Danisco, the Danish company which claims to be the world's leading supplier of flavours to the coffee industry, has launched a new concept - Danisco Seasonal Coffee Flavours.
Each season, Danisco will introduce a new line of flavours which it said are specifically designed to match the mood of the season. The campaign was designed to help create partnerships between Danisco and coffee roasters, helping them to build their business by appealing to the ever changing demands of flavoured coffee drinkers.
Danisco said that the new flavours would appeal to both old and new customers, and could also be used by roasters as a means of test marketing their popularity before adding them permanently to their portfolios.
"When developing new flavours we look at it from several angles. In addition to brainstorming and screening hundreds of flavour ideas, we perform stringent analysis of our flavours, as well as those of our competitors, to ensure that Danisco's flavours maintain their superiority in taste, quality and stability," said Lisa Taake, applications manager at Danisco.
These standards include ensuring that the beans have a strong eye appeal, zero calories, a good aroma, heat stability, packaging compatibility and a good shelf life.
Danisco said that there was more to the flavours than just offering something different. "Studies show that flavoured coffee drinkers don't necessarily like the flavour of coffee. Danisco's flavours are engineered to take off the harsh bitter edge inherent to coffee. Furthermore, we think it is important that the flavours live up to expectation, so the Caramel Corn flavour tastes like Caramel Corn."
The flavours have also been created to be easy to use. Danisco used the automated compounder Roxanne to create its flavours, claiming that Roxanne is so precise that it can create a perfect blend of flavours each time, virtually eliminating the potential for human error in flavour manufacturing. Each seasonal flavour is designed to be used at the same percentage - 3 per cent weight per weight - taking the guesswork out of formulation, Danisco claimed.
Summer flavours, including Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, Peanut Butter Cookie, Apple Crisp, S'more and Caramel Corn, were introduced at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Annual Specialty Coffee Conference in early May. More new flavours will be introduced every three months, giving the roasters plenty of time to taste them and prepare their orders for the upcoming season, said Taake.