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#12 Does Your Product Actually Taste the Way You Think? | The Blind Spot Problem
02/16/2026
#12 Does Your Product Actually Taste the Way You Think? | The Blind Spot Problem
Here's a question that might make you uncomfortable: does your product actually taste the way you think it does? If you're a food and drink brand developing products, you've probably tasted your own product hundreds, maybe thousands of times. You know every version, every tweak, every ingredient change. You know the recipe inside out. But here's what I keep noticing with food and drink brands I speak to: the more you taste something, the more blind spots you develop. Your brain gets so familiar with it that you literally can't taste it the same way someone tasting it for the first time would. I was at an event recently where a founder was about to pitch to retailers and investors. They asked me to taste their products honestly. One was orange and mango. The orange? Absolutely incredible, so fresh and juicy. The mango? Completely missing. The second product was lemon and raspberry. Again, amazing lemon, but I couldn't taste raspberry at all. And they were about to walk into a room and say ""try this orange and mango"" when the mango wasn't even there. That's a blind spot. And it could have cost them everything. In this episode, I share: ● Why your brain develops blind spots when you taste your own product repeatedly ● Real examples from brands about to pitch (missing flavours, earthy notes building up) ● Why family and friends won't give you honest feedback ● How to get valuable data from your actual target consumers ● The difference between selling at a farmer's market vs. using it for market research ● Why involving consumers in your R&D gets you the most honest feedback This awareness is honestly the first step. Getting real feedback from your target consumers or experts is the best way to find out what's really going on in your product. If you found this episode helpful, leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on whatever platform you're listening to this podcast. Your review genuinely helps this podcast grow and makes it more visible to other food and drink brands who are struggling with the same challenges you might be facing. 🙏 👋 I'm Manon Galizzi, a UK-based food scientist and flavour expert with 10+ years in the food and beverage industry. I help established food and drink brands fix declining sales caused by taste issues, choose the right flavours for plant-based and functional products, and successfully mask challenging ingredients like marine collagen, pea protein, vegan omega-3, and adaptogens. I'm flavour house trained and specialise in clean-label, additives-free, plant-based, and functional food product development. Unlike generic flavour houses or co-manufacturers, I provide custom flavour language training, run extensive trials (up to 200 per project), and guide you through every tasting and decision. Research shows flavour is the #1 driver of repeat purchase. Get it right, customers return. Get it wrong, they don't. Each episode shares practical strategies for food and drink product development, flavour selection, and fixing products that aren't performing. 👋 Connect with me directly on or or via my .
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