Low Sugar, High Taste
It’s no secret that increasingly more consumers are seeking out sugar-free (or nearly sugar-free) meals, snacks, and beverages. The good news is that there are many ways to give them what they want without sacrificing flavor. Sugar is an incredibly popular addition to a vast number of products, so avoiding it takes a bit of experimentation and ingenuity – but it’s entirely possible and can result in new product lines that appeal to a whole previously-missed section of the population.
Indeed, there are many ways to enhance a product’s sweetness or overall aroma without sugar. One of the easiest ways is by using ingredients that are naturally sweet, such as berries, coconuts, apples, pears, carrots, and dark chocolate. Dates and bananas also pack a big – and sweet – punch. One of the most popular places to find these types of sweeteners is in baked goods, where excess sugar need not make an appearance. There are simply too many natural alternatives including cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, applesauce, and more. Fruit flavors are popular alternatives to sugar, as are artificial sweeteners that work well with any sweet treat.
Even in savory products, sugar makes frequent appearances. These foods can take a bit of work to perfect without sugar, but it can be done. First of all, salt and sugar balance each other – so reducing salt in and of itself can help enhance sweetness. Mastering the art of seasoning can help you avoid excess sugar–and salt, for that matter–if your target audience is health-conscious.
In general, you can use extracts that naturally call to mind the sweet taste of the original. For example, chocolate extract is perfect in coffee. Cinnamon and nutmeg also go great with coffee in lieu of the white stuff. You can create your own sugar-free sweet flavors with products such as cinnamon bark oil and sweetness enhancer. Other natural sweeteners include nutmeg, hazelnut, and almond.
When it comes to flavoring bottled water, you have even more leeway and even more ways to create a wide variety of lightly sweet and refreshing taste experiences. Try wild cherry bark concentrate and sweet almond oil, raspberry distillate and orange peel extract, or lavender extract and lemon citrus extract for something unusual and refreshing. Flavored teas are in a category all their own, but even when it comes to tea, sellers are always on the lookout for sugar-free ways to make their teas taste amazing. Natural ingredients and flavor extracts such as ginger, spearmint, raspberry, and lemon can help.