This is what 2019 is going to taste like ...
Get your palate ready for cheese tea, the pegan diet (paleo and vegan), robot salads and motherless meat, plus a rash of new fermented foods, writes Kim Severson
MORE vegetables. Improved gut bacteria. Cocktails with less alcohol.
Many of the predictions about what we’ll eat and drink in 2019 point to a quiet, restorative and potentially grim time ahead. Then again, these forecasts always arrive carrying the clean, healthy pine scent of New Year’s resolutions.
The good news: there will be cheese tea. And salad robots, according to the prognosticators.
As we pored over dozens of lists handicapping the next big food trends, and interviewed the people who get paid to drill into consumer behaviour, we kept in mind that everyone could be dead wrong. Food forecasting is not a science, or even an art. Still, the game is a fun one.
Here are some of the most intriguing guesses at what and how we will be eating in the new year.
THE NEXT LETTUCE
Expect to see little-known varieties showing up on menus, and an explosion in lettuces grown hydroponically, many of them in urban container farms. Some chefs are rallying around celtuce, a lettuce with a leafy, bitter top and a stalk that’s kind of a cross between celery and asparagus.
THE NEW FLAVOUR PROFILE
Sour and funky, with shades of heat. This is what happens when you mix the interest in fermenting with the millennial palate. Melina Romero, trend insights manager at CCD Helmsman, a food research and product development firm in California, explained the generation that loves global mash-ups and bold flavours this way: “They grew up with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and while they still want spicy, I think, beyond that, they have grown to become interested in flavours that are acquired – sour flavours and even funky flavours like fermented foods.”
THE THING YOU WILL TRY AGAINST YOUR BETTER JUDGEMENT
Cheese tea, an import from Taiwan, will hit the mainstream this year. Green or black tea is sipped through a cap of cream cheese blended with cream or condensed milk, which can be either sweet or slightly salty.
THE BIG HEALTH FIX
improve the bacterial health of your intestinal tract. Kimchi, sauerkraut and pickled things will work their way into new territory. Smoothies with kefir will be popular, and kombucha will show up in salad dressings.
THE HOT DIETS
Diets that emphasise fat over carbohydrates will continue to dominate. Instagram says video posts using the hashtag “keto” – the name of a high-fat, low-carb diet – grew fivefold over the past six months. Restaurants will add more low-carb options. The term “pegan” – a cross between a paleo and a vegan diet – will take hold.
THE NEW SHEET-PAN SUPPER