Vanilla is loved by almost everyone, everywhere. Adopted by different regions and cultures in subtly different ways, it’s a key ingredient in everything from cereal to Michelin-starred cuisine, and its popularity shows no sign of declining.
Our passion for vanilla has grown over 150 years. From first synthesizing vanilla in 1874 to developing our own sustainable supply chain in Madagascar, vanilla is a constant source of inspiration to us. Today, we create vanilla flavor-solutions for thousands of products across the globe.
One of the world’s most valuable spices, vanilla is not only prized because of the labor and passion that goes into its cultivation, but also for its versatility. Whether it’s adding depth of flavor to a premium chocolate bar or bringing creamy undertones to aperitifs, no two uses of vanilla are ever identical. This is one of the reasons it’s so popular world over, and is why understanding regional preferences, trends and markets is vital when it comes to creating flavor solutions that translate into successful products.
From conducting regional insight studies to speaking to the thousands of chefs that make up the global network of chefs, Chefs United®, we’re constantly working to understand what consumers want, what the next trends will be and the role technology will play in future flavor directions. We also send our flavorists and chefs around the world, from markets to our regional development kitchens, giving them access to new sources of inspiration and enabling them to bring their new discoveries into products that delight consumers everywhere.
When it comes to taste, people’s preferences are wonderfully diverse, formed by their own experiences, where they live and the communities they live in. From rich and creamy to subtle and aromatic, pinpointing the ideal vanilla flavor begins with knowing who will be doing the tasting.
of the world’s vanilla is used in the US, Germany and France
consumer spending will rise by 43% to $12trillion between 2010 and 2020
13 urban hot spots where Symrise is carrying out research into the latest sweet trends
Knowing what works
The only way to know what it is that delights consumers is to immerse yourself in their world. This is exactly what our marketing and evaluation teams do, every day.
When it comes to sweet treats, we all like to indulge every now and then. But when you’re deciding what to treat yourself to, have you ever thought about what’s influencing your choices? Is it finding the right nutritional balance? Or are you looking for pure indulgence? Most likely, you make your choice without consciously thinking about why you pick one thing over another. It’s that unconscious choice that we’re fascinated by.
"In order to deliver the winning vanilla solutions that consumers want, we first need to understand what consumers are looking for", says Franziska Koch, Global Marketing Manager, Food & Beverage. "What is driving their purchasing decisions? What evolving trends are emerging in the food & beverage industry? Running trend studies and gathering global insights across the world enables us to understand what is happening in the market. It is all about understanding the needs first – and then building on them to create both relevant and inspiring vanilla solutions for the market."
Beyond taste
While it’s vanilla’s flavor that makes it so popular, we know that consumers are driven by more than just their taste buds. In recent years we’ve seen a huge increase in demand for Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and organic products, and we’re perfectly positioned to help our customers meet this demand.
We all love a little indulgence, but not if we think there is a risk that our moment of pleasure has come at the expense of something else. From Fairtrade to Rainforest Alliance certified products, consumers are increasingly choosing products that they can feel confident didn’t cost the earth, or the people who produced the taste they love.
Together with our purpose-driven partners across the world, we are highly committed to a future of sustainable vanilla. At Symrise, our vanilla offering covers a vast variety of certification standards, such as Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade and Organic. With this wide range of tailor-made vanilla product solutions, we continue to meet customers’ brand and product needs, while ensuring that every product wins through consumer preference, both globally and locally.
Finding a way to combine insight with inspiration is essential to meeting the present and future needs of our customers. For us, the complexity of consumer preference is just another source of inspiration.
There’s a growing global demand for consious different food trends. Those driving this change are young people forming the Gen Z. Born between 1997 and 2010, they represents 23% of the global population in 2023. As the first digital native generation, growing up in a uncertain time of global economic and sustainable challenges, Gen Z is looking for a balance between new experiences, cautious spending and social as well as environmental responsability.
In collaboration with some food experts and social media influencers we worked to imagine new varieties of vanilla. These new types of vanilla are totally different to the ‘classic’ vanilla consumers know and love. With a focus placed on surprising and intriguing flavor profiles, this is vanilla to excite and surprise, with flavors ranging from rich and savory to raw and earthy.
For the Gen Z, enjoying their favorite food is about more than flavor. Creating authentic and memorable experiences with novel or enjoyable products and services, can add value for the Gen Z. There is also a strong emphasis for products incorporating health benefits, positive nutrition and ingredients that enhance wellbeing while at the same time delivering against more price sensitivity.
A global perspective
Chefs United®, the largest network of its kind, bring together chefs from every continent and from the entire culinary network – giving us access to what it is that different consumers want across the world. We asked some the chefs to share their favorite regional vanilla recipes with us.
These fried sesame balls are a very traditional recipe in Beijing cuisine. I’ve added vanilla in my version to update them for modern tastes; something many Chinese chefs are doing to traditional recipes as our flavour preferences change.
If you literally translate ‘Kai Kou Xiao’ it means ‘open mouth laughing’: ‘kai kou’ means to open your mouth, while ‘kou xiao’ can be translated as ‘be merry’ or ‘have a good laugh’. The balls are said to symbolize happiness as the cracks in the surface of each ball once cooked looks like a smile. Laughing is said to be good for digestion and to bring good luck to the table and in the year ahead, which is why these balls are a very popular dish in Chinese New Year celebrations. So have a go at the recipe below and eat, drink and be merry!
If you’ve ever been to a birthday party, had afternoon tea or even a morning coffee in Australia, chances are you’ve encountered a Lamington.
Named after Lord Lamington, the governor of Queensland from 1896-1901, the invention of these seemingly simple cakes is the stuff of legend. Some versions say one of the Lord’s maids dropped a cake, and then covered it in melted chocolate and coconut to hide the mistake. Another says the iconic icing was the result of Lord Lamington’s chef disguising a stale cake when asked to prepare tea for guests at short notice. There are dozens of stories, but whatever the truth, the cake was such a hit guests asked for the recipe, which was later included in the Queensland Ladies Home Journal as ’Lady-Lamington’s Chocolate Coconut Cake’. Today we just call them Lamingtons, but they remain as delicious and as popular as ever.
Mézes Krémes translates literally as ‘creamy honey’ and is very similar to another Hungarian dish, Krémes, which also uses a vanilla flavored filling. The difference with Mézes Krémes, as the name suggests, is that the biscuit or pastry layer uses honey, giving the cakes a delicious flavour.
The cake is also sometimes called the Hungarian Honey Cake and is one of our most popular traditional dishes. This version uses both vanilla and cocoa, giving it just the right amount of sweetness and making it the perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea or a coffee break.
These fried sesame balls are a very traditional recipe in Beijing cuisine. I’ve added vanilla in my version to update them for modern tastes; something many Chinese chefs are doing to traditional recipes as our flavour preferences change.
If you literally translate ‘Kai Kou Xiao’ it means ‘open mouth laughing’: ‘kai kou’ means to open your mouth, while ‘kou xiao’ can be translated as ‘be merry’ or ‘have a good laugh’. The balls are said to symbolize happiness as the cracks in the surface of each ball once cooked looks like a smile. Laughing is said to be good for digestion and to bring good luck to the table and in the year ahead, which is why these balls are a very popular dish in Chinese New Year celebrations. So have a go at the recipe below and eat, drink and be merry!
If you’ve ever been to a birthday party, had afternoon tea or even a morning coffee in Australia, chances are you’ve encountered a Lamington.
Named after Lord Lamington, the governor of Queensland from 1896-1901, the invention of these seemingly simple cakes is the stuff of legend. Some versions say one of the Lord’s maids dropped a cake, and then covered it in melted chocolate and coconut to hide the mistake. Another says the iconic icing was the result of Lord Lamington’s chef disguising a stale cake when asked to prepare tea for guests at short notice. There are dozens of stories, but whatever the truth, the cake was such a hit guests asked for the recipe, which was later included in the Queensland Ladies Home Journal as ’Lady-Lamington’s Chocolate Coconut Cake’. Today we just call them Lamingtons, but they remain as delicious and as popular as ever.
Mézes Krémes translates literally as ‘creamy honey’ and is very similar to another Hungarian dish, Krémes, which also uses a vanilla flavored filling. The difference with Mézes Krémes, as the name suggests, is that the biscuit or pastry layer uses honey, giving the cakes a delicious flavour.
The cake is also sometimes called the Hungarian Honey Cake and is one of our most popular traditional dishes. This version uses both vanilla and cocoa, giving it just the right amount of sweetness and making it the perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea or a coffee break.
Melktert (the Afrikaans name for Milk Tart), is an absolute classic in South Africa; you see one at just about every event, from bake sales to birthdays. The tart consists of a sweet pastry filled with a creamy milk custard, and stems from the Dutch settlers who first came for the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in the 1600s.
In many ways, the tart is a product of the history of South Africa. The large proportion of milk in the tart (higher than that in similar Portuguese and Chinese recipes) shows the influence of the Dutch dairy farmers, while the addition of cinnamon to the top of the tart was introduced by Javanese slaves. Today, it’s one of our most popular dishes and is easier than it looks, so give the below recipe a go!
Nigerian cake is simple and sweet. There's not a lot going on in the cake but it tastes delicious. No chocolate, no whipped cream but we Nigerians love it and we are always searching for that unadulterated Nigerian Cake recipe for a cake that melts in the mouth.
Almost everyone has their own version of this recipe, often handed down through families, and sometimes you don’t know how the cake will turn out until it is out of the oven! We use this type of cake for all sorts of occasions, including weddings, so depending on what you’re making it for, you can add your own twist.
Pudim de Baunilha or Vanilla Pudding is typical to the regional cuisines of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. You’ll often find it made with condensed milk in Brazilian recipes, which gives a sweeter taste.
This sweet Brazilian pudding is not dissimilar to a crème brûlée, combining the delicious, sweet taste of vanilla with the rich, almost wintery taste of caramel. One of the most important things about this recipe is cooking the Pudim de Baunilha in the water bath; this ensures that the pudding is evenly cooked and achieves the delicious, smooth consistency evenly throughout the pudding.
Melktert (the Afrikaans name for Milk Tart), is an absolute classic in South Africa; you see one at just about every event, from bake sales to birthdays. The tart consists of a sweet pastry filled with a creamy milk custard, and stems from the Dutch settlers who first came for the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in the 1600s.
In many ways, the tart is a product of the history of South Africa. The large proportion of milk in the tart (higher than that in similar Portuguese and Chinese recipes) shows the influence of the Dutch dairy farmers, while the addition of cinnamon to the top of the tart was introduced by Javanese slaves. Today, it’s one of our most popular dishes and is easier than it looks, so give the below recipe a go!
Nigerian cake is simple and sweet. There's not a lot going on in the cake but it tastes delicious. No chocolate, no whipped cream but we Nigerians love it and we are always searching for that unadulterated Nigerian Cake recipe for a cake that melts in the mouth.
Almost everyone has their own version of this recipe, often handed down through families, and sometimes you don’t know how the cake will turn out until it is out of the oven! We use this type of cake for all sorts of occasions, including weddings, so depending on what you’re making it for, you can add your own twist.
Pudim de Baunilha or Vanilla Pudding is typical to the regional cuisines of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. You’ll often find it made with condensed milk in Brazilian recipes, which gives a sweeter taste.
This sweet Brazilian pudding is not dissimilar to a crème brûlée, combining the delicious, sweet taste of vanilla with the rich, almost wintery taste of caramel. One of the most important things about this recipe is cooking the Pudim de Baunilha in the water bath; this ensures that the pudding is evenly cooked and achieves the delicious, smooth consistency evenly throughout the pudding.
These Russian Sirniki Cheese Cakes may just be your new favorite breakfast or brunch treat. Made in a very similar way to pancakes, this traditional recipe adds cottage cheese to the pancake batter to bring a new texture and flavor dimension to the dish.
What you use to garnish your Sirniki is entirely up to you. We recommend sour cream, sugar or jam, but just like other pancakes, you can really use whatever you want. So why not try this recipe out and experiment with your favorite toppings?
These bread muffins make a great mid-morning of afternoon snack. With a ricotta center that gives them a delicious texture, this recipe should make six good sized muffins. The spices and dried fruits in the mixture also make this recipe a great option for the holiday season.
One of the other benefits of this recipe is that it uses up old bread which you might otherwise throw away. So if you ever have bread that is past its best, keep these muffins in mind. You can also cube your bread and freeze it for use at a later date.
Vanilla cupcakes are a staple when it comes to American sweet treats – everybody loves them, and everybody has their own way of making them. This particular recipe should make a dozen cupcakes.
I’ve not included the frosting here, but you can decorate your cupcakes however you choose. The classic way is of course with buttercream icing, which uses butter, sugar, vanilla and cream. If you want something lighter, you can use just icing sugar mixed with water to decorate your cupcakes. Whatever you choose, let your cupcakes cool down fully before icing to ensure the best possible results.
These Russian Sirniki Cheese Cakes may just be your new favorite breakfast or brunch treat. Made in a very similar way to pancakes, this traditional recipe adds cottage cheese to the pancake batter to bring a new texture and flavor dimension to the dish.
What you use to garnish your Sirniki is entirely up to you. We recommend sour cream, sugar or jam, but just like other pancakes, you can really use whatever you want. So why not try this recipe out and experiment with your favorite toppings?
These bread muffins make a great mid-morning of afternoon snack. With a ricotta center that gives them a delicious texture, this recipe should make six good sized muffins. The spices and dried fruits in the mixture also make this recipe a great option for the holiday season.
One of the other benefits of this recipe is that it uses up old bread which you might otherwise throw away. So if you ever have bread that is past its best, keep these muffins in mind. You can also cube your bread and freeze it for use at a later date.
Vanilla cupcakes are a staple when it comes to American sweet treats – everybody loves them, and everybody has their own way of making them. This particular recipe should make a dozen cupcakes.
I’ve not included the frosting here, but you can decorate your cupcakes however you choose. The classic way is of course with buttercream icing, which uses butter, sugar, vanilla and cream. If you want something lighter, you can use just icing sugar mixed with water to decorate your cupcakes. Whatever you choose, let your cupcakes cool down fully before icing to ensure the best possible results.
The pace of changing consumer preferences has never been quicker. Add to that the variety of tastes between regions, and you can see why it takes a global perspective informed by local knowledge to stay one step ahead.
Access all areas
Taste is an intensely personal thing. The only way to know what it is that makes a people in a particular region or market excited, is to experience it first-hand. That’s where Chefs United® comes in.
The next big foodie trend could be just around the corner. But knowing which corner, and where exactly it is in the world, means you need to combine local insight with global coverage. Chefs United® is our way of doing just that. From South Korea to Los Angeles, we’ve got our ear to the ground.
Made up of more than 31,000 chefs from across the globe, the Chefs United® network covers every angle of the culinary world, from high-end, Michelin-starred restaurants to street food stalls and beloved local cafes. The chefs are brought together under the experienced award-wining chef Gianfranco Chiarini, a giant of the culinary world and the founder of this vital Symrise brand.
With this unique culinary compass, we develop flavors together with our customers that perfectly suit the tastes of the consumers’ projects.
We believe that this local knowledge is absolutely crucial to our success, and the success of the flavor solutions and products we create for our customers. In a world where consumer preferences and trends and emerging and disappearing faster than ever, access to meaningful and authentic local insight is one of the only ways to stay one step ahead of what it is consumers want.
150 years and counting…
We’ve been pioneers in the world of vanilla for decades, but our passion for this incredible spice is as strong as ever and we know there is always more work to do, more to learn and something new just around the corner that will delight customers and consumers.
“Every day I’m inspired by my colleagues and our customers,” says Bernhard Kott, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications. “Working with them to create amazing solutions, explore new ideas and challenge the status quo is one of the best things about my role. The challenge of optimizing commercial performance and delivering great taste is something our global teams embrace. I find the teamwork here brings out the best in everyone; it refuels the imagination, and means we can go the extra mile to delight consumers and customers.”
