The age of the (foodie) explorer – are you one?
Are you an adventurous foodie, up for some sashimi, kimchi, a nicely spiced shakshuka or a tea macchiato?
The connected world we live in is now giving rise to the ‘age of the explorer’ where adventurous consumers are looking for new flavours and new dining delights. People of all ages want to know more about other cultures, sparking curiosity about new foods, flavours and drink. They want their food a little unusual, to look good, taste good and to share it all on Instagram or Facebook.
Eating is becoming a showcase of how we live (or aspire to live), a representation of the experiences we are having rather than just what we are consuming.
Based in The Netherlands, Innova Market Insights, tracks trends and insights across the world. It’s research on ‘adventurers’ indicates a 13% growth in food and beverage launches with an ethnic flavour between 2014-2018.
Mediterranean and Far Eastern flavours are seeing the biggest growth in launch activity. In the same period, this shift has contributed to a 17% average annual growth in the use of a ‘discovery’ claim - consumers using words such as discover, explore, uncover, unveil and unravel to describe their experience.
Dairy is part of this shift to discovery. According to Globaldata’s 2018 Q4 consumer survey, 83% of the global population say they ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ try new and different varieties of dairy. This is up 12% from Globaldata’s 2016 Q3 consumer survey.
Females and the 25-34yo and 35-44yo age groups were trying new dairy products the most. Discovery included combining milk and ice cream flavours, spicy yoghurt and even charcoal roasted milk.
Fonterra has found significant success in China with tea macchiatos – green tea topped with a mix of cream and cream cheese. Fonterra worked with one of the first tea houses to offer them.
It’s estimated more than 500 million tea macchiatos a year are now sold in China.
Fonterra has found significant success in China with tea macchiatos