A new year brings new concepts, creations and culinary confectionery twists to surprise and delight sweet treat shoppers. According to Statista, the confectionery market will be worth $619bn in 2025, and it is projected to grow by 5.35% between 2025 and 2029.
The country set to be the biggest revenue generator is China, earning $89 billion alone this year.
But what will be hot?
In its overview of flavour trends predictions, data gatherer Flavour Trends reviewed over 400,000 references from international sources and found that chocolate was the number one mentioned flavour in 2024. Vanilla, lemon, strawberry, and caramel were followed in the number two, three, four, and five positions, respectively.
Sweet treats in 2025 are expected to draw on the purchasing power of megatrends like global ingredient influences, health prioritisation driving wellness, sustainability and functionality in confectionery, and new-meets-nostalgic in taste profiles.
We saw various confectionery flavour trends in 2024 that proved popular with confectionery shoppers and solidified their place in the sweet space. Unlikely pairings such as ‘swicy’— sweets that marry sweet with spicy; cultural favourites that ignite nostalgic memories of childhood and adventure; adding functionality to flavour, fruity and floral innovations; as well as rich and complex indulgent profiles scored high on consumers’ shopping lists. These are set to ramp up in 2025 in new and interesting ways that reflect evolving consumer demands. Here’s how
1. Creating sensorial adventures at home
Incorporating local flavours into formulations sold in domestic and international markets has a dual purpose and can have mass consumer appeal. These formulations can cater to local shoppers who recognise ingredients as a familiar and nostalgic part of their culture and childhood. Simultaneously, locally significant ingredients can also be a winner for global consumers who want to taste another country’s food culture, transporting them on a flavourful and indulgent adventure without leaving their front door.
Examples include salted liquorice so beloved by Scandinavians, durian, a love-it-or-hate it fruit from Southeast Asia, Wasabi from Japan and Middle Eastern favourite, tahini (a sesame seed paste) that can be used as a savoury alternative to the ubiquitous peanut butter and smoked salt, that brings a novel twist to salted caramel SKUs.
Crafting culinary fusions is also expected to be big in 2025, with the trend increasing by 10% among manufacturers, according to market insights provider Taste Tomorrow. Alongside combining textures and formats, delivering interesting flavour mash-ups is expected to captivate consumers and generate steady growth in English and Portuguese-speaking countries.
French functional confectionery firm Cosmic Dealer has this nailed with its range of boundary pushing chocolate flavours from salty fig and almond, to cashew and matcha and coconut and turmeric.
2. Discovering new blends
Beyond individual ingredients and culinary fusions, unexpected ingredient collaborations that surprise the tastebuds are also set to make an impact. Confectionery is at the forefront of these mash-ups, with consumers using social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to seek out flavours that push the boundaries.
It’s not only confectionery flavours getting an innovative overhaul; how manufacturers identify them is latching onto advanced technologies. We can expect to see sweet creators utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to develop new flavour blends that appeal to consumers’ preferences.
The ‘swicy’ flavour trend, which saw familiar sweet confectionery selections add a hit of spice by incorporating popular ingredients into their formulations was a hot trend in 2024. According to taste and nutrition company Kerry, the key in 2025 is to produce blends that capture consumers’ interest and emotion by launching playful and daring flavours.
In 2025, ingredients that provide floral notes like lavender, rosewater, berries and cardamom can offer a sweet, light balance to spicy flavours. Similarly we can expect to see surprising pairings with tropical fruits such as mango, passionfruit and guava.
‘Swavoury’ – sweet and savoury – is another example of sensorial sensations capturing the attention of producers and consumers. Next up in 2025, building on another big trend hit in 2024: sour flavours. Manufacturers are looking to release new product development (NPD) that combines the sweetness of chocolate with the sourness of sweets meaning “tangy twists” are likely to emerge across the sector.
3. Benefit-stacking formulations
Health and planet consciousness remain at the forefront of confectionery consumers’ minds, and while it may have appeared a tricky balance to achieve for the indulgent industry, 2025 looks set to progress the developments we’ve seen in using upcycled ingredients and incorporating wellness-associated flavours in confectionery creations.
Using botanicals such as floral flavours, exotic fruits, herbs and spices, as well as adaptogens like ashwagandha, mushrooms such as lion’s mane and ginseng, can appeal to health-savvy consumers who want confectionery that fits within the better-for-you segment and offers a healthier alternative to more traditional product varieties.
In a global survey with 20,000 consumers, Taste Tomorrow found that 68% of participants believe botanicals advance the healthiness of chocolate. Botanical ingredients are also associated with calming properties and wellness benefits, such as relaxation, stress relief and enhanced energy levels. Ingredients with recognisable flavours like lavender, mint, tea, chamomile and ginger may garner new audiences.
Market research provider Innova Market Insights identifies sensory therapy as a key flavour trend for 2025, stating that consumers are searching for products to help support their mental and emotional needs. Notably, coffee is one such flavour deemed familiar and comforting to consumers, an ingredient harnessed by Edinburgh-based Up-Up, for example, in its dark espresso bars.
Incorporating nuts, fruits, and seeds is another way to capture confectionery shoppers, as their inclusion suggests nutritional benefits beyond conventional chocolate offerings. According to Taste Tomorrow, using powerful ingredients like these is already a huge hit with consumers in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian-speaking countries, and it is also popular in Japan. In 2025, the insights providers expect interest in these ingredients to rise in French-speaking countries and to grow by 21% in China.
Achieving nutritional balance is important to today’s consumers. As a result, the market insight providers’ research states that confectionery products falling into the better-for-you category are anticipated to increase by 30%.
Better yet, confectionery products with a selection of ingredients and corresponding flavours that reflect health and environmental considerations will ignite intrigue. Known as benefit-stacking, when manufacturers do this authentically and communicate it clearly, the trend can help consumers feel they are doing good with their confectionery choices.
Upcycling ingredients like coffee, cocoa, chicory, spices, citrus and fresh fruits and putting them back into the confectionery production process captures consumers’ attention. Conveying a stance of providing better-for-the-planet products, in 2025, value chains that focus on the circular economy can appeal to sustainability-valuing shoppers.
In 2024, Finnish food group Fazer experimented with ‘okara toffee’, a side stream from soymilk production to make confectionery.
Global confectioner Barry Callebaut also announced it was utilising upcycled cacaofruit in its product portfolio.
4. Putting the fun into FUNctional
From sweet protein sources and fibrous formulations, functional finishes and confectionery treats with gut-health claims, functional confectionery has been rising up the ranks of consumers’ wishlists. In 2025, postbiotics are expected to be an area of interest with producers, complementing the existing popularity of prebiotics and probiotics-based confectionery.
However, functionality, often confined to a ‘should’ rather than a ‘want’, has struggled to gain an interesting and exciting reputation. In 2025, formulators want to change that by showing that functional confectionery can be fun. Novel and unusual flavours that still deliver on being a reliable source of functionality that enable consumers to access elevated nutrition than typical confectionery goods are on the agenda for 2025.
Maria Shriver and her son Patrick Swarzenegger’s Mosh brand is a great example. Each contain citicoline a nutrient that the brain requires to support mental energy, memory, focus, motor speed and attention. but wrapped up in appealing flavours such as lemon white chocolate crunch.
5. Indulgence conveys quality
Consumers connect luxurious flavours with high-quality produce. Rich, creamy, indulgent confectionery that is big on flavour and offers a mix of complex notes and unique flavour profiles attracts premiumisation within the marketplace and appeals to shoppers looking for gift-giving product purchases.
Innova Market Insights identifies quality and enrichment as a key global flavour trend in 2025. According to its research, when consumers were asked about attributes other than price that denote its worth and value, premium quality was the respondents' top answer.
Dataessential’s 2025 trends preview agrees, with 56% of respondents stating that product quality is the leading factor determining whether a supermarket store product is good value.
As flavour is a leading indicator of quality, indulgent flavours such as chocolate, coffee, caramel and luxury varieties of fruity and floral ingredients satisfy consumers' calls for permissible indulgence that’s worth the price tag.
