Mouthfeel joins flavor as a food industry focus to satisfy consumers craving extra texture

Texture is having a crunchy, gooey moment in the food and beverage industry .

For many people, the way a menu item or packaged snack feels in the mouth has become as big a draw as flavor, although consumers don't always recognize the part texture plays in their cravings for crispier takeout, frothier coffees and juicier candies, according to industry experts.

The importance of “mouthfeel,” a food science term for oral sensation, has inspired new products like Starbucks’ Aerocano, an air-whipped iced espresso; PowerCrunch, a wafer-like protein bar; and Trolli Gummi Popz, which are frozen but still soft and chewy.

Texture “has evolved from a complementary feature to a defining aspect of food quality,” Puratos, a Belgian company that develops commercial-grade ingredients for chocolate and baked goods, says. “It is reshaping how consumers evaluate food and make purchasing decisions.”

“It’s not just about flavor anymore. People are thinking about the whole experience,” said Tana Davila, the chief marketing officer at Dutch Bros Coffee. The drive-thru U.S. beverage chain lets customers customize their drinks with toppings like a sweet and creamy whipped foam and juice-filled balls that pop when bitten into.

Texture is so integral to the act of eating that people often describe how a food feels when they’re asked how it tastes, said Patrick Kalotis, the executive vice president of texture and healthful solutions at Ingredion, an Illinois-based ingredient provider.

“You know, ‘This drink is fizzy’ or ‘I love the creaminess of the yogurt,’” Kalotis said. “They think they’re talking about taste, and of course the texture helps propagate the taste, but they’re actually describing texture.”

Food makers have long played with consistency. Pillowy Japanese mochi and stretchy Turkish ice cream date back centuries . Bubble tea, with its chewy tapioca boba pearls , was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. In the 1990s, high-end European restaurants whipped up culinary foams flavored with things like truffle oil or lobster broth.

But interest in texture has exploded in recent years, said Jenny Zegler, the principal strategist for food and drink at market research company Mintel. It's reflected in toys like squishy NeeDoh cubes and beauty products like jelly cleansers. With food, qualities like chewy, soft, gooey and melt-in-the-mouth are seeing fast-rising demand in online product searches, according to Mintel data.

Zegler thinks the craze around the Cronut — a doughnut-shaped pastry with a crispy fried outside and an airy, buttery inside like a croissant — started a fascination with food textures about a decade ago. Multi-layered products like Dubai chocolate and sound-enhanced social media videos of influencers breaking crackly peanut brittle and slurping creamy noodles heightened the interest.

“Consumers are gaining new expectations for the experience of a product, and texture is the perfect way to deliver that,” Zegler said.

The coronavirus pandemic elevated interest in texture because COVID-19 caused many people to temporarily lose their sense of smell and taste , said Shannon Weiner, senior director of consumer insights at candy company Ferrara.