Here’s a taste of the next big food thing
New flavors and products on way to store shelves
Every year, thousands of food brands head to New York to showoff theirwares and entice buyers from grocery stores to stock their products. It’s a trade show titled the Fancy Foods Show, and it’s one of the best places to catch trends before they hit grocery store shelves. New products make their debuts there, and months later, they appear on the shelves of your local Whole Foods Market. (Also, when it comes to free samples, the place is like an all-you-can-eat buffet.) Trendy turmeric? We called it. Gochujang is the new Sriracha, and souping is the newjuicing? Yeah, weknew that in 2017.
Here are the flavors and products that are going to be big over the next year:
Ayurvedic foods
Ayurveda is the Indian practice of holistic medicine in which certain foods and herbs are eaten together to balance a person’s health and to benefit digestion, immunity and more. While many Indian foods are Ayurvedic, specialty brands are now expressly branding their products with the term.
Acompany namedDancing Elephant is producing packaged cups of kitchari, an Indian stew that boasts healing spices, in three flavors. AtinaFoodsmakes traditional Indian herbal jams, pickles and pastes, from “home recipes evolved from Indian Ayurvedic healing traditions.” Davidson’s Organics has introduced a line ofAyurvedic teas, each with a specific function: weight loss, sleep, digestion, decongestion and general detoxification. Vegan Rob’s makes an “Ashwagandhabar,” an energy bar that the company says reduces stress, anxiety and depression. Ashwagandha, “one of the most powerful herbs in Ayurvedic healing,” according to the Chopra Center, also appears in a Remedy Organics protein shake. And Bohana, a snack food company, makes bags of airpopped water lily seeds, “one of the most popular seeds in Ayurveda.” They’re similar to popcorn or puffed rice.
Canned fish salads
“Canned fish salad” is not a very sexy phrase, but hear me out. This is not yourwater-packed StarKist: It’s a high-quality fish with vegetables, herbs and spices, and if you pair a tin of it with a crusty roll, you’ll have a perfectly good meal. Sardines have been getting trendier, and the brand Season is on the bandwagon, offering a sardine salad kit in three flavors. The kits come with a spoon and crackers.
Freshé has four flavors of tinned tuna salad, all packed full of veggies in an attractively designed can. Its fish salads are made in Portugal, which is where some of the best tinned seafood in the world originates.
Spicy drinking vinegars
Maybe youhaven’t yet realized that drinking vinegar is A Thing or even why drinking vinegar isAThing. It’s OK, I’m here for you. Drinking a small daily quantity of straight-up apple cider vinegar became trendy in the past three years because foodie health blogs such as Goop promoted it as a detoxifying weight-loss cure-all. Thescienceonthat is pretty murky, but plenty of brands have jumped into the market. Plain apple cider vinegar is, for most people, unpleasant to drink — throat burn!— so many versions of the drink sweeten it with maple syrup or juice to make it more palatable — such as BluePrint Organic, which makes a blueberry hibiscus version of the drink, orCrafted, which has turned it into a sparkling fruit soda.
But this year, several companies are taking a cue from a traditional folk recipe and leaning into the burn: Fire Brew, based in Portland, Ore., has a line of “health tonics.” Fire Cider has an extra-spicy take on the drink. Red Root & Co. calls its version Fire Tonic. A little goes a longway.
Flavored ghees
Ghee, or clarified butter, is another staple of Indian cooking, but it’s beenhaving a moment of late — thanks, in part, to its purported health benefits, and also because the fat is promotedfor adherents of the paleo and ketogenic diets. Plain ghee is versatile, but at this year’s show, special flavored ghees were popping up. Farmtrue’s comes in the flavors garlic scape and vanilla maple chai, and the company also makes ghee-nut butters. 4th & Heart makes its ghee in several flavors, and has a line of chocolate ghee spreads. Pure Indian Foods has both turmeric and garlic ghee, as well as a ghee that contains medium chain triglyceride oil that is intended to be stirred into coffee (it’s a paleo thing).
Quinoa situations
It’s not just in salads. It’s in your breakfast, your chocolate, your mac and cheese. You cannot escape quinoa. Do not resist. Have it for breakfast withMelanie’sMedleys, Hours: Dinner: 5pm-9pm Dinner: 5pm-10pm Dinner: 5pm-9pm a line of readyto-eat morning grain bowls, or try Prime Planet’s instant quinoa cereal. The brand Tiny Hero, too, has three flavors of quinoa and oat breakfast bowls and is also putting quinoa in mac and cheese, er, excuse me, “maq and cheese.” Chuao Chocolatier is introducing Moon Bark, a line of outdoorsy, trail mix-inspired bars. Quinoapairs with agaveand sesame in one of Jcoco’s bars of “culinary inspired chocolates.” Unreal is selling crispy quinoa-filled versions of M&Ms and Reese’s peanut butter cups. The most blatant expression of this trend might be Undercover Quinoa, chocolatecovered quinoa snacks.
Moringa goes mainstream
Mankind’s quest to discover new superfoods continues apace. Next up: moringa, an ancient plant that has long been used in Asia and Africa for its reputed health benefits. According to Healthline, it is rich in nutrients and antioxidants, and it may reduce inflammation. So it’s no surprise that it’s popping up in products. Kuli Kuli sells powdered moringa smoothie mix, energy shots and moringa superfood bars, with a half-cup of greens in each bar. Stash is selling a new organic roasted moringa mint tea. And Brad’s Organic has it in its unadulterated flavor, as well as with lemon and ginger.
Cauliflower gets convenient
Have you ever wanted to make something with cauliflower and thought, “Ugh, this vegetable is just far too much work?” Good news: Cooking with this trendy brassica has never been easier, thanks to new convenience products that go beyond your basic cauliflower rice.
Caulipower has a cauliflowerbaking mix, in regular and paleo-friendly. Glean also makes cauliflower flour. Kitchen & Love sells cauliflower cups intended to be a quick convenience meal in three globally inspired flavors. If you need more than an individual serving, Path of Life has cauliflower fried rice in the frozen aisle. From the GroundUp has cauliflowerbased replacements for all of your favorite junk food, such as pretzel sticks and Cheez-Its.
And there’s cauliflower in chocolate ice cream — yes, ice cream — by Peekaboo. Don’t worry, it tastes like chocolate ice cream. Kombucha + booze: Kombucha is great, but wouldn’t it be even better if it could get you tipsy? Now, it can. The fermented tea drink has a tiny amount of alcohol in it, but some companies are upping the alcohol by volume (ABV). Wild Tonic’s Jun Kombucha is fermented until it reaches 5.6 percent ABV, making it slightly boozier than many beers. Another new beverage isn’t technically kombucha, but it’s going after the same health-conscious drinker. Willie’s Superbrew makes a fermented fruit drink with 4.5 ABV. It’s the kind of light, fruity drink thatwould be good next to a pool on a hot summer’s day.
Cucumber . what? . . in
Sometimes flavors go in or out of fashion for reasons that are hard to explain. Whywaswatermelon so big last year? Why is cucumber suddenly everywhere this year? I haven’t the faintest idea. It feels very ’90s, like Bath and Body Works cucumber melon lotion, and the ’90s are back in style. That ismy very best guess.
Anyway, you’ll be drinking a lot of cucumber soon, especially in sparkling beverages: Belvoir Fruit Farms has a cucumber-and-mint lemonade, and Found has a cucumber mint sparkling water. Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company is selling a cucumber jalapeño juice, and House of Broughton has a cucumber syrup. Bauman’s Best Botanicals has a cucumberandshrub, HealthAde Kombucha has a new jalapeño-kiwi-cucumber kombucha, and Dry has cans of cucumber soda. Try ZuMora cucumber mint agua fresca, or GoLive probiotic water in cucumber melon. Pretend you are in a spa.
Waterweirdness
You’re still drinking coconut water? What is this, 2015? Birch water is so last year. Don’t even talk to me about aloe water. We obviously need new waters, so let’s dive right in: There’s Bee’sWater, a honey-sweetened water that is “full of natural energy.” Then there’s Sap on Tap, a maple water whose motto goes for the jugular: “Out with coconut water. In with maple tree water.” One of its waters comes with yerba mate, for a natural caffeine boost. The aforementioned GoLive is a “live probiotic water,” and it’s interactive: Press a compartment on the cap and release the live probiotics into thewater, shake it and enjoy your ensuing gut health.
But wait, here comes the mic drop of waters: organic water.
You fools have been drinking conventional, nonorganic water your whole lives; do you even know what you’ve been missing? A company named Asarasi makes sparkling water that is harvested as a byproduct from maple sap, and because it is filtered through the tree, it has achieved USDA organic certification, something that regular water does not have (water is an inorganic compound). It tastes like sparklingwater.
Last: an Israeli company called O. Vine is making wine grape water, a sparkling water that gets its slight wine flavor from grape skins. I regret to inform you that it has no alcohol in it. I will continue drinkingmy own version of grape water: It’s called wine.