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I honestly expected to see avant-garde botanicals matcha lavender an other “Franken-flavors” to take over the charts.
But the data shows otherwise.
The US is a beast (22,000+ launches), but it plays it safe. Milk Chocolate. Strawberry. Vanilla. (Blame the Private Labels if you want, but they are the ones running the show).
But then you look South.
Argentina and Uruguay are playing a different game. Over there, Dulce de Leche is a religion. It outperforms almost everything.
And here is the paradox.
We have access to more molecules and extraction tech than ever before. We can make anything. Yet the market keeps voting with its wallet for the classics.
You might look at these numbers and see “Risk Aversion.” You might see a lack of imagination.
But I see something else.
In a world that feels increasingly chaotic and fast, we don’t always eat to explore. We eat to remember. We eat to feel steady.
Innovation isn’t always inventing a flavor that never existed.
Sometimes, the hardest job in the lab is preserving the past.
It’s making sure that Vanilla tastes exactly like the comfort you’re looking for, even when the world around you changes.
So maybe the goal isn’t just to make the wheel roll smoother. It’s to make sure it still leads us home.
