Fall and winter flavors have hit our grocery stores! Pumpkin spice coffee, Honeycrisp apple pie, Maple bacon…who doesn’t love the nostalgia and comfort of seasonal products? While traditional flavors like pumpkin, apple, cinnamon and caramel will continue to dominate, they will become far more sophisticated, mirroring broader culinary trends.
Scouted shares the three flavor trends we can expect to see in our stores this fall and winter season:
Trend 1: Seasonal Favorites Turn Global
Global flavors and influences are everywhere in food today. Similar to broader food culture, this fall, expect to see traditional fall flavors layered with global flavors—for example, Chipotle Pumpkin Veggie Burgers, Ancho Chile Pumpkin Cooking Sauces, and Thai Sweet Potato Soup.
One product that our scouts are raving about is from Williams Sonoma: Pumpkin Curry Simmering Sauce. It combines sautéed chunks of pumpkin and tomato with caramelized onions, fire-roasted serrano chilies, coconut milk, candied ginger, garlic, and sweet garam masala spices. The ingredients are slow simmered in small batches. It can be prepared with chicken, pork or any protein of your choice, and served over cauliflower rice.
Trend 2: Nostalgic Favorites Become Flavor Profiles
Nothing signals the arrival of fall and winter like nostalgic favorites… caramel apples, apple cider, hot cocoa, to name a few. They are reliable, familiar, comforting—feelings we all seem to need these days. This season, expect to see brands turn these comfortable favorites into flavor profiles. Examples include Trader Joe’s Organic Frosted Toaster Pastries in hot cocoa flavor, 365 Everyday Value Apple Cider Cookie Thins from Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s Caramel Apple flavored Granola.
Trend 3: Seasonal Shows Up In Expected Categories
For years we’ve seen fall flavors in the usual places—i.e. coffee, baked goods like cookies, cakes and muffins, ice cream, and breakfast foods like pancake and waffle mix. This year, we will see seasonal flavors throughout the store. Seasonal flavors will be infused in unexpected product categories, for example, plant-based milks, nutrition bars, cheese, hummus, pasta, frozen meals and more.
Some recent favorites from our scouts are Delighted by Dessert Hummus in Pumpkin Pie, and Nutpods Dairy Free Creamer in Pumpkin Spice, both available at stores nationwide.
Follow @scoutedfood on Facebook and Instagram for more trends, grocery product recommendations, and easy weeknight meals scouted by other moms!
Shilpa Rosenberry is CEO of Scouted, an online platform launching this year to take the monotony out of food shopping and help consumers discover grocery products recommended by people they know and trust.