Bitterness is here to stay
Are you bitter?
No I am not talking to you about your ex-girlfriend (or boyfriend), or nasty divorce, or even the game lost by your favorite team in the Champions League. This post is about bitter, the taste.
I remember once talking to a client of mine active in the alcohol segment long ago. He was a bit older and wanted to know what kind of drinks ‘young’ kids were into. I did mention a few brands I would occasionally drink, which happen to be bitter in terms of taste. The man was surprised: “You drink bitter?!? But you are young!”. Well I don’t think he had his hands on much market analysis. Also I didn’t know if there was any reliable study existing on the subject.
Well now there is. Campari commissioned iVOX, and the aroma lab of the KULeuven, technology campus Ghent to have a closer look on the bitter taste amongst the Belgian crowds.
The main results of the bitter trend
- The products: The survey asked the question of the favorite product with bitter taste amongst Belgians. Chicory leads the table in front of coffee, dark chocolate, olives and dandelion salad.
- Man vs Woman: Women like to eat bitter food a bit more than men. Only when it comes to coffee, men are in front. So grapefruit, chicory, radish etc… are more often on female plates. However, if you sir, think it’s an explanation for your ex-wife’s bitterness. I must point out to you that the study doesn’t offer any scientific explanation on that.
- North vs South: Walloons and Flemish people do differ, as the first ones will go more easily to sweet drinks. Flemish people on the other hand will go more easily to bitter drinks such as tonic or grapefruit juices.
- Summer vs Winter: Bitter drinks are associated with the summer feeling. Whereas bitter food is more associated to the winter according to the survey.
A few remarks
One should point out that bitter is a taste you have to learn to appreciate. At first, you would tend to associate sugar with your chicory or grapefruit for example. But slowly, you will evolve towards pure bitter tastes, and appreciate the taste by itself.
According to the trend watcher Herman Konings, the Bitter taste will be a major trend for the next ten years.
Finally, even though, this posts takes its origin from a press release by Campari, I find it refreshing to see a communication based on a real study, so with a bit more content than the usual statements “My product is so great”.
For the full content with the graphs just go to http://www.rcapress.be/rca-campari/bitter-is-tweede-favoriete-smaak-van-de-belgen/
CampariBitterAmerEtudesSurveyBelgiumHerman KoningsTrendTendance