Kerry Group, a global leader in taste and nutrition solutions, has announced its 2025 North America Taste Charts Smarts, an interactive quiz designed to help food and beverage brands understand evolving consumer preferences and identify the most appealing flavors for their specific category.

The quiz is built on Kerry’s proprietary Taste Trends and Taste Charts, two tools that track the evolution of flavor across 13 global regions. Kerry’s Taste Charts map flavor performance into four tiers—Mainstream, Key, Up & Coming and Emerging—based on consumer testing and proprietary data across categories like sweet, savory, citrus, dairy, salty snacks and more. Combined with the 2025 Taste Trends, which reflect broader cultural and functional shifts in consumer flavor expectations, these insights provide a comprehensive view of what’s resonating and what’s next.

Taste Charts Smarts turns this data into an interactive, personalized experience. The quiz invites food and beverage innovators to test their flavor instincts and discover how closely they align with real consumer preferences.

Participants receive tailored results based on their product category, including:

• The three most appealing flavors in their respective super category – such as cold, dairy, hot beverages, savory, snack, or sweet snacks
• A detailed look at the top-performing flavor in their specific sub-category
• The most relevant 2025 Taste Trends to inspire future flavor innovation—designed to spark further ideation

For those seeking a deeper dive, the quiz also offers the opportunity to schedule a personalized demo, including a full flavor performance report and expert guidance from Kerry's team. Built on insights from over 75 distinct product categories, the quiz delivers a highly customized experience that reflects the specific flavor dynamics of each segment. With this tailored approach, brands can confidently develop new flavors or refine existing products based on what truly resonates with their target consumers.

“Our customers aren’t just looking for a list of what’s trending, they’re looking for confidence in their product development decisions,” says Elizabeth Horvath, VP Marketing, North America. “Taste drives consumer choice. The Taste Charts Smarts quiz encourages food and beverage brands to dig deeper beyond just flavor trends, uncovering taste profiles most appealing by sub-category. Backed by real consumer data, this practical tool turns inspiration into innovation.”

The Taste Charts Smarts quiz reflects regional preferences across both the US and Canada highlighting both shared and regionally distinct preferences.

For hot beverages, creamy flavors like French vanilla, milk chocolate and vanilla remain prevalent across markets. Canada leans into seasonal flavors like pumpkin spice, while the US embraces innovative flavor trends such as cookie butter. For sweet applications, both markets enjoy timeless classics like milk chocolate. Canada favors comforting dessert flavors like brownie and cookies & cream, while the US explores complex profiles such as coffee and coconut.