Monin, an award-winning premium flavoring company with more than 100 years of experience, introduces the 2022 Flavor of the Year: Passion Fruit.
This flavor is on-trend with customers across all segments asking for it. It not only offers a micro escape and is reminiscent of a tropical getaway, but its bright color and tart flavor is the perfect complement to all types of beverages. As operators look to diversify their menu and appeal to the consumer mindset of adventurous without too much of a risk, passion fruit fits right in and hits on all the trends.
Monin offers four Passion Fruit products including Passion Fruit Syrup, Passion Fruit Purée, Red Passion Fruit Syrup, and Passion Fruit Concentrated Flavor. Each product in the Passion Fruit portfolio is clean label and makes it simple to bring the passion for flavor to life. With the offering spread across three categories, it’s also incredibly easy for foodservice and coffee operators to find the right Passion Fruit product that best fits with their needs, their price and their menu goals.
“Monin has identified significant consumer and professional interest in our Passion Fruit products, and we expect the flavor to have substantial use in 2022 beverages and foods. Outside of the trends and the growing traction, another reason to be named the Flavor of the Year is because it offers amazing versatility and is both exotic, yet approachable for consumers to enjoy” says Bill Lombardo, CEO of Monin Americas. “The four delicious, natural products in our Passion Fruit portfolio transform everything from teas, sodas, cocktails, milkshakes, sauces, salad dressings and much more, into captivating flavor experiences.”
Each year Monin undergoes a lengthy and judicious process to determine the flavors that will trend each year and beyond. In selecting Passion Fruit, Monin’s Marketing team collects and analyzes numerous data sets including current sales trends, innovation and flavor requests for the upcoming 10 to 12 months, macro and emerging trends, consumer insights and industry data. This data is synthesized together and then overlaid on Monin’s flavor list of more than 200 products to identify the best overlap. This year, Passion Fruit was a clear winner.
“Passion Fruit is full of vibrancy, from the color to the refreshing taste, and it allows people to briefly escape from reality,” says Stasha Johnston, senior vice president of marketing. “As we enter a new year, people are craving flavors that deliver safe adventure and provide an enchanting experience, and what better than a bright flavor that makes you think of a tropical vacation?”
Passion Fruit has grown 20 percent over the past four years on U.S. menus and in 2022, Datassentials projects the flavor will be on nearly 15 percent of menus. Monin has seen increasing sales traction for its portfolio of Passion Fruit flavorings and anticipates this momentum to continue in 2022 and beyond.
According to Monin proprietary research, 67 percent of consumers indicated they would like to try a beverage featuring Passion Fruit flavor.
Monin consistently predicts trending flavors including the 2021 Flavor of the Year, Strawberry Rose. The new product launched in February of 2021 and is now highly esteemed in the industry.