Shea Simmons
It’s the start of a new decade, and people are starting to predict what this decade’s food trends could be. Among them, there might be a pumpkin spice replacement on its way.
When you think of trends, you might think about clothes or shoes or even the aughts’ boom of comic book films, but food trends are just as common even if you don’t notice them right away. Whether everyone’s mad dash to get Girl Scout cookies at the first of the year or those half doughnuts/half croissants that invaded Instagram a few years back, food goes in cycles. Some cycles (like those delicious Scout cookies) stick and some fade. So what’s in store for the 2020s?
Delish spoke with multiple food experts about what people could expect to be eating by 2025, and one of the most shocking revelations might be that pumpkin spice could be no more.
Delish can’t pinpoint the exact flavor that could eclipse pumpkin spice, but the publication spoke with food trend expert Kara Nielsen, who explained food profiles will come from different cultures in 2020. Nielsen says:
“We keep digging deeper into the cultures that we are familiar with, Mexican regional food, central American, possibly even South American with a deeper understanding of what’s unique and specific.”
She goes on to compare it to American barbecue. Those who love it know that there’s a difference between Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama barbecue styles. Nielsen says that in 2020, we’ll see those distinctions emerging in cultural foods as well.
While sure, pumpkin spice might still be kicking in 2025, you might also start seeing more unique flavor profiles as well—and the reign of pumpkin-spice-all-the-things could well come to an end.
If you want to know more about your deals come mid-2020s, you can head over to Delish and check out their other predictions.
