‘Swicy’ is the hottest trend in food right now

Americans should prepare for a sizzling hot summer, and not just because of rising temperatures.

Americans should prepare for a sizzling hot summer, and not just because of rising temperatures. Consumers are bravely opening their palette to bolder, spicier, more fiery flavors and the marketplace for foods and drinks is happily obliging them. Walk into a Walmart, Target, a corner 7-Eleven, pretty much any food store lately that sells packaged food and it’s hard to miss. The snack aisle has gotten spicier. “The spicy trend is here to stay,” Sally Lyons Wyatt, packaged goods and foodservice industry advisor with market research firm Circana, said in an interview with CNN. From chips, popcorn, burgers to ice cream, frozen pizza, alcohol, Starbucks drinks to Coca-Cola, a growing variety of foods and beverage brands are punching up their offerings by adding the spice, bold “swicy” flavor or outright heat. “My whole motto for a couple of years has been, ‘The hotter the better,’ because consumers gravitate to it. Traditionally it was younger consumers that were driving this but now we’ve seen bold flavors being embraced by most age groups but the dominant are still younger consumers,” Lyons Wyatt said.