The average American loves to appease their sweet tooth, consuming on average 8 pounds of candy annually. It’s a product that reaches nearly every person– with 1 in 4 people eating at least one piece of candy a day and nearly every American indulging in candy at least once a year.
With candy being such a prominent market, we couldn’t help but wonder what flavors Americans will be reaching for in the candy aisle? We took our curiosity to our AI White Space tool to find out. This tool uses AI to scan the web to identify the gaps in the market by considering data from social media, e-commerce product reviews, and search queries. With its output bundled up into an easy-to-read dashboard (pictured below) that showcases each trend in terms of demand score and competition score.
Using this tool, we uncovered some pretty interesting trends developing around candy flavors. Specifically, that the taste pallet is turning to more refined and exotic flavors rather than the typical sweet candy flavors. Five flavors in particular showed a large potential for growth in demand over the upcoming years. Let’s take a look at the top five trending candy flavors:
Coffee
Coffee fans aren’t just stopping at their daily cup of joe for the energizing, rich flavor of coffee– we’re starting to see it taking off in the candy market as well. Often paired with chocolate to make a more complex and rich sweet treat. We’ve seen big brands act early on this trend with Mars Wrigley’s launch of their Espresso and Caramel Cold Brew M&Ms for the holiday season. With our AI White Space tool forecasting that the demand will continue to rise, brands that are looking to create a more decadent sweet should have coffee flavors on their radar.
Apricot
Once considered an old-fashioned flavor, Apricot is making a comeback as the it-flavor. We’ve seen it rising in popularity in the beverage industry as a key flavor in craft brewing over the past decade because of its earthy-sweetness’ ability to pair well with hops and ales. We’re also seeing it pop up in hard seltzers, like Michelob ULTRA’s new Mango Apricot Organic Seltzer as well in N/A beverages like Red Bull 2022 strawberry and apricot summer edition.
While demand for Apricot flavored candy is on the rise, the competition is still low. Leaving a gap in the market for brands to fill with a new flavor. Taking cues from the beverage industry that’s mixing the flavor with fan favorites, like strawberry and mango, is a great way to reach anyone who might need an extra nudge to try the new flavor.
Wine
Americans love to pour themselves a glass of wine at the end of a hard day, and this habit is spilling over into the candy market. Wine flavor isn’t going to become your average, daily go-to candy, but more of a novelty flavor for special occasions and gifts. While this trend is still low in competition, we’re starting to see rich indulgent treats like dark chocolate-covered wine grapes, and more fun takes on the trend like Gourmet Wine Cotton Candy in flavors like Chardonnay, Merlot, Rosé, and Champagne.
Lychee
Lychee, a longstanding popular flavor in Asian Countries, is now gaining traction in the American Market. With a 66% increase in searches for the term Lychee over the past 5 years, this sweet and tart flavor has the potential to appeal to the masses in the candy market. At the moment, Lychee is a flavor only found on around 5% of menus– mostly in beverages; however, 40% of the population is aware of the flavor. This imbalance between awareness and availability creates a unique opportunity for brands to capitalize on this exotic flavor that is rising in demand.
Plum
Although Plum hasn’t been a flavor commonly associated with candy in the US, the US can expect to find Plum flavored candy on the shelves of its Japanese supermarkets. Plum is one of Japan’s go-to flavors for hard and soft candy. Now, we’ve found that Plum is making a growing impression in western countries with a steady 13% global growth since 2018. Plum is in the 83rd percentile of flavor preference, meaning that consumers love plum more than 83% of all other flavors. With 91% of Americans very familiar with the plum flavor, but a low competition score from the AI Whitespace tool, there’s a large opportunity for brands to fill the gap with Plum flavored candy.
Summary
All in all, we’ve found that the flavor palette for hard and soft candy in the US is starting to mature, moving into flavors that give more depth to the sweet experience. Be it the decadent wine flavor, or an exotic twist, Americans are looking to have a unique flavor while enjoying their confectionary delights.
Want to learn more about the trends that will drive candy flavors over the next few years? Dig deeper into these 5 trends with us. Explore what Simporter AI can do for your business by requesting a demo on our website. Identifying trends and locating the gaps in the market is just the start of what Simporter is capable of. To learn more head to simporter.com and discover how we can help your brand grow.