Pucker up for the world's next top flavor

(Danylchenko Iaroslav)

The global beverage market research company Canadean announced findings from its "Flavour Trends in Juice and Iced Tea Drinks Report" on September 27, highlighting the observation that lemon will soon become the world's top flavor as orange loses its flavor favor.

Here is how lemon is winning the race against superfood fruits (acai, pomegranate and blueberry) and the long-reigning first place orange flavor for juice, nectar, still drinks and iced tea in various markets around the world.

In many Asian countries a lemon flavor in ice tea is popular, and Chinese company Nongfushanquan has produced a wildly popular line of "new vitamin variants of lemon still drinks," while Indians also enjoy a lemony still drink.

In Turkey there is a "phenomenal rise of Limonata," a carbonated lemon soda, while for the Poles and many Eastern European nations lemon-flavored sweetened waters are preferred.

However lemon does not enjoy the same popularity in the United States or Western Europe.

And, while Canadean has tracked lemon's rise, the September edition of the Institute of Food Technologists magazine Food Technology highlights the mega trend in flavors is the transition of niche flavors to the mainstream including the momentum-gaining flower flavors (jasmine-flavored lattes, blackberry and violet yogurt, and rose petal drinks) and new berry flavors (mountain huckleberry, garden berries, or field berries).