olam food ingredients’ (ofi’s) flavor experts recently shared their top chocolate, confectionery, and bakery trends for the 2023 Halloween season.

Autumnal flavor pairings  

We’re seeing more and more Halloween-themed chocolates incorporating autumnal flavors like pumpkin spice, apple cider, caramel apple and cinnamon. We’re also seeing chili emerging as a flavor trend in European confectionery, as identified in ofi’s recent research. Manufacturers can tap into this trend and give consumers a warming seasonal twist on traditional chocolate flavors using our single-origin cocoa liquor DZNM 5023. With its fruity and floral notes, it pairs beautifully with spicy chili.

Plant-based and alternative confectionery

With plant-based continuing to grow in popularity, it’s no surprise that brands are increasingly looking to cater to different consumer preferences and needs around seasonal holidays. For brands looking to develop plant-based treats, finding the right base is key. We’ve found that oat milk works particularly well with our cocoa powders, as its strong and distinctive flavor helps to minimize any bitter notes in the cocoa and create a well-rounded flavor profile. One such example is our D11MG. With its fruity notes, this single-origin cocoa powder can bring the best of both worlds. 

The rise of seasonal home baking 

We’re seeing home baking and pre-mix recipe kits rising in popularity, with more themed and seasonal options appearing on shelves. For example, the Dr Oetker spooktacular science bake and learn allows families to get into the scary season with some seasonal baking, at little effort. To help our customers reformulate traditional bakery products to give them a dark and delightful new edge, our deZaan black cocoa powder D11B offers the perfect way to add color to boo-tiful home bake kits, for treats like indulgent black chocolate cookies. 

Seasonal novelty formats 

Increasingly companies are seizing the opportunity provided by seasonal holidays to innovate and trial exciting and experimental new concepts with consumers for a limited time period. We’ve seen limited-edition activity explode in recent years, with seasonal product launches like the Starbucks’ Spook-a-ccino Midnight Mocha Frappuccino or their Pumpkin Spice latte. We’ve experimented with spiced white chocolate, using cocoa butter with chai spices, building on the familiar cinnamon flavors. 

During Halloween, the reconfiguration of nostalgic customer favorites has become more commonplace, with a rise in limited-edition ranges. From Bourbon’s mysterious sour candy and Lindor’s Jack O Lantern truffles in Japan, to Kit Kat’s breaking bones skeleton bars in the U.S. As well as flavor, cocoa ingredients can create novelty through color to catch the eye of consumers. For example, you can create contrast using ingredients such as the bright white of deZaan’s Moonlight cocoa butter against the orange of dried pumpkin pieces.

Naveen Pessani, technical category manager for chocolate & confectionery, ofi said: “As Halloween grows in popularity around the globe, we’re seeing product development teams moving beyond traditional confectionery and candy to bring consumers more exciting and personalized creations. From bringing a fun seasonal twist to better-for-you product lines to adding new variations to family favorite treats, Halloween is an opportunity to experiment with new flavors and switch up existing formats to surprise and delight customers.”