Chicory’s Top Food and Grocery Trends for 2021
Over the course of 2020, we’ve utilized data from Chicory’s shoppable recipe network to explore how consumer food trends and grocery shopping habits shifted or remained the same, and how recurring seasonal trends and yearly holiday celebrations were impacted by COVID-19.
Below, you’ll find predictions for how food and shopping trends will play out in 2021. We used our data to validate the mega-trends that emerged during the height of the pandemic in March and April, as well as the lasting trends that persisted, as consumers settled into “the New Normal” nationwide.
Coffee flavors and home cafes
Functional foods
Korean cuisine and flavors
Innovation in alcohol
Flexible shopping schedules
Coffee Flavors and Home Cafes
Many consumers started working from home, whether temporarily or permanently, or now have more flexible work-from-home schedules. In fact, 85% more Americans worked from home in August 2020 compared to February 2020. And those working-from-home consumers are now challenged with getting their daily coffee fix. Previously picked up from their local coffee shop, Starbucks or bodega, consumers are now creating from scratch or elevating their own home cafe experiences.
Compared to 2019, we saw over double the views for coffee recipes in 2020 over the past quarter.
Who can forget the dalgona coffee craze that swarmed the nation in March and April and is still popular today? From the time dalgona coffee recipes came out across major digital publishers to the end of April, recipe views hit nearly 30,000 on two separate days. Iced coffee and cold brew, other workday favorites, spiked in recipe views during the height of the pandemic, as consumers scrambled to find recipes for their favorite caffeinated drinks. Copycat Starbucks cold brew was a particularly popular recipe, and one that ties into the trend of consumers recreating their restaurant and takeout favorites when stores were closed.
Alongside a spike in popularity for home coffee stations and homemade coffee recipes, our data reflects a simultaneous increase in searches for coffee creamers and milks (both dairy and non-dairy).
During the dalgona coffee craze, dairy milk consumption hit nearly 2,500,000, based on recipe views. Compare this to 111% more recipe views compared to the same time period in 2019 and it’s clear that consumers are just consuming a lot more milk.
But when we dig into non-dairy milk trends, we can also see that plant-based milks like almond, soy, hemp and rice have skyrocketed in 2020 compared to 2019 (+160%) at rates even higher than dairy milks.
Over the past quarter, we’ve also seen a steady increase in the use of coffee creamers, both powdered and liquid, at home.
Finally, an interesting trend has emerged in the use of disposable coffee pods. As consumers “vote with their dollars” and make more conscious decisions about the products they purchase, we’ve seen a slight YoY decline in disposable coffee pods consumption. Many reports indicate that disposable coffee pods are bad for the environment, so consumers who want to purchase sustainable products are beginning to avoid these one-time use products. In fact, we’ve seen a 9% decline in the use of coffee pods during the first two weeks of December in 2019 compared to the same time period in 2020.
Functional Foods
We predict that the “new year, new you” mindset that we typically see during resolution season in January will kickstart a macro-trend of consumers turning to healthy foods that purportedly boost the immune-system, help with digestion, aid in gut health and support overall physical wellness throughout 2021 as the effects of COVID-19 continue.
During the height of the pandemic, consumers heeded the government’s warning to social distance and stay at home for safety, but many also turned to holistic methods for health protection, kicking off a second resolution season in 2020 following January. Recipes for sauerkraut, kombucha and pickled vegetables--foods that offer natural probiotics, or beneficial digestive bacteria--skyrocketed during the height of the pandemic (March to April 2020). Additionally, this indicated how swiftly Americans pivoted to save these emergency canned and jarred prep foods at a time when stay-at-home orders were enacted across the nation.
Other classic natural “sick-day” recipes and ingredients also increased in popularity, whether as preventative measures, or to treat those who were already sick.
While many of the health benefits attributed to so-called “superfoods” are a result of marketing efforts, nevertheless, there’s no doubt that many of these ingredients do have exceptional nutritional value, including honey and ginger.
Korean Cuisine and Flavors
Korean cuisine has seen incredible growth this year, potentially due to the skyrocketing popularity of traditional Korean dishes and ingredients like kimchi (another way to store pickled cabbage) and seaweed, that are probiotics and contain essential nutrients.
We’ve seen sustained interest in recipes for Korean kimchi, a known probiotic and a recent millennial food favorite. Compare interest in kimchi recipes in 2020 to 2019 and it’s easy to see just how much engagement has grown since then. We’ve seen kimchi over roasted chicken and smashed potatoes, blended into yogurt to make a dressing, incorporated into grilled cheese and used to top avocado toast for the ultimate millennial breakfast.
As a result of the popularity of some parts of Korean cuisine, consumers have become more interested in general Korean flavors and classic Korean recipes. We’ve seen similar sustained interest in classic Yukaejang, or spicy beef noodle soup.
Increased interest in Korean cuisine may also be attributed to more adventurous cooking experiments at home with less access to restaurants.
Innovation in Alcohol
In 2019, White Claw, the hard seltzer company created in 2016, hit its stride as millions of millennials wiped out store shelves of their favorite new low-calorie, light flavor and meme-able branded alcoholic beverage. That was just the start of fast-paced innovation at the end of 2019 and throughout 2020 in an industry dominated by decades-old powerhouse brands.
With Dry January rapidly approaching at the start of 2021, brands are tapping into the non-alcoholic beer market. But reports indicate that it’s no longer just a month-long trend and is becoming a larger part of Americans’ lifestyles, particularly during the pandemic as consumers try to be healthier at home.
As a result, large brands like Heineken and smaller ones like Brooklyn Brewery are crafting their own “healthier” alcoholic products, like non-alcoholic beer. In fact, across our shoppable recipe network, non-alcoholic beer consumption jumped by 67% over the past quarter. Even as we approach the holiday season, consumption still climbs, indicating that some people may simply be replacing their favorite alcoholic beers with their non-alcoholic versions during this busy (albeit less than prior years) season. With 61% of consumers hosting less holiday celebrations this year compared to last year, the demand for alcoholic beverages also decreases.
As more consumers focus on health than ever before and many don’t have access to their local gyms, low-calorie beers have also become more popular. In line with this, the explosion of the keto diet has prompted a host of online roundups of the best low-carb beers and alcoholic beverages.
Flexible Grocery Shopping Schedules
Gone but not forgotten are the days of the Sunday shop.
One of the biggest trends as some of the nation’s workforce moved from on-site work to remote or flexible work-from-home schedules is that consumers could (finally) grocery shop throughout the week instead of flocking to the store on their day off. When we explore online grocery activity in August 2020 compared to August in 2019, we gain some insight into how consumers’ grocery shopping schedules are changing.
Online grocery activity in 2019 has clear “shark-fin” spikes on 8/13, 8/20 and 8/27, all Sundays. On the other hand, 2020 shows classic “shark-fin” spikes on 8/2, 8/9, 8/16, 8/23 and 8/30, also all Sundays. But it also shows smaller spikes between those Sundays, typically on Wednesdays.
This demonstrates that many consumers are leveraging their extra time at home to spread their grocery shops throughout the week into two shops, rather than one big Sunday shop. And we expect this trend to continue as remote work schedules become more commonplace, public school schedules are still up in the air across many states and consumers settle into new routines that they picked up during this year.
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