In March this year our category marketing manager, Jane Stork and category marketing executive, Keri Cummings, spent three days taking in the tastes and flavours of London to see what new trends are appearing in the Capital. Here is the second part of the new discoveries they made, and also what emerging trends from last year have taken hold.
Although cupcakes are still popular, it is evident that bakers are looking for new carriers for flavours and inclusions. One of the carriers that kept popping up was brownies. Bakers are now using them to carry nuts, seeds, sauces, jams and fruit and topping them with frostings and icings. It was nearly impossible to see a brownie that didn’t have something in it or on it. This seems like a key trend that could grow as consumers look for innovation in traditional products.
This addition of nuts in the brownies was also seen across other bakery products, with all different types of nuts being added into cakes, biscuits and breads. As consumers continue to see the health benefits in adding nuts to their diets, this trend it set to continue. The most common types that were seen were pistachio, almond and hazelnut in all forms from whole nuts to ground nut being used for flavouring products.
As well as this addition of nuts to baked goods, there were a noticeable number of traditional bakery goods that had been given the healthy slant to encourage the health conscious consumer to purchase them. These products included spelt and quinoa scones, spelt and almond croissants, spinach and feta pains au chocolat, seed filled cookies and orange and polenta cakes.
In food outlets and stalls, there was a noticeable rise in the amount of BBQ flavourings and sauces that were being used on proteins and in vegetable dishes. Added to this was a further divulgence of the BBQ flavour profile in the shape of jerk and smoked flavours. These were being used mostly on meats, but also the smoked flavour profile was seen in chocolates and teas.