From Vitamin Gummies to Sports Drinks, Here’s How We Make Wellness Delicious
When it comes to food and beverage products, the taste needs to be on point. We know it sounds obvious, but getting a product’s flavor just right is more complex than it might initially seem…and if you take shortcuts with flavor, you can end up with a product that lacks balance, has off-notes poking through, a flavor that doesn’t last, or worst of all, a product that doesn’t stand out among its competitors.
This is why your product needs a customized flavor system. And no matter which category you’re in, we’ve got you covered. One category that’s seeing a ton of activity is foods and supplements that offer specific health and wellness benefits. Today, consumers are less interested in products that have a blanket “healthy” label and instead, focusing on products that offer health benefits like supporting their immune systems or gut health. Vitamin gummies, nutrition bars, and functional beverages are three products in this category that rely on effective, long-lasting, customized flavoring.
Vitamin Gummies
Taking your vitamins is easy when they’re in gummy form. That’s why gummy vitamins and other supplements have seen such tremendous market growth in recent years—and are projected to grow at a compound additional growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8% by 2030.
But if you want consumers to enjoy your gummies and look forward to taking them daily, they need to taste great: fruity and refreshing, with no strange notes and no flavor degradation over time. This last point is critical for gummies, as they often spend weeks or even months in storage. With this in mind, we craft vitamin gummy flavor formulas to not only stay strong in storage, but long after the package is opened.
Whether you are formulating pectin, gelatin, or starch-based gummies, we offer flavor solutions that won’t flash-off during high-temperature cooking or weaken over time. We do that by developing solutions that work with your active ingredients, rather than attempting to overpower or otherwise work against them. Popular active ingredients for gummy supplements include herbals, aminos, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and apple cider vinegar—all ingredients that, while delivering health benefits, don’t tend to taste great without the support of the perfect flavor.
Nutrition Bars
Similarly to how our gummy flavor formulations are developed to withstand intense heat, we can develop formulas for nutrition bars designed to withstand baking. This goes for granola, cereal, and protein bars.
If you’ve worked with plant-based proteins before, you know they don’t tend to taste great on their own. That’s a problem as more and more consumers opt into plant-based lifestyles and drive up demand for vegan nutrition bars. Because above all else, they need to taste good. That’s where our library of more than 20,000 unique flavors and flavor combinations comes into play. Unlike gummies, where the middle notes are the priority, the key flavor notes in a nutrition bar are at the end. When we combine flavor maskers and enhancers to compliment any ingredient in your recipe, we build the formula to deliver pleasing top and middle notes, then finish on solid end notes that results in a truly satisfying and memorable taste experience.
Functional Drinks
Our functional drink flavor options are versatile! Whether your product contains alcohol or not, whether it’s sparkling or still, and whether it’s ready to mix (RTM) or ready to drink (RTD), we’ve got your flavor needs covered. With drinks, you’ve got the same concerns as other categories, like crafting flavors that work with your ingredients and taste like they’re supposed to. But you’ve got one big additional concern: solubility. If a flavor formulation doesn’t dissolve into liquid without a trace, it’s a no-go.
In our functional drink flavor solutions, we offer options that are soluble in any base: dairy, fruit juice, still or sparkling water, and spirits. Whether you need to flavor a thick, decadent dessert shake or a crisp, bubbly seltzer, our team has the ingredients and expertise to develop a formula that works with your product’s texture, base, and ingredients.
One ingredient category many beverage manufacturers find themselves grappling with is plant-based proteins. As we mentioned above, they tend to not taste very good on their own. But people are demanding them—as consumers trend away from products labeled “healthy,” they’re replacing them with products that provide functional health support throughout the day. For example, they’re not reaching for low-fat sweets to get their chocolate fix without the guilt, they’re reaching for a protein-packed, naturally sweet fudge that supports better eye health. We can block out the bitter tastes plant proteins and vitamins often cause in these products, enhancing their natural sweetness and creating a more pleasurable experience for the consumer.
We Specialize in the Natural Flavoring Market
Today’s consumers don’t want products that are only labeled “healthy,” they want to know the specific health benefits they’re getting from the products they consume. This includes health-supporting benefits for their mental and physical well-being, like boosting their immune systems and promoting better sleep.
With more than 100 unique flavor modulator formulations and over 50 applications in our repertoire, we can develop just about any flavor you need—within any requirements. Whether you need Kosher, Halal, non-GMO, organic, vegan, or any combination of these (or additional requirements), our team is equipped to develop a perfectly unique flavor for your product. This kind of modulation isn’t always guaranteed when you go with other flavor providers. In some cases, you might need to buy the ingredients separately and develop your formula yourself–which can make things like note masking and flavor stability unpredictable.
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We chose our name because it accurately communicates what we do: develop custom flavors from the ground up. If you’re working on a new gummy supplement, nutrition bar, functional beverage or another food product, it needs a distinct flavor that will bring buyers back over and over again.
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