Snack fans are being treated to spicy and extreme flavors as new taste experiences are now front and center on supermarket shelves. This trend cuts across the entire snack foods category, which includes potato chips, tortilla chips and nuts.

Daniela Gómez of Flavor Innovation Support (FIS) explains, “The idea is to meet the needs of younger generations of consumers who are looking to make food a consumer experience that they can share on social media. Spicy flavors deliver because they are extreme and innovative and have quickly become a crowd pleaser.”

This is where the flavors of jalapeño, chipotle and habanero peppers stand out. The first has been featured in the largest number of recent product launches, standing out because of its characteristic green notes and slight spiciness. Chipotle is a close second, with its smokiness and hints of sweetness. Finally, habanero pepper, which also comes from Mexico, is increasingly recognized on the international stage thanks to its combination of spiciness and touch of acidity.

Brands have also added dairy, acidic, alliaceous and meaty notes to the heat in an effort to enhance the experience of spicy snacks. This has led to flavor profiles that combine jalapeño and touches of cheddar cheese or lime and habanero-flavored potato chips with onion or garlic and notes of bacon or ham. All of these offerings present levels or degrees of spiciness listed as mild, medium or hot.

Some brands are adding a bit of mystery in their ad campaigns in an effort to set their products apart from the competition and personalize them. Creativity plays a key role here. It is a question of telling the consumer about a new product without revealing every detail and challenging them to discover the rest through clues embedded in the packaging. These range from colors (red, yellow or green to signal the level of spiciness from high to low) to key words (fire and hot, or extra hot and xplosion for medium and high levels, respectively) and images (like a thermometer to indicate intensity).

In an effort to offer other innovative options that align with this trend in the spicy snack category, CRAMER conducted a market study in which our experts from diverse areas worked as a team to incorporate new flavors with a characteristic profile and extreme spiciness intensities into our portfolio. This comes in addition to our Extreme & Spicy collection, which already included jalapeño, chipotle and habanero options in line with the most popular hot peppers in the snack foods market.