Creating social experiences with indulgent desserts

Enjoy & experience!

One of the main global consumer trends we have identified for 2023 and beyond is ‘enjoy and experience’. We have already highlighted it in our article on the 2023 global consumer trends. With enjoy and experience, we look at the ways how food has become so much more than just nutrition. It can provide us with pleasure, reward, experience, comfort, and escape. One key element here is that, after long periods of restrictions, food has emerged as a social activity again. We want to create and share memories of food experiences together with our loved ones again.

Connect with others through food!

According to research by HealthFocus International, 44% of consumers globally regard the social relationship/connection with others as extremely or very important in food and beverage choices. This is especially true for the younger generations of Millennials and Gen Z, 56% and 53% of whom respectively agree with this statement.

Food is a social activity bringing fun, joy, and happiness to people by engaging them through all their senses. Recent TikTok and Instagram food trends like #butterboard, with close to 500 million views, are reinforcing the importance of easy-going sharable food items. 

Bringing people together with ice cream and desserts

Who doesn’t love to share sweet treats with their loved ones? Ice creams and desserts are two indulgent foods that bring people together perfectly.  Let’s explore some inspirations for these categories of sweet treats that are perfect to enjoy with your friends, family and loved ones:

How to make indulgent foods stand out.

59% of consumers globally regularly enjoy indulgent treats according to FMCG Gurus. Indulgent foods, such as desserts, ice creams, confectionery, or baked goods, are a perfect fit for the small pleasures in our everyday lives Interestingly, it’s also these product categories that are often used for shared food experiences with others.

But first, let’s explore what makes an indulgent food stand out? Each of us probably defines indulgence a bit differently, but there are a few general ways for indulgent foods to stand out:

• Taste/flavor: Indulgent foods are usually very rich in flavor in order to satisfy our cravings. For something extraordinary, we turn to extreme combinations and fusion foods. The most recent trends on the flavor side are swalty (sweet and salty), swicy (sweet and spicy) or swalcy (sweet, salty and spicy). These  combinations make foods and drinks more exciting, multi-sensory, and multi-dimensional in terms of their flavor profile.
   
• Format: Indulgent foods can also stand out due to their format. Mashups between different categories, inspiration and influences from other categories or known foods in new formats are just few of the ways to set yourself apart from other indulgent foods.
   
• Texture: A great way to differentiate indulgent foods is with texture. As we like to say at AGRANA: Taste is king, texture is queen. Check out our trendblog article on how texture can make foods more indulgent here. Texture offers a playground for exploring innovation in indulgent foods.
   
• Experience: Overall, with indulgent foods we always aim at providing a pleasurable eating experience that engages all our senses. Social media can be an inspirational tool for making foods that stand out. The #foodchallenge has more than 13.4 billion views on TikTok. Consumers dare each other here to be experimental and try out new things with food, which often leads to viral recipes. FMCG brands and food service operators are starting to pick up on these trends and include recipes in their portfolios that make food stand out.

Check out some of our concepts that are sure to be a hit among consumers looking for indulgent, vibrant and outstanding treats.