Helping challenger food & drink brands turn concepts into award-winning products.
About me.
I'm Olivia - most people know me as my nickname, Lilly. I'm a food and drink product developer and sensory consultant with 15 years' experience creating products and eating my way through my career.
My background is science - a BSc in Biology from UCL and an MSc in Nutrition from King's College London - and I've always worked at the intersection of science and flavour. Understanding the why behind ingredient behaviour, texture, and aroma gives me a grounding that allows me to develop products that are both tasty and commercially viable to produce at scale.
Before launching Tastebud Tickler, I held senior NPD roles and led teams at innocent drinks, Rebel Kitchen, and JOE & THE JUICE - giving me the practical experience to help clients across both retail and food service.
Taste is the foundation of everything I do, and something I continue to invest in deeply. I'm an IFST-accredited sensory trainer and sit on the judging panels of the Great Taste Awards, the UK Quality Food Awards, the Free From Food Awards, and the Grocer New Product & Packaging Awards. Assessing hundreds of products each year with rigour and objectivity has developed a palate I put to work in every client project.
I work with taste and quality in mind across the full supply chain - from understanding harvest windows and fruit varieties, to evaluating raw material quality at source, to translating it all on the factory line. Product variation in commercial production is one of the most underestimated challenges in food development, and knowing how to identify it, understand it, and build quality controls around it is what protects the product you set out to make. I'm proud to say I've won 15+ Great Taste Awards across the products I've launched.
My aim across everything I do is to awaken tastebuds. Whether it's creating a product that sings, or teaching people to taste in a way that reveals a product's true profile - it gives the individual a better experience and is commercially powerful, making consumers come back for more.
Clients.
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Lilly is an authentic foodie with an infectious curiosity for all things tasty, healthy and innovative. Lilly worked at innocent during a period of change with us saying goodbye to our Founders and hello to Coca-Cola. While with us, Lilly’s interpretation and delivery of projects demanding both value and creativity stood out as did her understanding of sensory through the design and delivery of our expert sensory panels. Lilly’s energy and positivity was enjoyed by everyone in the team and I would have no hesitation in asking Lilly back to innocent for a role suited to her skills and experience.
Sam Simister, Innovation Research and Development Director
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Olivia was responsible for creating several key products, including the Acai Bowl, Matcha range, Eggcado Breakfast range, Protein Shakes, and various Seasonal and Celebrity collaborative items. These products added variety to our menu and were well received by customers, directly contributing to increased business revenue. Their ability to identify opportunities for innovation while maintaining the brand’s identity was a strong asset to the team. As part of her role, Olivia conducted a full review of the juice range, analysing sales data to streamline the menu. She created new blends that improved operational efficiency behind the bar and aligned with customer preferences, helping us optimize the category.
Overall, Olivia made a noticeable impact on our menu, both creatively and operationally. Her work helped enhance the customer experience and contributed to our global menu development. I am confident that Olivia will bring the same passion, dedication, and expertise to any future endeavour.
Kasper Svingholm Poulsen, Director of Product Development
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Lilly’s amazing energy for leading an NPD project from start to finish has helped Nurture Brands launch some incredibly innovative yet complex products into the marketplace. Lilly’s sensory wizardry helps us win Great Taste awards as well as catapult our brands forward as leading players in the UK health food sector.Beyond launch Lilly has helped the team set up systems and processes to monitor ongoing quality which has been an invaluable tool for product consistency. If you are looking for someone to take on an NPD project then Lilly is your person!!
Ben Arbib, Founder
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When working with Lilly I was completely inspired and motivated each step of the way. Lilly’s energy and passion is infectious - she is determined, creative and committed. She’s an irreplaceable leader and team player. Lilly holds a wealth of knowledge in all areas of product development including operational and technical considerations and can take a concept all the way to a commercially viable finished product through robust procedures and processes she has created. She is always on hand to attack any challenge in an outside the box way of thinking, ensuring to always deliver an achievable, speedy solution. She has a natural flair and love of all things food and sensory and has a keen eye on food trends. Her sensory development training was invaluable to our team! Her ability to benchmark a product through its quality attributes and ensure consistency is remarkable - she explores all the detail, becomes proficient in whatever process it may be and will continue to optimise this.
Jamie Jones, Technical Manager
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Olivia and her team took our team through a comprehensive learning exercise that as a food company is essential for understanding the science and subtleties of taste. We continue to use some of those learnings on the product development we carry out even now. They were very helpful and easy to work with.
Ryan Kohn, Co-founder, Proper
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Lilly is a creative and vibrant individual, with a passion for new product development. She was always professional and carried out her work to a high standard.
Lucy Thomas, Head of Innovation
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Olivia has helped Purearth develop, trial and launch multiple delicious and nutritious recipes across the portfolio including cleanse juices and milks, fermented drinks and shots. Since Olivia worked on our nut milk range, there has been a significant improvement in the taste and texture. This has been proven by 30% increase in sales and 5-star ratings on trust pilot reviews since the re-launch, and due to the demand we have now launched milk multi-packs. She also worked to make the new recipes more commercially viable, and developed a simpler method at the factory for more efficient production. Olivia helped source and connect us with high quality ingredients such as fruit, veg and botanical extracts, from trust-worthy supplies, whilst also bearing in mind MOQ’s and annual volumes. She has also given in-depth sensory analysis on our products, and given constructive feedback. She is easy to get in contact with, personable and reliable with delivering her work load. We will be continuing to use her consulting services for the foreseeable future.
Tenna Anette, Co-founder
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We couldn’t have found a better consultant to launch our drops range. From brainstorming initial flavour combinations, sourcing of suppliers and the taste development process, Olivia was invaluable. In terms of recipe development, she has an unmatched taste palette, offering unique and creative flavour combinations. Olivia also assisted us in ensuring that our ingredients & packaging was always kept to a high standard.
Our mission is to create bold, sugar free and unique flavour combinations, and Olivia has been crucial in our journey to delivering this.
Always a positive presence and readily available when we had any queries, we would highly recommend Olivia for anyone looking to launch new recipes or tweak existing ones!Pratima, Casey & Ruby - Co-founders
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It was a pleasure working with Olivia on our recent project. She has a deep understanding on what flavour profiles worked well for our shots and took our brief to heart, delivering on flavour, colour and function as well. We look forward to working with her again!
Nathan Clemes, Founder
Got questions?
Reach out and let’s cook up something together.
