. These have been highly successful in limited edition beer and spirits, as well as seasonal launches in the confectionery category. Consumers want crazy flavors and flavor combinations and view them as a type of indulgence. For inspiration toward future innovation, brands can monitor social media and consider ethnic street foods. Consumers are looking for unusual products and flavors.
What’s Next in Flavor Trends for Gen Z and Millennials?
Watch for these developments and consider these strategies in flavor to capture Generation Z and Millennials. Go beyond sweet and spicy to combine flavors like sweet and salty, spicy and fresh, and spicier flavors with other trending flavors. Consider mealtime mash-ups of breakfast flavors plus dinner flavors and flavorful ingredients. Bring heritage flavors out of retirement and reintroduce them in new flavor combinations to capitalize on their standing as historic consumer favorites. Emphasize the relationship between flavor and indulgence. Indulgence goes beyond flavor and into live experiences such as concerts and festivals, activities like backpacking and hiking, and events that are virtual. Use of AI is expected to grow as a tool for creating flavors that are outside the norm. AI can help with discovery in new flavors, combinations and mash-ups and flavors, and new flavorful ingredients.
This article is based on Innova’s Top Trends 2025: Trend #3 – Wildly Inventive – Global report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to find out more