Top Food & Flavor Trends For 2015

TOAST IS A SURPRISINGLY NEW FLAVOR

Toast was a surprising new “flavor” at the annual Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco last week. The Fancy Food Show is the West Coast’s largest specialty food & beverage trade show, held every year in January. That’s right, toast – as in, crunchy roasted bread garnished with a spread of butter. This nostalgic flavor is now showing up as a taste profile in more sophisticated products than just good ole Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Small cafes and restaurants are also featuring toast as a gourmet menu addition and commanding a $4 plus price point.

The Republic of Tea introduced Cinnamon Toast Tea

And B.T. McElrath Chocolatier has a Buttered Toast Chocolate Bar

TOP 5 FOOD TRENDS

In terms of big food trends across categories, here are experts’ top five picks for 2015 from the Fancy Food Show:

1. Cheese with a Twist

Cheese always seems to be a classic category at food shows, but this year it seems to be all about combining cheese with other products such as manchego-style cheese flavored olive oil, and caramel & cheddar popcorn mix.

2. Breakfast Flavors

Traditional breakfast foods are now showing up as ingredients across categories, a fun concept. Look for new products like spicy coffee beef jerky, cinnamon toast tea, and bacon coconut chips.

 3. Time for Turmeric

 This ancient, flavorful spice has been used medicinally for generations but now its health benefits are catching on. New products emerging include turmeric ginger tea, turmeric rice, ginger ale with turmeric and turmeric tamari almonds.

 

4. Cruciferous Crusade

In addition to Kale, here are some new crunchy nutrient-packed vegetables coming to a store near you soon: broccoli chips, arugula cabbage veggie snacks, brussel bytes and spicy pickled cabbage.

5. Vanilla Bean-anza

Right now it’s all about romancing the bean, not just the vanilla. Watch for these new products: vanilla bean cheddar cheese, pure vanilla bean shortbread and white chocolate with bourbon vanilla.

Learn more about the top 5 trends and products now. Plus, keep in mind last year’s trends are still going strong – ancient grains, gluten-free foods, coconut, sriracha and kale are all trending flavors.

MORE FLAVOR TRENDS

Recently Comax also unveiled their flavor trends for 2015. Comax is a leader in flavor technology – they specialize in providing flavors to manufacturers across all kinds of food and beverage categories.

Melting Pot Flavors: trendy flavors are emerging that cater to the large and growing multicultural population, such as butterscotch curry, cherry yuzu, sriracha maple and za’tar.

Nut Flavors: interesting flavor combinations are being created such as almond rose shortbread, bourbon caramel pistachio, pecan chipotle and vanilla walnut fig.

Coffee: new intriguing flavors that reflect unique, gourmet coffee including cabernet espresso, affogato or cinnamon brew.

 

ALCOHOL BEVERAGE FLAVOR TREND: HONEY

Last but certainly not least, if you’re looking for something trendy to drink with all that delicious food, order a drink with honey. Honey is the new trendy flavor in alcohol and is starring on various beverage menus, according to MenuMonitor. Here are just a few drinks to watch for:

 

 

• Bitter Bees Knees – gin shaken with fresh lemon juice, honey syrup and rhubarb bitters

• Honey Bee, BLT Steak: Stoli vodka, Barenjager honey liqueur, apple juice

• Sticky Fingers: Krupnik honey vodka liqueur, Baileys, butterscotch schnapps and a touch of hazelnut cream liqueur

I highly recommend Bees Knees – I recently had a “Basil Bees Knees” drink at Juniper in Boise. It was, well, the Bees Knees.