With the heightened awareness and growing push against ultra-processed foods, brands need to focus on being as “real” as possible. Using flavors, colors and ingredients that are authentic and relatable will be a growing trend in 2026.
Culinary Tides’ Suzy Badaracco said trends that will define 2026 will be “emotionally intelligent.” They will be nostalgic, yet fresh; global, yet comforting.
This supports the “sweet, but make it mindful” prediction for 2026 from Whole Foods Market. According to the natural foods retailer, having a sweet tooth will never go out of style, but people have become more mindful of their sugar intake. This is fueling innovations where sweetness is associated with a flavor, such as honey, maple and real fruit. Tasting is believing. Sugar tastes sweet, while ingredients such as honey, maple syrup and real fruit purees are sweet and flavorful. They also provide functionality to many applications, including dairy foods.
“In short, consumers are embracing a feel-good food culture driven by sensory exploration, emotional well-being and the desire for comfort with a conscience,” according to Rubix Foods, the culinary force behind many fast-food obsessions.
This has butter being back in a big way. In 2026, compound butters will emerge as the ultimate flavor shortcut. Whipped with herbs, spices or global ingredients, compound butters deliver flavor to food. Rubix suggests pushing the envelope with innovations such as chili-honey butter for sandwiches and miso-maple butter for roasted vegetables.
And swicy—sweet and spicy (heat)—is going to get more complex in 2026. It started with hot honey. Today’s consumers are gravitating toward flavor-building spices and chili varieties that add character, not just burn, according to Rubix. They crave medium-heat sauces with smoky, tangy and fruity layers that keep them coming back for another bite. It is less about heat for heat’s sake and more about heat with harmony. This can play into dairy dips/spreads, cheeses and even beverage.
In case you missed this Daily Dose of Dairy on Wednesday, Beekeeper Coffee has added Hot Honey Cold Brew Latte to its ready-to-drink coffee-milk lineup. The new flavor is exclusive to Gopuff.
The company is building on the buzz of its recently launched Horchata Cold Brew Latte, which is crafted with Honduran coffee, aromatic chili and a hint of pure Oregon honey. The ambient 8-ounce beverages have 2% reduced-fat milk as the number-one ingredient. Each can contains 90 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein and 10 grams of sugar. One can sells for about $3.99. These two new flavors join the start-ups original four: Double Black, Caramel, Mocha and Vanilla. All are sweetened with honey.
Earlier this year, Saputo USA introduced Treasure Cave Blue Cheese Dips. One of the three flavors is Hot Honey. The new dips are intended to be an entry point for blue cheese with younger generations that are willing to try new flavors. Younger consumers like heat. They like swicy. They like hot honey!
Novus Foods, the business created when Lakeview Farms and noosa came together, offers Fresh Cravings Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza Dip & Spread. The 12-ounce refrigerated deli department dip and spread features cream cheese as the number-one ingredient. Neufchatel, mozzarella and parmesan are also part of the mix. The noosa brand also now has Hot Honey Yogurt.
Dilly Artisan Foods rolled out Cowz Leap Honey Jalapeno Fresh Pimeniento Cheese. The Lancaster County, Pennsylvania-based cheese maker combines quark and cheese curds to make the base for this swicy spread.
Pastoret offers Pastoret Kids Yoghourt Artesanal in select European markets. Based just outside Barcelona, this Spanish dairy sources “milk from cows that graze freely” and “uses a slow fermentation process” to create a range of yogurts with natural fruits and 30% less sugar. The 150-gram portion cups for children come in three varieties--Strawberry Banana, Banana Cookie and Peach Cookie—and are naturally sweetened with a blend of fruit, cane sugar and honey.
Desi Naturals introduced Indian Yogurts at the Summer Fancy Food Show. The lineup of 5.3-ounce cups includes Honey Turmeric, along with Malai Kulfi (dessert style), Mango Cardamon (homestyle) and Mishti Doi (Indian crème brulee). This product line reinforces how honey is a sweetener and flavor. It has no borders. It’s part of every country’s cuisine. Plants everywhere need bees to pollinate. Bees travel!
It's no wonder that honey is gaining traction as an all-natural sweetener in the U.S. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service’s Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables, U.S. consumption of honey and made-with-honey products reached an all-time high of 688.6 million pounds in 2024, surpassing 2021’s previous record of 618 million pounds. The data also highlights a record per capita consumption increase of approximately 25% from 1.6 pounds to a record 2 pounds, between 2023 and 2024.
Over a 30-year period, U.S. demand for honey and honey-sweetened products has continued to trend upward due to its classification as a superfood that benefits overall health and well-being, as well as being perceived as a healthier alternative to table sugar.
“The results of this study are a testament to American consumers’ increased awareness of honey’s benefits,” said Margaret Lombard, Chief Executive Officer of the National Honey Board. “Steadily, over time, honey has become the preferred sweetener for many because it's an all-natural, minimally processed sweetener. When you choose honey, you are not only supporting a beekeeper but the entire honey bee population that protects and pollinates our food ecosystem.”
These findings align with the National Honey Board’s U.S. Honey Consumer Attitudes & Usage study, which found that honey is the most used sweetener across lunch, dinner and snack times. Consumers report preferring honey for its all-natural health benefits, in addition to flavor.
Honey pairs well with other superfoods. Think Golden Milk, the ancient Indian beverage known as haldi doodh. It is non-caffeinated and has a bright gold beverage. The color is the result of adding yellow turmeric into white cows’ milk. Turmeric has earned global recognition as a superfood thanks to its bioactive compound curcumin, which has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Historically served warm, and often as a nighttime relaxing beverage, modern versions of golden milk include iced lattes and smoothies, with or without other spices, such as cardamon, cinnamon or ginger, and some kind of sweetener. Honey is most common.
Honey makes sense in dairy. For Ice Cream for Bears, honey is the focal point. The 11 varieties of ice cream are sweetened with something bears love: raw, unfiltered honey. The brand markets its ice cream pints as being made with three base ingredients: Dairy (milk, cream and skim milk from grass-fed cows raised with regenerative agriculture practices), raw unfiltered honey and egg yolk. Clean-label flavors/mix-ins are added to the base.
“As great as we like to think Ice Cream for Bears is, what is most impactful is what Ice Cream For Bears is not: refined sugars and ultra processed additives. Ice Cream for Bears is simply ice cream the way our ancestors would have eaten it. Ice cream that can be a part of a healthy, balanced diet (not in the food pyramid way, but in the ‘for bears’ sort of way),” the company states on its website.
The 11 flavors are: Basic Bear (pumpkin spice), Bearish (coffee cacao nib), Butter Bear (butterscotch caramel), Chocturnal (triple chocolate), Churro y Burrow (cinnamon), Cubbies and Cream (cookies and cream), Dough Bear (cookie dough), Honey Honey (honey swirl), Mint to Bee (mint chip), Queen & Bean (vanilla bean) and Roar-ange Cream (orange cream).
Bold Spoon Creamery provides a farm-to-bowl ice cream experience. Bold Spoon began in St. Louis’ backyard. More precisely, the backyard of Rachel Burns. Using mint from her garden, she made a batch of mint ice cream. Her lineup now includes Brie Spiced Honey, made using locally sourced honey from Missouri bees.
After Kellanova partnered with Golden West Food Group earlier this year to launch Eggo and Rice Krispies Treats Ice Cream, the companies decided to grow their breakfast-inspired pint offerings with more nostalgic cereal flavors. This includes Honey Smacks.
Perry’s Ice Cream offered new Blueberry Cornbread ice cream in its scoop shops this summer. The flavor is a fusion of honey ice cream, blueberry swirls and cornbread pieces.
Remember, consumers want real food in 2026. Honey sweetens, flavors and makes dairy more delicious, naturally. Tasting is believing.
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