Slideshow: Sweet innovations debut for Valentine’s Day

KANSAS CITY — Food and beverage manufacturers and foodservice operators alike aimed to capture consumer interest over the past several weeks with Valentine’s Day-themed introductions.

For instance, Maison Perrier, a Nestle USA subsidiary, debuted its French kiss beverage line. The functional beverage blends sweetened, sparkling water with fruit juice to offer 6 grams of prebiotic fiber and less than 1 gram of added sugar per serving. Varieties include blackberry and lemon, peach and cherry, mango and coconut, and raspberry and lime.

“With French kiss, we’re proud to introduce a vibrant new chapter in our sparkling water portfolio, our first-ever sweetened sparkling water,” said Molly Lyons, senior marketing manager at Maison Perrier. “Inspired by our French heritage, it blends Parisian sophistication with a burst of fruit-forward flavors and a prebiotic twist, which complements our existing offerings while pushing the boundaries of refreshment, bringing a playful yet refined touch to our water.”

Krispy Kreme unveiled its Valentine’s Day collection featuring four new donuts. The added varieties included the I love you a choco-lot donut, an unglazed heart donut with chocolate flavored kreme filling, red vanilla flavored icing and a chocolate icing ribbon and bow topping; the teddy bear cookies and cream donut, an unglazed heart donut with cookies and kreme filling that is dipped in chocolate icing and topped with a white chocolate bear face; the you’re berry sweet donut, an unglazed kreme-filled heart donut dipped in strawberry icing and topped with a red vanilla flavored drizzle; and the sprinkled with love donut, a glazed donut with buttercreme flavored frosting and heart sprinkles.

“There are so many ways to show love on Valentine’s Day, not to just one person, but to everyone who makes your life a little brighter,” said Alison Holder, chief brand and product officer at Krispy Kreme. “This year we took inspiration from classic Valentine’s gifts to create a donut collection perfectly made for sharing.”

Insomnia Cookies added a series of limited-time dips and cookies for Valentine’s Day. The dips, intended for dipping and drizzling applications, included milk chocolate, white chocolate and caramel varieties. The cookie additions included the red velvet classic, red velvet cookies and cream brookie, red velvet cheesecake classic, chocolate covered strawberry classic and Ghirardelli chocolate lava cake classic.

“As the late-night bakery known for delivering warm, delicious cookies, Insomnia is excited to introduce our in-store Valentine’s Day reservations in honor of one of the most indulgent times of the year,” said Seth Berkowitz, chief executive officer and founder of Insomnia Cookies.

Click here to view more Valentine’s Day introductions.