You had a brilliant day at an event. Strong sales, warm conversations, people genuinely excited about your product. You drive home feeling like everything is working.
But there is one question most founders in that moment never think to ask. And it changes everything about how you read that day.
The botanical tea range that stopped me in my tracks
A while back I was walking around a food event and came across a stand with a beautiful botanical tea range. Six products, stunning branding, a really considered concept. So I tried them.
And honestly, they were very difficult to drink. One had a strong garlicky note. Another tasted of cooked vegetables. Several were intensely earthy with an unpleasant finish that hung around long after you swallowed.
As someone who has worked in the food industry for over ten years, I knew immediately this was going to be a problem for most consumers. And while I was standing there, two other shoppers independently tried the same teas and reached the same conclusion. Between the three of us, one tea was liked by all. The rest, nobody wanted.
When I raised this gently with the founder, the response was: "Yes, but people buy them for the health benefits."
Why that belief is one of the most dangerous in product development
I am not judging that response. When you have built something and you genuinely believe in what it does for people, it is incredibly hard to hear that the flavour is not working.
But there is a name for what was happening in that moment. It is called the echo chamber effect. A closed, self-reinforcing loop where you only absorb information that confirms what you already believe, and anything contradicting it gets quietly filtered out.
It is not a food industry term. It comes from psychology. But it happens in food and drink product development constantly.
How it builds without you noticing
Think about the feedback cycle most founders experience. Friends and family try the product and say they love it, because they love you. Your team has been immersed in it for months. At events, the people who engage, who talk to you and buy, are your most enthusiastic customers.
The people who tried your product and did not like it? They just walked away. No comment. No review. Just quietly gone.
The information you are collecting is systematically weighted towards the positive. And over time, that reinforces the belief that the product is perfect. When a contradictory signal does arrive, a negative review, honest feedback from an expert, it gets dismissed because it does not fit the story the echo chamber has built.
The founder at that event was not in denial. She was not being difficult. She was genuinely operating inside a feedback loop that had never been interrupted.
First purchase is not the same as repeat purchase
Here is where it really matters. A first purchase can be driven by packaging, a friend's recommendation, a health claim, the energy at a stand. Taste does not always stop someone buying once.
But taste is almost always what determines whether they come back.
In retail, a customer who buys once and disappears is not a loyal customer. And research consistently shows, year after year, that taste is the number one driver of repeat purchase in food and drink. Not health benefits. Not branding. Taste.
If the flavour is not right, that repeat purchase number will never grow as much as it could, no matter how strong everything else is.
Two things you can do right now
Start paying attention to the people who taste your product at events but do not buy. Keep a rough mental note of that ratio: how many tasted it, how many bought. That number tells you something important even when it is approximate.
And when someone does not buy, ask them with genuine curiosity what held them back. People are more willing to be honest when they can feel you actually want to know. If you hear the same thing three or four times, that is no longer one opinion. That is a pattern you cannot afford to ignore.
The second thing is to seek external, objective feedback from someone with no emotional investment in your product and experience in the industry. Someone who can tell you clearly what is working, what is not, and what needs attention before you scale, pitch to retail or walk into an investor meeting.
The brands I see struggling most are not the ones who sought help too early. They are the ones who waited until after the listing, after the reviews, after the damage was already showing up in the data.
Caring about your product is not the same as knowing your product
The echo chamber is not a sign of bad founding. It is a sign you care deeply. But the food and drink brands that build lasting loyalty are the ones willing to seek out uncomfortable feedback and act on it.
If you suspect something is off with your flavour but you cannot quite pinpoint what, the Flavour MOT gives you an honest, objective assessment from a food scientist with over ten years of industry experience. Detailed tasting notes, a clear breakdown of what is working and what needs to change, and practical next steps.
Because the truth about your product is always more useful than the echo chamber. Book your Flavour MOT here. And if you are a Tastebuds member you can get 25% off your Flavour MOT by clicking on the offers within your portal.
