After a successful inaugural campaign as 2022’s Pourcast Flavor Of The Year, it’s time for Puremade Salted Egg Yolk to hand over the reins to the newest member of the Torani family.

Today, we’re proud to announce 2023’s Pourcast Flavor Of The Year: Torani Puremade Toasted Black Sesame Syrup!

Bold and unique, this rich and nutty flavor is a staple in a wide variety of Asian cuisines. Aside from color, black sesame delivers a slightly more bitter and nuttier taste compared to its white counterpart. Sushi lovers know it as an essential component in Japanese furikake seasoning, while others may recognize it from popular ice creams and desserts bearing its distinctive jet-black hue.

And for the uninitiated, we hope Puremade Toasted Black Sesame will serve as your taste buds’ ticket for a new and exciting culinary voyage.

Finding the next ‘it’ flavor is a labor of love—one that our Torani team has worked intimately on over the last year. Here are some of the highlights from our journey to finding this year’s flavor.

Discovering The Next Big Flavor

With over 150 flavors in our portfolio, we’d consider ourselves flavor experts—and we’re always looking for what’s next. 

In late 2021, a select group of Torani team members from marketing, innovation, R&D, and sales came together to do just that.

Starting in research and discovery, our team of experts meticulously comb through global insights and trends reports to compile an initial list of candidates. Over several months, this list—typically exceeding 100 possible flavors— is carefully narrowed down to just 20.

Once finished, Torani food scientists put the flavors to the test with our Gold Standard Tastings.

Putting Taste To The Test

The process starts by sourcing a wide variety of food products utilizing the flavors on our list. From beverages to confections, local import markets to online shops, we curate and collect the most popular use cases for each contender. With these top items in hand, our team begins analysis—working diligently to identify each products’ unique nuances that make our target flavors sing.

These key characteristics combine to form Torani’s Gold Standards—serving as a roadmap for key flavor formulations in the months ahead. By the end of February 2022, only six flavors are selected to move forward into development.

Finding The Perfect Formula

While our insights team keeps its thumb on the pulse of flavor trends, Torani food scientists go to work to create formulas that meet the Gold Standard characteristics set for each target flavor. Through trial and error, we create and test new formulas each week.

To see which of these formulas has Flavor Of The Year potential, these prototypes move out of the lab and into the hot seat to be tested by the greater Torani team.

During this long and deliciously rigorous process, our team judges each formula on several key factors, like flavor, color, mouthfeel, and aroma. As prototypes move closer to the Gold Standards, we refine our candidate list to 4 flavors.

The deeper into the development process we get, the more complex taste tests become. As formulas get closer and closer to their goals, we develop recipes and tastings for each flavor’s application—including lattes, cold brews, milkshakes, boba teas, sodas, cocktails, and more.

Rolling Out The Red Carpet

By mid-August, our list of potential flavors narrows down to 1.

With this top contender in the final stages of development, our marketing team begins rolling out the red carpet for the Flavor Of The Year. This entails creating label designs, planning photoshoots, and ideating launch plans. 

These final flavors then move into trial production—a critical step that ensures the integrity of each flavor’s taste and quality for mass production. All the while, our Torani Market Insights team continues to monitor consumer interest.

The results were in—Puremade Toasted Black Sesame officially claimed the title of Torani’s 2023 Pourcast Flavor Of The Year. Earlier this month, we initiated full-scale production, filled our warehouse, and are now ready to ship you the newest flavor in the Torani family.

 

Introducing Puremade Toasted Black Sesame

After a long and fulfilling year of discovery, research, testing, and production, today marks the start of Puremade Toasted Black Sesame’s reign as Flavor Of The Year.

We’re all incredibly proud of the work that went into this unique flavor—and we hope that you enjoy it in your milkshakes, cocktails, desserts, or whatever you savor. 

With the 2023 Flavor Of The Year in the books, we’re already setting our sights on 2024. Do you have any ideas or desires for next year’s flavor? Please drop us a line or tag @Torani and #FlavorOfTheYear on Instagram, or @ToraniFlavor on TikTok.

Shop Torani Toasted Black Sesame Syrup Now!