Helping challenger food & drink brands turn concepts into award-winning products.

Services that WOW!

Retail Brands

From start-up to supermarket shelf.

Food Services

Menus that work harder, taste better, and cost less.

Sensory

Sensory training and analysis.

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.

Got questions?

Reach out and let’s cook up something together.

Its always more fun to taste together.