From volatile compounds to global taste buds, the world of strawberry breeding is more complex—and more delicious—than you might imagine.
Dr. Deb Menicos is on a quest. Her mission? Nothing short of breeding the perfect strawberry—a fruit so fragrant, flavourful, and visually flawless that consumers can’t resist reaching for the iconic Driscoll’s clamshell on the grocery store shelf.
Recently promoted to global director of strawberry breeding at Driscoll’s, Menicos is no stranger to the complexities of fruit perfection. After nearly a decade as the company’s molecular breeder and pre-breeder, she’s become one of the industry’s leading voices in the science—and art—of flavour.
“I spend a lot of time thinking about failure,” she jokes, referencing the brutal reality of plant breeding: for every berry that ends up delighting consumers, thousands fall short.
Driscoll’s operates like no other berry company in the world. An integrated system—from breeding and nursery production to grower partnerships and retail distribution—means the strawberries in their packages are exclusive to the brand. But that also means their breeders are pulled in all directions.
“Everyone—from nursery managers to marketers—has a different wish list,” Menicos says. “Nurseries want runner-heavy plants with few flowers. Growers want high-yielding, disease-resistant fruit. Marketers want visual appeal and long shelf life. And consumers? They want delight.”
The Delicate Balance Between Flavour and Yield
Achieving that delight is where the real challenge begins. Driscoll’s runs nine independent strawberry breeding programs tailored to different climates and consumer preferences across North America and Europe. Each is a balancing act—selecting for flavour, texture, disease resistance, yield, and shelf life, while navigating regional differences in day length, temperature, and cultural taste preferences.
Such breeding programs often face trade-offs. “In some programs, when flavour goes up, yield goes down,” she notes. “We’ve had to make peace with the fact that we’re not chasing one ideal strawberry—we’re breeding for a whole family of market-specific winners.”
This is especially true for Driscoll’s Sweetest Batch line, a super-premium category developed to spotlight exceptional flavour, even if the variety is harder to grow or has lower yield. “We don’t just sell berries—we sell joy,” she says.
Tasting is Science
So how do you breed for joy?
It starts with data—but not just the kind found in spreadsheets. Flavour is deeply personal, shaped by volatile compounds, sugars, acids, and memory. Menicos’ team uses a multi-pronged approach: consumer preference panels (“Do you like this berry?”), expert flavour wheels cataloging nuanced sensory notes (like floral, tropical, or caramelized), and precise chemical analysis of volatile compounds linked to flavour perception.
One such compound once seemed like a slam dunk. High concentrations were strongly correlated with high flavour scores in internal testing. It was genetically simple, controlled by a single gene. A marker was developed. Everything pointed to a breakthrough.
Then came the smoothies.
To test the theory, Menicos’ team created juices from strawberries that either had or lacked the gene for this superstar compound. The results were surprising. While Menicos personally rated the high-compound smoothies as far superior, her colleagues had opposite reactions. One preferred the low-compound blend. Another couldn’t tell the difference.
“We realized we were breeding for polarization,” she laughs. “And that’s not our goal. We want strawberries that everyone can love.”
The team shelved the marker and pivoted back to breeding for broad appeal — targeting compounds and flavour profiles consistently associated with mass consumer liking.
A Breeder at the Centre of It All
What makes Menicos’ story so compelling is not just her scientific expertise—she holds a PhD in plant breeding and genetics from Ohio State University — but her philosophical approach to breeding in a corporate ecosystem.
“In traditional agriculture, breeders hand varieties off to the next link in the chain,” she says. “At Driscoll’s, the breeder is at the centre of the chain.”
And at the heart of that chain is the fruit itself: ephemeral, fragile, bursting with sugar and sunlight. A strawberry that travels continents. A strawberry that starts with genes and ends with delight.
When asked what success looks like, Menicos doesn’t hesitate.
“It’s a berry that makes you pause mid-bite and say, ‘Wow.’ That’s what we’re breeding for.”
