Dessert Trends Consumers Love

When it comes to dessert, consumers, foodservice operators, and flavorists will find a virtual playground of new concepts and flavors to enjoy and experiment with this year.


Clean, natural ingredients


Consumers are widely turning to healthier, cleaner ingredients across the board–and that includes the taste profiles that they crave in their desserts. The most popular and successful dessert trends of 2019 will feature nutritious ingredients with few refined sugars. As such, natural sugar sources such as agave, maple, date syrup, and coconut sugar are more and more popular.


At the same time, consumers are accepting fat as an essential and even healthy dietary element. That means that full-fat dairy desserts are on the upswing–always, of course, with an adventurous flavor twist such as in buffalo-milk ice cream.


New flavors


As with so many other sectors of the food and beverage industry, desserts will meet many exotic and unusual flavors this year. These flavors include spice and heat as well as herbs and salt. Desserts are getting less and less sweet; combinations of sweet and salty and sweet and savory are in vogue.


One popular combination is chocolate and spicy chili flavors. Hot sauces, chilies, and other spices are making appearances in more desserts than ever, as are floral flavors such as orange blossom, hibiscus, and rose water. Other popular 2019 dessert flavors include bourbon, brown butter, and banana.


Zero “tolerance”


In response to growing demand, chefs and product developers are increasingly focusing on dairy-free and gluten-free dessert options, a trend that’s expected to continue in the year ahead. Companies are using plant-based dairy ingredients such as oat milk to create vegan-friendly products. In particular, the ice cream category is fertile ground for testing flavors and formulations that meet the needs of those with special dietary requirements and preferences. As consumers demand more specialized foods and beverages across all categories, opportunities for creating new, great-tasting gluten- and dairy-free products increase.


From new staples to seasonal and small-batch flavors, there is plenty of room to experiment with new combinations to come up with something uniquely delicious. Keep your products shelf-stable and temptingly tasty with natural, organic flavor ingredients from Advanced Biotech.