The future of food starts with people: what they search, what they share, what they crave and what earns a second bite. Consumers often show us where food is going before they ever say it out loud. When taken together, signals across conversations, menus, sales and more reveal something bigger than the next flavor, ingredient or product launch. They offer a window into how people's lives and expectations are evolving and what increasingly earns a place in them.
While we can't predict the future, at Nestlé, our place in 98% of U.S. households helps us anticipate where it's headed alongside the consumers we serve. As we look toward 2027, what's next in food & beverage reflects the people around the table, from flavor seekers and coffee lovers to wellness-minded consumers and adventurers exploring the world through new tastes.
Every plate is a point of view.
What is Driving the Next Taste Trend?
Consumers have more choices than ever before, and in turn, it's making them more intentional about what deserves their time, attention and dollars.
We're seeing that shift show up in different ways: options that simplify busy days, foods that deliver more than one benefit and experiences that offer something genuinely memorable.
Underneath it all is a growing expectation that every bite and sip must work harder to feel worthwhile. As we look to next year, these five trends offer a glimpse into where consumers’ evolving priorities are headed next.
On the Menu Next Year
1. The Zest Is Yet to Come
The next big thing in flavor isn't a hotter pepper. After a decade of chasing heat, consumers aren't just spicing it up – they're zesting it up.
Zest isn't a flavor descriptor, it's a feeling. Bright, sharp and lively — the jolt that wakes you up instead of weighing you down. And it's everywhere at once: searches for “zesty foods” are up 130% this year,1 and sour category sales have climbed 309% since 2022.2 The craving isn't simply for more intensity, it's for food that feels more alive and layered enough to make something familiar feel new again. You'll taste it in citrus zip and herbaceous tang, in yuzu kosho, calamansi, sumac, chile citrus and dill. Not a Caesar, but a zesty Caesar. Not another snack, but the one that bites back.
Here's the fun part: zest doesn't reinvent a dish; it brings it to life. A squeeze of lemon and garlic makes a sandwich you’d happily order again, which is why home cooks reach for Minor's Kitchen Lemon Garlic Aioli Sauce. It's Hot Pockets Snack Breaks Melty Nacho Beef, where the cheddar-blasted crust does what the dip used to, or the bright, smoky lift in the Vital Pursuit Southwest Style Chicken Fajita Sandwich Melt.
2. Protein&
Protein hasn't peaked. Roughly 63% of U.S. consumers are still actively seeking more of it.3 But in 2027, high protein stops being a standalone “protein-maxxing” goal, and increasingly, it’s the second benefit that helps earn the choice.
Consumers aren't thinking about wellness one benefit at a time anymore. They expect food to work harder across multiple needs, stacking benefits from energy and gut health to healthy aging and beauty. And with an estimated 55 million Americans expected to be on GLP-1s by 2035,4 eating less means every bite has to work harder. So, protein takes a new job: not the headliner, but the wingman. Pair it with fiber and it’s fuel, with collagen it supports beauty from within, and with probiotics, it becomes gut support.
Consumers are actively searching that way already: search volume for “protein and probiotics” up 300% year over year, “protein and collagen” 190%, “protein and fiber” 150%.5 Protein is behind the wheel. The partner riding shotgun is the reason to buy.
You can see it in Garden of Life Raw Organic Protein & Greens for a morning that won't quit, and the Vital Proteins Collagen & Protein Shake doing two jobs in one glass.
The second benefit doesn't have to be functional, either. Searches for protein comfort food have hit breakout status,6 proof that people want the macros alongside the mac and cheese. Or, in the case of Vital Pursuit Max Pro Cheese Lovers Pizza, a functional frozen pizza delivering 33g of protein, the macros and the pizza.
3. The Juicy Cup
Coffee has always carried subtle fruit notes. Berry, citrus, stone fruit, already there in the bean. In 2027, those notes step forward.
Three things are pushing it forward. Younger drinkers treat the coffee cup as a place for discovery, and social conversation around fruit-flavored coffee has surged more than 23% over the past year.⁷ They're asking coffee to refresh, not just caffeinate, as all-day sipping replaces the morning-only ritual. And viral recipes are pouring fuel on it, from Korean café-inspired yuzu americanos to blueberry lattes to the banana bread latte, where searches are up more than 6,000% year over year.8-9 Matcha is running the same play, with fruit-forward fusions reshaping a category projected to reach $7.3 billion by 2030.10 Fruit used to be a footnote. Now it's the reason people order.
And while the café may get credit for starting it, the habit lives on at home. Some of it is as simple as natural bliss Caramelized Banana Bread Creamer in the coffee you were already making. Some of it rewards the extra effort, like an Iced Cherry Espresso Tonic built from NESCAFÉ Espresso Concentrate, S.Pellegrino Sparkling Water and Coffee mate French Vanilla Cold Foam.
4. Global Drops a Pin
The generic international aisle is over.
Global cuisine has gone fully mainstream, with three in four Gen Z and Millennial consumers counting an international dish among their comfort foods.11 Once broad cultural cues become familiar, they become less exciting. Three things are driving what comes next: a deeper appetite for flavor exploration, social media turning cultural discovery into a constant, and a growing desire to know the people, places, and traditions behind a dish. Together they’ve moved the bar from country to zip code. Two-thirds are ready to explore regional variations, and the payoff is measurable. Regional Mexican preparations earn 30% higher satisfaction scores than generic ones.11-12 Hungry for more exploration – global is the given, and the next frontier is specificity.
Specificity shows up three ways: a named region, a named preparation, or a hero ingredient doing the talking. Not just Italian, but a combination of Sicilian meats that top the California Pizza Kitchen Crispy Thin Crust Sicilian Recipe Pizza. The perfect balance of cumin, turmeric, coriander and a kick of chili in Maggi Indian Classic Masala Noodles. And sometimes one ingredient carries the story, the way sesame, ginger and soy do in Minor's Kitchen Creamy Korean BBQ Sauce.
5. A Little Extra Goes a Long Way
Consumers have stopped settling for good enough. As they get more selective about what purchases feel "worth it," the small extras that deliver emotional and sensory value are what tip the decision — a surprising flavor, an unexpected texture, a premium cue, a detail somebody clearly thought about.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. consumers say special touches make a purchase feel more worth the cost,13 and 47% are hunting new foods and flavors most or all of the time.14 Some of that is screen time: the more time scrolling, the more the things you can actually taste and experience in real life stand out. So the extras are getting built in rather than added on. Chili crisp already in the mayo. Brown butter cookies, not regular cookies. Not a fancier product. A more thoughtful one.
And it matters where you'd least expect it. Consumers are putting a premium on appealing presentation, bold flavor and complex texture, choosing experiences that deliver an emotional and sensory payoff.
That's the thinking behind DiGiorno Premium Pepperoni Wood Fired Style Crust Pizza, which gets the char without the oven. It's why Nestlé Toll House Remix Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Refrigerated Cookie Dough has the naturally flavored brown butter already worked into the dough, and why Nestlé Toll House is leaning into playfully-shaped chocolate morsels, from footballs and soccer balls for game day to snowflakes for the holidays, delivering a cookie meant for more celebration moments. And it's Minor's Kitchen Spicy Chili Truffle Sauce, a restaurant-quality move that elevates the classic condiment in a squeeze bottle.
A Final Taste
The menu for 2027 is taking shape, and consumers are the ones setting the table.
They're reaching for brighter flavors, personalized nutrition, new rituals and new ways to explore the world through what they eat and drink. The zest, the second benefit, the fruit in the cup, the zip code on the package, the extra detail that goes the extra mile. Different signals, but together they reveal a bigger shift: consumers are becoming more intentional about what earns a place in their lives and expecting more value from every bite, sip and every experience.
The future won't be defined by more choice. It will be defined by what's worth choosing.
Sources
¹Google Trends, U.S., Aug. 1, 2025 to Aug. 1, 2026.
2Emily Gerard, The Power of Sour: How Tart and Tangy Flavors Are Taking Over, TODAY, September 2025.
3Mintel, Food and Drink Functional and Nutritional Claims, U.S., June 2026.
4Morgan Stanley, Obesity Drugs Are Scaling Fast, U.S., April 2026.
5Google Trends, U.S., Aug. 16, 2025 to Aug. 15, 2026.
6Google Trends, U.S., Sept. 3, 2025 to Sept. 2, 2026.
7Amber Gibson, Fruit’s Crashing the Coffee Party, The Fresh Cup, May 2025.
8Anna Kinder, Peeling Back the Layers of the Banana Coffee Trend, The Food Institute, July 2025.
9Mintel, U.S., Kantar Profiles, May 2023
10Augustus Bambridge-Sutton, Flavour trends 2026, Food Navigator, April 2026.
11Mintel, Regional and International Cuisines, U.S., 2026.
12Technavio, Mexican Food Market Industry Analysis, March 2026.
13Mintel, Restaurant Takeout and Delivery, U.S., 2026.
14Mintel, Mintel, Food & Drink Global, 2025.
