eOpicle

I used to think flavor was the undisputed ruler of food. Sweetness, salt, acidity, bitterness, spice—those were the forces that made us reach for another bite or quietly push a plate away. Texture mattered, of course, but I treated it as a supporting player. It was the scenery behind the main performance. I do not see it that way anymore. The more closely I watch what is happening in grocery aisles, coffee shops, candy displays, restaurant kitchens and social-media feeds, the more convinced I become that texture has moved to center stage. Consumers are not simply asking whether something tastes good. They want it to crunch, stretch, snap, fizz, melt, pop, foam or ooze. They want a physical event, not merely a flavor. That shift is turning “mouthfeel,” once a term heard mostly in sensory labs and professional tasting rooms, into one of the food industry’s most important areas of competition. The Associated Press recently highlighted how companies are building new products around textur...