Sour Patch Kids Oreos? Peeps Pepsi? What’s behind the weird flavors popping up on store shelves

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream usually attracts customers with gourmet versions of classics like vanilla and pistachio. But every now and then, the New York-headquartered artisanal ice cream maker gets into what he calls a “shock flavor,” like Hidden Valley Ranch or pizza.

Surprising flavor combinations – think Jones Soda with gravy flavor or Sour Patch Kids Oreos – are increasingly appearing in supermarkets and restaurant chains. Hershey recently introduced pink lemonade-flavored Kit Kats, while IHOP and Lay’s introduced Rooty Tooty Fresh n’ Fruity chips designed to taste like pancakes with strawberries on top and a hint of bacon.

While it’s tempting to dismiss these temporary flavors as social media stunts, experts say there’s more to it. Food companies are responding to changing and growing consumer tastes while trying to keep brands relevant and distinctive to gain space on busy store shelves.

“We are in a very exciting time of flavor development where consumers are not just one thing. You are not just a sour lover or a sweet lover. You want a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” says Kristen Braun, senior brand manager for Oreo innovation at Chicago-based food and beverage company Mondelez International. “Companies find the freedom to explore a little more and become more creative.”

Sour Patch Kids Oreos — vanilla cream-filled cookies speckled with colorful bites of the sour candy — are one of about a dozen limited-edition Oreo flavors Mondelez plans to release this year. Braun said the company takes one or two years to develop such products, which remain on shelves for about nine weeks. She is already thinking ahead to future flavors that blur the lines between sweet, salty and spicy.

Strange combinations are not entirely new in the food and beverage industry. For example, Hubba Bubba released a bubble gum flavored soft drink in the late 1980s. But manufacturers and their suppliers have become more sophisticated and efficient, making it easier to experiment and release limited editions more often, says Mark Lang, a food marketing expert and associate professor of marketing at the University of Tampa.

Kyle Shadix, who as a corporate executive research chef for PepsiCo has worked on drinks such as Maple Pepsi and a Pepsi strawberry cake sold in Japan, said members of Generation Z are also driving innovation. They are diverse, adventurous and quick to pick up on food trends through social media, he said.

“It’s every chef’s dream to design for,” says Shadix, who is currently experimenting extensively with Mexican, Korean and Japanese flavors. “Gen Z is going to outpace us. We will see even more exploration sooner than in the past because they are so open to it.”

Playing with flavors can boost brands in different ways. Sometimes they bring new customers to a brand. They can also encourage buyers to pick up the original flavor, says Russell Zwanka, director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University.

“Sour Patch Oreos sound interesting, but no one wants to take the risk of buying Oreos that don’t taste good, so people buy both,” Zwanka said.

When companies combine brands, they try to build an association in the minds of consumers. Peeps-flavored Pepsi, which came out last year, sends the message that Pepsi is current and fun, Lang said. Mustard-flavored Skittles, released last summer, gave the 104-year-old French brand a playful look.

This is how Kraft Heinz comes in, which approached Van Leeuwen IJs a few years ago about macaroni and cheese-flavored ice cream. Ben Van Leeuwen, co-founder and CEO of the company, was initially hesitant, but discovered that the Kraft powder mixed well with the Brooklyn-based company’s ice cream.

Van Leeuwen’s Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Ice Cream was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and was briefly re-released last fall.

“We will only make a shock flavor if we can make it good and distinctive. We are not going to make a shock flavor whose name is just a shock, but which tastes like vanilla,” says Van Leeuwen.

But new flavor combinations don’t always work. Van Leeuwen couldn’t eat more than a few bites of his company’s Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, which contained onion and garlic powder. And shock flavors typically don’t make it onto the regular menu because of their lower “eating power,” he said.

“I think you would taste our macaroni and cheese and say, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ but do you want to take a pint of that macaroni and cheese out of your freezer when you’re watching a show on Netflix and eat it? thing? Probably not,” says Van Leeuwen.

Candy brand Brach’s encountered that problem with its Turkey Dinner Candy Corn, a limited-edition 2021 version of the fall product that tasted like turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, apple pie and coffee. Katie Duffy, vice president and general manager of seasonal operations at Ferrara Candy Co., which owns Brach’s, acknowledged there was a “gross-out” factor.

“We’ve learned from consumers that we don’t want to have something where they eat a few pieces of candy and then throw it away because there are some things they don’t want to repeat,” Duffy said. “We want it to be a delicious taste journey.”

Brach recently introduced Easter Brunch-flavored Jelly Beans, and they’ve achieved that goal, she said. The candy beans mimicked the flavors of blueberry maple pancakes, chocolate donuts, cold brew caramel, cinnamon rolls, berry smoothies and mimosa cocktails.

Shannon Weiner, senior director of insights and analytics at Ferrara, says the company keeps a close eye on social media to see which flavors are popular. People are increasingly looking for dessert and dairy-flavored candies, she said. They’re also looking into more international flavors like Tajin, a chili-lime seasoning brand from Mexico that recently partnered with Pop Tarts.

Lang thinks that the more time people spend at restaurants or trying new foods, the more they seek out unusual flavors.

“We are animals that look for variety. We are constantly looking for something new and different; it is in our wiring,” he said. “We like to experiment.”