Craveable Combinations: The Rise of Snacking and Confectionery Hybrids
28 May 2020 | Almond Board of California
The popularity of products that cross the snacking and confectionery categories has grown in recent years, with more and more products featuring a sweet twist alongside healthful ingredients. Additionally, consumers are purchasing indulgent comfort foods to help deliver joy during difficult days of at-home confinement caused by the spread of the coronavirus. The Almond Board of California’s 2018 Global Chocolate survey shows that four out of five global consumers say chocolate is their favorite snack or one of their favorites when they are looking to indulge. Moreover, Innova Market Insights identified hybrids as one of its top ten trends for 2020, evidenced by consumers continuing to enjoy products that offer on-the-go indulgence.
Hello and thank you for joining us today.
No matter where you are located, we hope that you're doing and during the current situation, are hopeful everyone can get back to a new normal soon.
I'm Havind Duma, the associate director of trade, marketing and stewardship at the Oman Borda, California, and we are pleased to host today's webinar, Craveable Combinations of the Rise of Snacking and Confectionary Hybrids.
Innovative Market Insights identified hybrids as one of its top 10 trends for 2020, and in today's presentation, our speakers will dive into this trend by providing an overview of consumer insights towards the snacking and confectionery categories, as as culinary examples for inspiration.
Luanne Williams, director of innovation at Innovel Market Insights, will offer a global view of consumer trends and snacking and confectionery hybrid product examples.
Chef Anish Popet, founder of the Chocolatier, will showcase his own recipes incorporating almonds and chocolates that optimize different flavors and textures to create truly unique snacking experiences.
But first, a few quick housekeeping points.
Please feel free to submit questions throughout the system at any point during the webinar, and after the presentation, Luanne and Chef Anish will address as many as they can.
And if you submit a question we can't answer today, we will follow up with you via email shortly.
Lastly, as always, your feedback is important to us.
At the conclusion of the webinar, we'll hope you'll respond to our brief survey to help us advance future webinar content.
And with that, and without much further ado, I'll hand things over to Luanne to begin.
Thank you, Luanne.
Hey, thanks, Harbinger.
So we're gonna focus really on two key categories today.
We're gonna be looking at snacking and confectionery, and as Harbinger said, hybrids were one of our top 10 trends this year, so I think we have found a lot of really fantastic examples that will bring all of this to life.
But as everything, it always starts with the consumer.
And in this case, thinking about snacking, we really talked about this, a more holistic idea of, of health, and increasingly, mental health is coming into the conversation, but also just the whole impact of a busy lifestyle.
So we're seeing the development of snacking, more and more address busy lifestyles.
You can see that 1 in 3 global consumers across the country, you can see there at the bottom, say that snacks support my busy lifestyle profile.
We see snacking really jumped out of just the traditional snacking category more and more every year.
We've seen a 7% average annual increase in launches with a snacking claim, and that can be across any category.
So looking at this slide, you can see some examples of that.
So we looked at subcategories that had at least 30 new products with a snacking claim, and the top category, the fastest growing was toffee and fudge.
So somewhere on that package it's being positioned as a snack, but also spoonable non-dairy yogurt, meal replacements and drinks that become snacks, and also deli meat.
If you think about.
The little combination packages, especially in the United States where there's a bit of deli meat, maybe some fruits, some nuts, it becomes a perfect, almost mini meal, but a snack.
There's a lot of innovation going on in this space, and I think the product on the right is a fantastic example of that.
So we all know almond butter, we know almond milk, and this is something that's just transitioned into this little package, very convenient, on the go.
You squeeze, you blend, you enjoy.
So you can imagine this is something that turns into a super easy snack anywhere you go and you can see even on the package, it has lots of little examples there, office travel, workout, day to day, and so on.
So again, there's always something new in snacking, and I think this, this is a perfect slide of examples that really highlight what we see happening in snacking.
And then, of course, we're always looking for category shifts or snacking shifts.
Anything that where we see shifts, that's the obviously the most interesting insight.
So we still have this little trifecta of health, convenience, indulgence.
Those are the three things that consumers are really looking for, when they're, when consumers are looking for a snack.
So you can see that dairy alternative drinks, health is the real driver there.
The same for cereal and energy bars, and as we move down that list, indulgence becomes a lot more important.
And by the time we're at the bottom, we're at chocolate and things like cakes and pastries and so on.
So finding that perfect combination, It's something that we're always looking for inspiration to be able to do.
A nice example on the right-hand side, we have, one of these snack mixes, which really it's, it's a great combination of health and convenience, and it's a nice little combination of different types of crunch, to provide this really, wholesome baked snack mix that's full of dietary fiber.
So great product example with the focus on health claims.
But if we think about different consumers, as soon as you dive into the weeds, you can look at age and income and Gender and you do see differences.
Here we looked at differences between consumers who said that they just embrace their busy lifestyle, those that say I'm balancing it, and those that say I really reject it and go all out indulgent sometimes.
And for that we really do see a generation split.
So if we look at Gen Z.
This is the group that they love protein, they love sports products, and they're big consumers of the, we saw the meal replacement beverages, protein drinks, and also bars.
So this is the group, love being super busy, plan my time, and snacks are a really important part of their life.
On the other extreme, you have my generation, Gen X, so sometimes you're just so busy.
I can imagine a lot of people nowadays at home with their kids and homeschooling and all the rest.
You just say I give up.
I just want something super indulgent.
I know I have never eaten so much ice cream in my life and I'm not a huge ice cream eater, but I've eaten a lot of ice cream.
And that's a perfect example.
And then in the middle, you have this group that just likes having a, you know, busy modern life, but also wants to wind down and maybe looking for something that's a bit more balanced between , health and indulgence.
So we made a nice selection of products there that really takes you for something more focused on the health aspect and getting that bit more indulgent, as we go to the right and on the right we have something that's still free from but very, very indulgent, the amaretto, apricot, and, almond shortbread.
So when you're thinking about your opportunities in your consumer group, it might be a day part, product.
It might be something positioned more indulgent for the end of the day, but this is a good way to think about your consumer group.
So again, this holistic approach to health with emotional balance, we're seeing more and more messaging on packages all about how this product fits into your lifestyle and also how it makes you feel.
So we ask consumers here which which overall aspects are most important when you're consuming foods and beverages.
So the first is good for my body.
The second is give me gives me energy, and the third is that it makes me happy.
And I think that's really interesting and it's a bit of a change, and I think we'll continue to see more and more that it's OK to talk about your happiness and when you're not happy and so on.
And here's a nice example of a product, they describe Nature's Bakery believes simple nutritive snacks give energy for an active and a happy life.
So acknowledging that this is part of a holistic, lifestyle.
And then if we look at almonds in terms of a very key ingredient in a lot of these products here we looked at the new food and beverage launches that had almonds and you can see the percentage of that set that contains.
All from these different categories.
So, 24% of those products are confectionery products.
Snacks is really starting to grow, so we see a lot of products containing almonds as a snack, and dairy is also growing.
So almonds have always been an important part, of confectionary products.
You see two nice examples on the right, but we're also seeing a lot more creative and innovative, uses of almonds.
And with that, we're gonna turn it over to Chef Anish to give us.
An overview of his first concept.
Thank you Luanne I think this first recipe really fits in nicely with what you've been, showing us er about embracing busy lifestyle yet finding a way to snack on healthy options.
Like all of my recipe recipes and particularly with chocolate indulgence is very much key to my recipes.
But at the same time, we like the idea of, guilt-free snacking and indulgence, so we like to incorporate healthy ingredients that pair like, roasted almonds and chocolates.
So, this very first recipe is, our chocolate almond nut butter with Essex Maldon sea salt, and we've done a, a, a passion fruit jelly, to go with this as.
So the idea is, to create a product which is versatile from.
Being, something for breakfast.
You can have it in the afternoon with tea or, like many of our customers, and I'm sure like if you're anything like myself, I'm quite happy with the jar of, almond nut butter and a spoon often.
That's always a great combination as.
I will, I'll go through the recipe, but first, the key ingredients, roasted almonds, I think with confections, to really bring out those, Indulgent and almost addictive, flavors, roasting is is key and and what we did here is, something quite unique, we roasted the almonds, but some of them we we kept wet when we roasted them so what this means is we get a slight, , steaming as and we get really beautifully crisp nuts.
And the caramelization that takes place through a process called the Maillard reaction gives, , we have an inbuilt attraction to caramel sort of flavors and that's what happens in the Maillard reaction, sugars get caramelized, so we puree, these down.
And we leave some chunky too, to take advantage of some of the other sensory factors taking place as.
So you've got the creamy, texture, then you've got a bit of crunch.
You've got, some other, morsels of salt in there as , the Essex meld and salt, which, as they melt out release this beautiful savory notes on the palate.
And the chocolate's added in two stages.
Once, purely actually to give a color as , so you get this striking visual appeal of clearly roasted nuts and chocolate, but, also it gives some element of of flavor throughout the nut butter.
But then the second stage is my favorite, which we just pulse in so we don't actually blitz it through the recipe and what that means is when you.
When you dive your spoon in and you lift it up, very much like, paleontology almost going through the layers of the earth you see speckles of chocolate flakes running through the nut butter and it's awfully suggestive, it it you know it it just says indulgence.
And then on a sort of molecular level looking at flavonoids, almonds pair really with some acidic flavors actually tamarind actually is one of my favorites with almonds, beautiful combination and playing off of that we've got passion fruit, and this ties in with our, our very famous PBJ so we get this lovely almond roasted flavors, we've got the sweet, we've got the salty, or we've got the savory.
And then we bring in this sour note as so we've got almost everything going on from textures to flavors as.
In terms of the recipes, for this, we roast the almonds, puree them with the salt.
The salt acts as a grinder almost as , helps get a really, really pure, flavor, but, the texture is just completely, fine, very, very fine.
So you can't really, get any sort of granules of almond.
It's, it's a very pure paste of almonds.
We then add, as a contrast, the nuts in, pulse them through so you get the texture.
The chocolate goes in at the two stages, and then we've got the passion fruit.
Now the secret to a good passion fruit jelly, or we call it jam here in England, is, to add a tiny bit of tartaric acid.
Passion fruit is already acidic, but that brings up a lot of the passion fruit flavor, and we cook that to 95 °C or 203 °F.
And that'll give us a perfect set and then it's up to yourself, the chef, whether you wanna swirl it in the jar, create patterns along the side of the jar.
I like this sort of partitioned look because it's very natural.
It's for me it's reminiscent of the view of the sand meeting the ocean.
It's very relaxing and it, it, it, it, it gives a nod to a healthy, lifestyle which, which this almond nut butter certainly is.
So I hope, this is something, you know, everybody has a go at at home, back over to you, Luanne, to talk through more consumer trends.
But we all wanna eat that.
I think we wanna talk about the recipe some more.
I like all the words, that's you have sweet, bitter, salty, sour, crunchy, and melty.
So I have to say that really evokes, wakes up all your senses.
So really interesting.
Great example.
OK, so let's move on and look at nut mixes.
So, we ask consumers, as a savory snack, I prefer, 16% said nuts and seeds, and you can see followed by yogurt, crackers, meat snacks.
This was American consumers, and, as I said earlier, you can also look at, you know, day part, time of day, time of week, when you're looking at indulgence and flavors and so on.
I think this is a very fun, it's beautifully packaged from Korea, that it's a nut snack, for every day, Monday to Sunday, and you can buy them for 124, or 6 weeks.
So, very interesting, lots of different kinds of flavors in there.
But, nuts continue to be a really popular snack.
Almonds, again, are really important nuts in nut mixes.
49% of all snack mixes have almonds in them.
And you could just see how important almonds are in all these categories.
A third of cereal bars have almonds.
Almost a third of dairy alternative drinks are almond milk.
Sports bars.
Declining a little bit there, but still, more than 20% and also in snack nuts and seeds.
So again, almond's really important in, in confectioning, but also, in snack mixes.
So now we're gonna move on and talk about some of the hybrid products that we mentioned earlier.
So this is our trend oval that we do every year.
Some of you might be familiar with the different trends, and right there at number 7 is looking at Hello Hybrids.
We still have this very adventurous consumer interested in discovering new things, understanding the stories behind it, really important.
And just to add that bit of excitement, there's a lot of opportunity when you look at hybrids.
And there's lots of different ways to do hybrids.
So it can be through merging two categories.
So in this case, this is a fun example from China where we have almond crispy candy, and you can see the almond there, which is a whole nut, which also communicates premiumness but also help on a, a piece of confectiony.
Mixing taste profiles.
We just had a great example with sweet, bitter, salty, and sour all in one product.
The Kit Kats here are, again, sweet and salty, been very popular for a few years, and still has legs, and you can see all the different combinations in there in the Kit Kat.
With the nuts and the, the pretzels and the, the balls there, the pieces, and also blending ingredients.
So here's a nice example of milk and ruby chocolate used together, again with, with almonds in the chocolate products.
So that's certainly one way to do hybrids.
70% of consumers across those countries said that, I love to experiment with new concepts.
So we also looked for some examples that were a bit different.
Kit Kat is definitely in Asia, it's one of the, especially in Japan, is a brand to always look at for inspiration.
So this is a soy milk chocolate coated wafer, with cranberries and almonds, cut up in little bite-sized pieces there, something very different.
Crispy seaweed from Myanmar, that's also really interesting.
And in addition to it just be, it's almond slices with seaweed, but also with a very hot and spicy flavor, and you can also see the importance of the word baked there, also communicating health.
And then the nougat and the crisp on the right-hand side.
So this is a product that again has a lot going on in terms of flavor, texture with crispy waffle pieces and inclusions in there and including the nuts.
So again, another way to merge some of these categories together to create something very different.
This is just a super fun example that we thought deserved a slide of its own.
They're tofu cookies with almonds, so really different.
It's a social enterprise, that used almond powder, probably like an almond flour, and these tofu cookies that contain 25%, tofu.
The almonds bring a very nutty taste, but also a very light texture.
So, again, fantastic, very innovative, and very different example, from Korea.
So there seems to always be something new to do.
Again, going back to the whole idea of, mixing taste flavors, we found a few examples here, sweet and spicy, but also salty and sour.
I think these are also some interesting, flavor combinations, the chili, cranberry, apple, and almonds.
The dried apple is an interesting idea, and to create a different kind of mix.
Sea salt caramel crunch bites, sea salt caramel, I think it's just never going away.
Still an extremely popular flavor, and the salty and sour with the, the lemon also looks really pretty there.
We're coming into summertime in the northern hemisphere, and to me, lemons taste like sunshine.
And you can also see we ask US consumers, do you like to mix flavors, and 70% say they do like it, and that includes flavors like sweet and salty.
Blending ingredients.
All three of these products have really unusual, and very different types of flavor profiles from the ingredients.
We see a lot of snacks and almonds featuring fruit ingredient ingredients, was growing at 12% over the period from 2015 to 2019, and here's nice examples with white chocolate, salted almonds, blackcurrant.
It's really interesting combination packaging that also reflects those flavors.
A nut bar with cherries and lemons, I think that sounds very fresh and very summery.
An apricot, almonds, and mandarin peel that also sounds really interesting rolled in poppy seeds, so it's something completely different there from Trader Joe's.
So I think there's always a way to excite and interest consumers.
With very different combinations.
We still see grains being used.
We still see, you know, reference to, to ancient grains, a lot of interest still in hero ingredients.
You can see here on the right-hand side that we've seen, a 33% growth in confectioning launches with almonds and grains, and two nice examples.
I have to say I think the Ritter Sport bar, it's really exceptional packaging.
I saw it in the store about a year ago and, it really just stands out.
And just looks so beautiful and so simple, and it's also a vegan product.
They're always, Ritter is always innovating and doing something interesting, and I think that's really beautiful.
Also, the products here from Mexico with almond and amaranth, again, another vegan product with a nice blend of almonds and grains.
And then also looking for texture innovation.
And today I was talking about flavors all day long, and we were also looking at how you can bring flavor through innovations in texture through the ingredients.
So we just had a nice example with the almond butter spread, and I think we're gonna have another example in a second.
But in the meantime, again, Kit Kat, looked at the candy, the, here's an example, the candy dried cranberry with almonds.
I have to say it looks really beautiful, I think in the picture.
A new texture for me.
I've never heard of squidgy.
Melty was also kind of a, a nice new texture as , but soft and squidgy, and they have almond butter as a filling, and I know we've done these webinars before and also talked about the versatility of almonds, especially when it comes to texture, and this is a really fun example with almond butter in the middle of these squidgy nuggets.
So that combines a different taste profile but also adds something really unique with texture.
And then blending ingredients that you have something that's fruity and crunchy.
And this contains chopped almonds and freeze-dried raspberries, so you can just imagine the different, flavor and texture, punch that you're gonna get from that product.
And now we're gonna see our next concept.
Thank you Joanne.
I really liked the examples you showed of the different textures.
I'm I'm massive into textures, especially with, you know, my work pairing with chocolates, quinoa and amaranth is a wonderful texture as.
And I've come up with a recipe here we've developed this with a a multitude of textures.
I love putting different things together so you get an entire , sort of avalanche of things happening on the plate and this bark, combines both a biscuit texture, you've got slivers of nuts, so it's not quite crack of a nut that we're used to, but you get a slightly the more dainty snap, which is also a very lovely texture.
We've got the chew of some currants which, come back in with the trend of adding fruits as an inclusion which you touched upon, earlier as.
So, the bark is a brilliant format because it Carries so many ingredients and so many flavors in a very.
Natural flowing way it it it it doesn't really require to be set like a bonbon or or or a tablet or bar you know there's so much freedom with it and here we've played with a lot of the texture so the key ingredients are candied almonds.
Now I know earlier I mentioned I always toast nuts when I'm pairing with chocolate here we don't and the simple reason is they get toasted in the caramel, so we want to start with them raw.
And we first start with a a caramel, and they go in and our envelope is this beautiful amber caramel.
Touching upon an ingredient you mentioned earlier, pretzels, slightly salted as , so you've got the savory flavors coming in, currants to bring some freshness, and the texture as , and then lastly, of course, the canvas, which is a bitter chocolate with a wonderful 70% chocolate from the Dominican Republic, and it naturally has floral notes and pairs perfectly with, the almonds and the currants together.
And I, this, as I mentioned is a favorite technique of mine for recipes, because you can combine so many different things, so many textures.
And you can hold together both health and indulgence and snacking through this format as.
So the very first step is to sliver the almonds and prepare those and we create a dry caramel on a hot pan, completely dry.
Wait for the pan to heat up.
We add the sugar in it and it starts to, smoke into a lovely amber color.
This is controlled and we, we develop the color just exactly how we like it and then we add in our slivered almonds.
At this stage we're going to cover them completely.
We add a bit of cocoa butter just to help separate the almonds, and I hope you can see in the image here.
That, that, that profile of, of, of the sort of caramel nuggets, almost reminds me of, of, when you see, you know, things crystallized in, in amber, so you can see all those lovely layers and, and, and shards of almonds there.
The next is, to, to break those into morsels, mixed together with the pretzels and the currants, and the chocolate.
And then we we pour out in a in a free flowing manner and layer it.
In a, in a very random way but also in a very inviting way and I think that's, that's the beauty of, of barks, you know, they are very suggestive and we want that I can have another piece.
I can have another piece element and I think bars, barks always do that because they all each bite has something slightly different to offer, so.
Bucks definitely are are are a favorite of mine and I think they really come and bring health snacking convenience together as.
Luanne should we jump into our key takeaways?
Absolutely.
I have to say I'm just like marveling at your textures.
So now we have crack, chew, and melt all in in one product.
So really nice description.
OK.
You wanna have a crack at our key takeaways and, and start out?
Sure, so, you know, snacking is becoming a central focus of innovation across all food and beverage categories.
That space is definitely growing more as, I think people live busier lives as you touched upon and I think there is that that scale of people who are definitely looking for indulgence but also want to keep health in mind as.
Now, the consumer demands for snacking, have shifted between these two things and, and all the formats as you mentioned in some of the slides, they're very suggestive as to why that product is good for us.
So we're keeping health in mind all the time, and, and of course, when you have a product which combines all these things, then, then there is great potential for success.
Yeah, and we, you just showed, I think, two fantastic examples of hybrid, so that's definitely a way to add some excitement, to your product, and again, thinking about day part, if it's breakfast, if it's afternoon snacks, desserts, so maybe chef, you can just talk a little bit about the kind of things that you also think about when you're developing these hybrid types of products that you showed today.
I think The first thing is indulgence for me always I always start at an indulgent recipe, something that I know people are going to really enjoy but then.
When we go too far on indulgence, people get saturated too quickly.
There isn't, there, there isn't a point where they feel good about themselves if you overindulge.
So I think when it comes to creating a confection, particularly what we do here is health is, is, is a key driving factor.
You know, we've been known for creating truffles that are half the calories and quarter of the fat, so health is always a driving factor for us.
So once I've created this indulgent concept, I then look at the recipe reformulate and think how can we take out some of the bad fats, how can we incorporate some of the good fats, good proteins, and make it a more wholesome product which I'm a massive believer in chocolate should be part of every single meal breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I'm always looking at ways to both make him indulgent, which I think you can do very easily by creating a creamy experience on the palate, but at the same time bringing in key health ingredients such as, you know, inclusions which you mentioned, but of course almonds, pairing them with things like fruits to keep them interesting and exciting.
Yeah, so I think, I think some of the key phrases would be mixing flavors, mixing textures, looking at innovative hero ingredients, ingredient blends, combining flavors, that, that's a really important part of, of creating a new snack that really stands out and it's something different for people.
Oh, absolutely, yeah, definitely.
Yeah, so I don't think we need to read.
I think everybody can kind of see this, but I think in terms of what's coming next, I think sometimes I reflect back on my own childhood, and we certainly had no snacks like a bark, and I love to hearing you talk about bark because that really is, they've been around for what, maybe 567 years, but it's quite a new, a new type of product.
So I'm sure there's gonna be, there's room for a lot more innovation and definitely when it comes to different combinations of all the things that we've talked about today.
Anything else to add before we go to, our questions?
Yeah, I think just touching upon what you mentioned about the barks and and and the emergence of, of them, I think as we now move into this this era of where health is, you know, at the fore in every aspect of life now from mental -being to to our food and our fitness, I think the snacking space is really, really interesting.
You know, we, we use ingredients like popping candy that kind of hit back on nostalgia, bring back memories of our childhood, but at the same time, as we've seen in the bark and new formats, re-emergence of things like chocolate lollipops, you know, by bringing this new exciting format whilst, you know, Pulling back those really special memories from our childhood will be you know, a key area for the snacking and confectionery space.
OK.
And I think that's a great summary to launch our Q&A on.
OK, so before we, answer the questions, I just wanna make two other kind of announcements.
There's an exit survey at the end of this, so if you'll hang on and provide us some feedback, we will definitely use it for the next events that we that we do.
And also there's some questions coming in asking if the slides are available.
There's a PDF available.
It's in the.
The console there by the speaker description.
So, while we're answering questions, you should be able to, to find the PDF.
OK, so Anish, we have quite a few questions asking about definition of a hybrid, what could be the next big hybrid?
So do you wanna start off by talking about what the definition or your definition of a hybrid is?
Sure, thanks Luanne.
I think There are, there is maybe some ambiguity as to what people call a hybrid.
Technically speaking, a hybrid is when two things that don't normally go together come together, and I think that holds some truth, but I obviously you can see why that could be ambiguous.
We all have different interpretations of what should and should not go together when it comes to food and cuisine.
We all have our own tastes and preferences.
For me, as you saw in my recipes, it's very much about combining exciting things.
It could be fruits and herbs, or it could be, spices and nuts, things that we don't see every day.
Sometimes we go a bit further and we push something really out, you know, you see all these Michelin restaurants coming out with these trends.
I think for me hybrid is a dilution of, of that into a more mainstream, space, so it could be instead of just a coconut chocolate adding a bit of mango in there.
That's now for me a hybrid.
Whereas if you're, you know, if you were to add something that we're used to, for example, almonds and coconut for me isn't so much of a hybrid.
I, I can see that I can, I can understand what that is, but adding passion fruit to the coconut and almonds suddenly becomes.
Not too far that it's, I can't, I I I wouldn't want to try it, but it's enough to be, exciting for me that's, that's a hybrid.
Yeah, I agree, and I think, I think I always think of it in a, in a couple of different ways that, we have a database of products, and sometimes you'll get products and we have big discussions, is it candy or is it a cookie, when they start to blur two categories, and I think if you take it to the further extreme, there's been a lot of hype about dessert burgers lately, you know, they either have a sweet bun with salty in the middle, or you could do just mega super indulgent.
You know, sweet all the way with these, you know, maybe a cinnamon roll becomes your, your bun and so on.
One of the questions is what are the next hybrid combos you think will be a big hit with consumers?
I can imagine these dessert burgers that there's gonna be all kinds of experimentation because they're also very Instagrammable, so that'll be, I think, something to watch and again you just mentioned like.
The Michelin star restaurants is they really are a great source of inspiration, and I think some of these things as , you're probably not gonna sell a dessert burger, but can you be inspired by that?
Today we had a conference call with some colleagues in China and Lay's came out with a candy flavored Lay's potato chips.
And I thought that's a great, could be a great inspiration, you know, from this dessert burger as.
And then I think one other example, during this lockdown that we've all been in is we're trying and experimenting lots of different things at my house and we tried the new almond milk Bailey's.
And I thought that was interesting because now we're getting dairy alternatives into alcohol.
I think alcohol has become full of, really almost kind of hybrids as that they are they soft, they're really soft drinks.
A lot of these alcohol-free ones are soft drinks, but we also have hard seltzers.
So I think, I guess my point would be to think just as creatively as you could.
You gave a lot of great examples of mixing spices and herbs and fruits and nuts and so on.
So the definition is probably kind of stretched, and you can go from one extreme really to the other.
OK, so let's go through the next question.
So we have a question here are consumers interested in products containing ingredients with health benefits?
Absolutely, and again we're doing this during.
What you know, much of the world is, is on a lockdown now and consumers are very interested in, in health benefits.
I think also if you think about, we're all being educated on testing and antibodies and you know we're all learning all kinds of things.
We're reading about underlying conditions and so I think consumers are very aware of their health.
It's been a big driver for a long time, of, of food trends, but I think now that there's, even more focus.
On health benefits, what do you think, Anish?
Yeah, no, I, I certainly think so, but, you know, as, as, as I mentioned earlier about mental -being and, and health, mental, physical, spiritual, all, all, all sorts, I think, that's driving really into our, our routine.
We're seeing that with the uprising of, as you mentioned, with the Almond Bailey's with, you know, vegan products, I think we'll see a lot of hybrids coming through accidentally as, as products are, are, are developed into being alternatives anyway.
So I think it's a really interesting space, you know, amaranth and all these all these different things that mimic textures and mimic experiences of indulgence they they're certainly gonna come through now and I I I definitely think health is is the way forward, that's where the market's definitely going.
Yeah, I agree.
OK, so now something a bit more chefy that is definitely for you and not me.
Is there an ideal ratio of almonds to chocolate?
I, yes, there is depending on your application, so I, I'm not sure you know where these questions come from in terms of whether it's, you know, a, a, a bulk customer or you know mass factory customer or an artisan, but that does make a difference.
So when we're looking at the artisan level, anything from 25 to 30% chocolate and the balance to be, almonds or nuts.
Is is a good recipe and the reason why there can be some fluctuation is Whilst the nuts won't go bad, so to say, like a ganache would, a ganache is made of fruit, fruit purees or cream, and that will go bad and, and, you know, determining shelf life in that way, nuts will go stale rather than going bad.
But the problem with, with nuts is they, they have the, the natural oils which will go through the, if you're doing a bonbon, for example, they'll go through the shell of the chocolate and cause a fat bloom.
Whilst that will make the chocolate look white, and some people, to the untrained eye, they think that the chocolate's gone bad.
It hasn't.
It's absolutely fine and safe to eat.
That determines our shelf life rather than.
The life of the actual nuts or the life of the chocolate because of of the rate of of movement of the fat boom so an artisan can afford to have more almonds, which means a faster movement of fats.
And a shorter shelf life because that's the nature of their of their industry, whereas the larger, more industrial customer would want a longer shelf life, i.e., a slower movement of slower fat migration, and so you'd want anything around 40% chocolate and the balance to be made up of almonds.
And again within that 60% of almonds.
You can caramelize the almonds, so again you're adding sugar and reducing the percentage of nuts as.
So you, you could end up having anything like 75% of the 60% of your almonds being nuts, the rest being sugar, and then you've got your 40% chocolate.
So, there, there is an ideal, but it depends on your application.
OK, I'm impressed that you could answer that like that so fast.
Wow, OK, so you, you've told us that that you think chocolate should go with everything, but what other ingredients do you like to, to pair with almonds?
Almonds are really versatile because they taste, for me I find they taste so different raw and roasted.
And that makes a huge difference.
Raw they have the texture powdered, they have the texture of flour, they have a, a different bite as when they're raw, and that means they pair, even roasted in fact, but with a lot of stone fruits.
So I love, you know, if you look at some of the traditional cobbler recipes you've got things like plums and nectarine and apricots and peaches.
They all go fantastically with, with almonds.
But in if where we are since we're on on the theme of hybrids and we're looking at that, I like to bring in.
Lesser used flavors with almonds things like lemon balm, basil, even parsley and tarragon, these herbs work fantastically not only with almonds but in combination with the stone fruits that I mentioned, and then even more unusual things like red wine vinegar paired beautifully with, with, with almonds and going back to to the the passion fruit, all the acidic flavors I mentioned, tamarind, absolutely wonderful with, with, almonds as.
Spices, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, it's almonds are versatile, so, it's not only just an ingredient, but you can marry two or three of them together and make a completely new flavor profile.
So they're, they're really, really, fun to play with.
That sounds excellent.
I really hope I get a chance to taste some of your, your products at some exhibition or conference if we're ever let out again.
OK, let's talk a little bit more about we have more questions about healthy and about diet, so we have one here about what are the look for proteins.
So from our perspective, so we do a lot of analysis on, on ingredients, and there's still huge interest in protein.
So nuts are still one of those interesting, very interesting, protein sources, and then I, I think you can think about this in two ways.
You can think about, in terms of supply chain, what's, and again, if you, and you, you mentioned that if you're a big industrial customer, of course, soy, pea protein in terms of the plant proteins, dairy is still, you know, the, the biggest overall, but I think in terms of emerging growing proteins, you have a lot of things like, Like some of the, the super grains, but also things like sesame protein, chickpea protein.
You can also do a regional split depending upon which part of the world you are, you know, rice protein would probably appeal to a lot of Asian consumers, chickpeas in the Middle East, but also in countries like Mexico.
So, and again, price has a big impact, you know, pumpkin seed protein, so we're seeing the emergence of all these protein ingredients that we're also able to track most of them very, very niche, but huge interest in them and so.
I would say it depends if you're going plant or animal, and then do you want to go something with a global appeal or are you looking for something more niche and then cost is of course is a big impact.
Do you have any, any insights or any thoughts about that in niche?
Yes, I think, just, just other proteins that I've come across, pea proteins been in the chocolate industry we've seen and and in snacking in general we've seen pea protein used a lot.
I think it's got a fine, fine texture like milk powder, so it's very easily, substituted for milk powder when making, couvature chocolate liquid chocolate for, making, other chocolate products.
So the pea protein's been great and soya, I think you mentioned soya, that's been really versatile in terms of texture as so you can get things like soya crispies.
And, you know, we're seeing protein, I think.
Has been in, especially 2019 has been for me the year of protein we've seen it in almost all the products.
A lot of the new development has all been protein based, whether it's, you know, marketing to, to the, to the health and gym sector or or in your daily intake area, protein's really been a key in 2019 and I'm sure it'll continue, especially now whilst everybody's in lockdown.
I think health is just getting even more and more important.
Yeah, for sure there's a question here about almonds in the keto diet.
I did do a quick check and I looked in our database.
I found about 500 products that contain almonds, and products positioned as keto.
And I thought it was interesting because you can see there was almond flour being used, so even things like tortillas being used, almonds as instead of wheat flour, almond butter also being used as fillings and products, almonds also in snack mixes, so.
Also, little almond butter pouches, for example.
So I would say almond just because of all the different formats fits really into a lot of keto products, but also almond milk as a creamer.
For, kind of like bullet coffee.
So I thought that was interesting as.
Do you ever, do you ever, as a chef make products like for keto?
Does that ever come into your , Do you, do you ever work on projects like that?
To date we haven't worked on anything keto based really.
I don't have, much experience in keto.
I have, some friends who are on the keto diet and, it, it is a really interesting diet in, in, in what they can and can't eat and they've been, great results from it, but to try and reduce carbs and chocolate is, is, is, is the biggest problem really.
Yeah.
I think that's, that's a big stumbling block.
So there are low carb chocolates and various alternatives out there, but nothing that's found to be that exciting as yet.
Not, not, not, not, not that's come across my path.
Yeah, no, I can imagine it's hard, but it, it's interesting.
We did a lifestyle survey, and if you think about, I think 6% of Americans have tried keto, which I thought was just huge, so very, very interesting, kind of, yeah, I'm not on it, but I do know a lot of people that are on it.
OK, let's see, OK, so Anish, another, we're gonna put you on the spot here.
You're, you're, I have to say you're a very good partner because you're just willing to take on every question and so far you've had just fantastic answers.
How do you make, how do you make indulgence healthier but also more cost effective?
OK, so I that's a great question.
I think indulgence.
For me necessarily and directly translates to comfort.
So if you can replicate the textures and familiarity of the things that make you feel Relaxing, you know that that that TV advert of that person opening the wrapper of chocolate sitting on the sofa and, and dimming the lights in the room.
That's what we want to recreate and often I think health in the last, not in the last 5 years before that has been really square shaped and very.
Clunky and in the last 5 years we we've seen 5 years we've seen a really good movement of improving the quality of health naturally driven by consumer interest as , but if you have a look at things like fudges made out of dates, for example, or it could be the soya crispy textures instead of biscuit.
There are ways of making things indulgent by replicating familiar textures, so biscuit, as I mentioned, or it could be fudge or or caramel using agave instead of sugar, for example.
So these are ways of making indulgences healthier.
Making them more cost effective is possible but can be complex.
From my experience, I think healthier almost necessarily does mean more premium.
Not always, but I'm sure there are exceptions, but healthier definitely means cleaner.
Cleaner generally means there has been more care and attention taken, which generally takes more time and and cost.
However, People who are interested in health generally are more inclined to and willing to, to pay a bit more for their health.
So there is a payoff as , but I'm sure in, you know, buying in bulk or not worrying about specific origins, for example, if you were to buy almonds or cocoa.
And you were not too worried about they, they were from a specific farm or nation, then I'm sure you could, you could get a deal on a better price on on the purchase of ingredients to help drive down the cost, but other than that I think you know from my experience health necessarily does come with with a premium.
Is that OK?
Was that, was that, that's perfect.
I think, I think I agree with you.
There's two more questions here about, has COVID impacted the demand for snacking with health board claims and your take on a new category of immunity boosters, and I think it kind of goes along with this whole thing, and I again, I'm a consumer too, and I think about my family, but friends, and yesterday I was talking to an accountant.
I think, I think there's this whole, we're definitely trying experimenting with a lot more food, a lot more indulgent stuff, but I'm also experimenting with so many recipes, and I've learned how to use spices over the.
The past 10 weeks at home, I just looked at that big spice rack and I looked for recipes that really use them, so, and I'm spending a lot more money on food.
I noticed that as , but I'm cooking 100% from scratch.
There's been no jars and nothing frozen or anything, so I agree with that, but I think, thinking about the demand for snacking with help for claims, I think combining it with immunity, I think we're gonna, I've heard the word shielding.
And I think that can be kind of interesting because again I mentioned earlier that we're hearing about underlying conditions and how, how more vulnerable you are and also older people who are less strong and their muscles aren't as strong.
So even yesterday I was listening to somebody talk about vaccinations and the risk of them, and if you aren't as strong and you have weaker muscles and so on, it's a higher risk to, to be vaccinated, so.
I think there's gonna be a lot of people thinking about all of this, and they're gonna be thinking twice about what they're eating for their immune systems and, and I think we can see, I can imagine.
That as we continue to reflect on this and we come out of it on the other side, that people are gonna think different things and they're gonna relate their, their immunity, but also their inherent, we'll say healthiness, muscle strength, muscle mass with the ability to survive these kinds of things.
So I can imagine we cannot, we're not gonna be able to make really extreme health claims on products, not approved them.
But I do think that there will be something related to this whole idea of shielding yourself from something like this going forward, so I don't know all the answers on exactly what the claims will be, but I can imagine it, so that's my two cents on that.
So what about you, Anish, and you can have the, the last word, for our webinar today.
Yeah, I think the, the other question about immunity boosters links in with this as in terms of the the claims and, and.
I think already if you look at an ingredients like almonds or citrus fruits, things that we are chilies, for example, things we are already consuming.
Already protect us against a lot of things and there there will probably and I'm sure there will be lots of people, profiteering off the fear of, such a problem happening and and using that in their branding, I some rightfully and, and some, you know, just for the sake of marketing, but yeah, I, I think I like your, your your observation about shielding, I think certainly as we go forward a lot of people are gonna be very, very.
Both skeptical and scrutinous about their food, where it comes from, who's made it, who's touched it, and the entire process, so, I think the consumers are going to be a lot more conscious and, will have a much more acute eye of of food going forward.
Yeah, I agree.
So on that, we're gonna wrap up for today.
Again, don't forget your PDF.
Don't forget the exit survey, and we really appreciate all the fantastic questions that we had, and, Anisha, it was a lot of fun doing this with you.
Yeah I had a great time and thank you for everyone for for for joining us.
No.
