Salted caramel products continue to increase year over year since debuting in 2008. The flavor has been featured in breakfast cereals, dairy, snacks, desserts and ice cream, ready-to-drink beverages and confectionery, illustrating this is a flavor profile that has a lot of staying power.
The marriage of salty and sweet is one that shouldn’t work, but magically and deliciously does. Consumers can’t get enough of it. Too much sugar is overly intense and too much salt simply tastes terrible, but when you mix the two, the combination is heavenly.
Chefs call this flavor layering, and the right mix – not too sweet and not too salty – gives your brain a positive response. With flavor layering, flavors melt together in your mouth without giving you 1 specific taste leading to sensory-specific satiety. Therefore salty/sweet combinations double the taste sensation and create a pleasurable experience that keeps consumers coming back for more.
