Consumer Trends in Food & Beverage
Consumer Trends in Food & Beverage
Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. released their 13 Restaurant and Hotel Food Trends for 2010. Likewise, Food Channel just released their top 10 food trends ranging from Food With Benefits to Experimentation Nation. Beyond the trends towards healthy sustainable eating, the 2 trends from these reports that continue to increase in the era of consumer saving and the vigilante consumer are: Upscaling the Downscale and Keeping It Real.
Upscaling the Downscale
Slashfood covers the trend as “mobile eateries serving up everything from edamame dumplings in New York to Korean BBQ in LA snagged a parking spot and began Tweeting their location to eager fans who were still stuck behind their desks. The only problem was, once you had the carne asada taco in hand, there was only one place left to go: back to your cubicle. Enter the bustaurant, the country’s first full-fledged restaurant on wheels began rolling the streets of LA this past March, offering not only the sort of hipster-pleasing fast food the trucks are famous for (Worcestershire-braised short rib; vegetarian chili), but also a place to sit and enjoy it.” Read more on food trends at slashfood.
Consumers are trading down as evidence by the drop in steakhouse sales by 25%-30% since last year, and the gathering dust on 0 bottles of wine. In contrast, hamburger and hot dog sales are on the rise but not just because they’re affordable. Consumers are using these vehicles as trade-up treats! That’s what’s behind the explosion of “gourmet” smothered hamburgers (try Corner Bistro or Rare Bar & Grill in NY and Square One Burgers in Tampa. In the snack market, the sushi popper is the latest addition to get you through your day. For those of you wondering, a sushi popper is a portable tube with fresh pre-sliced sushi that is pushed up from the bottom and eaten from the top. And in a truly unique version of upscaling the downscale, how about food trucks that provide an in-truck eating experience?
Real Ingredients
Apparently, chicken keeping has become quite chic in urban and suburban neighborhoods in the U.S. Much as suburbanites are growing vegetables in their backyard gardens, collecting eggs for omelets is part of the back-to-the-land movement for people who want to lower their grocery bills, eat local, and reduce their carbon footprint, according to a story by Adrian Higgins in the Washington Post. “Chickens are America’s cool new pet,” says Dave Belanger, quoted in the Post article. Belanger is the publisher of Backyard Poultry magazine, launched three years ago. When he first began publishing, he hoped for a circulation of 15 to 20,000. The bimonthly publication today claims 100,000 readers. Eggs from your backyard. Read more on food trends from the Food Channel.
Our last food trend example is salmon flavored vodka. If you haven’t heard, bacon has become one of the trendiest food items, finding its way into brownies and even into Don Lee’s famous Bacon Infused Old Fashioned Bourbon. You can infuse your own vodka or bourbon with bacon at home by adding an ounce of cooled smoked bacon grease to 750ml of spirit. Salmon has emerged as the trendy new vodka flavor. Slashdot recommends “pairing a cold shot of it with an appetizer of capers and cream cheese on toast or perhaps as a flavor addition to your…
To read more about food & beverage trends, go to Sparxoo, a digital marketing and branding agency.
