With summer in full swing that can only mean one thing – BBQs, outdoor dining and picnics in the park – but what culinary delights are set to tantalise our tastebuds this season? Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has pulled together a report on what the nation will be eating and drinking this summer based on its sales data and trends insights. It seems Seventies desserts and childhood treats are in, while fanciful dining and American-style BBQs are out. Check out all the food and drink trends set to soar in the UK this summer.
Nostalgia will be one of the biggest themes for summer: 43% of us will be opting for desserts that remind us of happy times, which is why food shelves will be packed with Seventies classics that tap into those childhood memories – but with a quirky twist. With searches for Neapolitan ice cream having soared 213%, expect to see fresh takes on this, like cheesecakes with Neapolitan layers. Other party favourites are also making a comeback – think Battenburg with taste twists, and Eton Mess flavoured profiteroles.
As the UK settles in for some much-needed celebration with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, it’s no surprise the season’s culinary creations have been heavily influenced by it, with 26% of people planning to dig into royal-themed foods. Taking centre stage is coronation chicken, with 43% saying they are excited to eat this dish but in modern-day forms, from coronation flavoured crisps (the perfect street party snack?) to veggie options like coronation cauliflower and coronation chickpea salads.
One of this summer’s most popular fruits will be the humble pineapple. With sales up 17%, the spiky fruit is being used in a variety of ways – infused in gin, cider and other summer drinks to bring zesty, retro vibes to parties, to sitting alongside jerk-style chicken in wraps or brightening up a coconut sponge in a sweet tart. It’s also popping up in high-end restaurants like The Mash Inn, Buckinghamshire, which has a signature bao bun stuffed with pineapple rum and butter compote and crème pâtissiere.
With a third of people now foraging for their ingredients and a further 23% wanting to try it as a new hobby, the data revealed, wild ingredients are set to have a moment – think wild garlic (searches for this have increased 43%), nasturtium and seasonal fish and seafood such as Cornish crab and queen scallops. Top chefs have also helped the movement by using homegrown options in their dishes, such as hogweed seeds in place of coriander, or melilot flowers instead of vanilla.
Five things you need to know about foraging
The tipple of choice will be none other than English sparkling wine, with beloved local fizz now considered a status drink by 32% of Brits, with nearly half (42%) believing it to be just as respected as Champagne, Sainsbury’s discovered. It’s time to stock up your cupboard with some of the best homegrown celebration drinks, from Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs, to Busi Jacobsohn Cuvée Brut. Around a third (31%) also plan to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with English sparkling wine.
Check out our beginner’s guide to English wine
With the data revealing 38% of people in the UK no longer enjoy just eating meat in a bun at a barbecue, it seems more variety is needed. There will be a shift from traditional American fare (burgers, hot dogs and ribs) to punchy flavour profiles from Levantine, Turkey and Korea, and country-specific cuts of meat. The top BBQ flavours this season will be Mexican (35%), Jamaican (34%) and tandoori (34%), especially in sharing-style dishes like paneer kebabs and vegan koftas.
The fruit and veg aisle is going to be impacted by uplifting and unexpected colours this season, from soft orange-peach hues of golden raspberries, to pink fir potatoes that match with global colour expert Pantone’s spring/summer 2022 colour of choice, Gossamer Pink. Not only will your fruit and veg be full-flavoured, succulent and firm, but the tone of them will bring sophistication to your summer meals. Get the camera ready.
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Formal dining is out as the UK opts for punchy flavour over fanciful dinner set-ups. Laid-back vibes are in – think tables laden with shop-bought sharing platters, easy snacks and pre-mixed drinks, and all are infused with outstanding flavours. Using shortcuts to wow guests isn’t a concept far off for many either, with 90% having served ready meals at dinner parties in the past. Pre-prepared nibbles that don’t compromise on flavour include gin-infused olives, mini ‘nduja calzone and dip selections.
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We love ketchup and mustard as much as the next person, but these condiments aren’t always the most exciting sauces to have on the table at a BBQ. This summer, a new generation of sauces, dips and infused butters will take pride of place on your cuts of meat and elevate them to the next level, especially flavoured mayos (with sales having increased by 84%), aioli (up 54%) and sweet chilli (up 36%), the report found. It’s time to update your condiment cupboard.
With four in 10 (38%) believing veggie-centric BBQs are the new normal, grilled veg will be the star of the show this summer. Spanning flavour spectrums from fresh and fragrant to spiced and curried, grilled veg side dishes will budge traditional favourites green salad and rice out of the way – we're talking Mexican street corn with chilli, cheese, lime and coriander. But, if you want veg to be the main event, why not opt for a harissa potato, halloumi and asparagus kebab?
With an incredible 41% considering buying a smoker this summer – and this figure rising to 65% for 18-to-24-year-olds – it seems the trend for smoked foods is only going from strength-to-strength. For those looking to turbo-charge their summer BBQs with smoky goodness, add a smattering of smoke to your home cooking with smoked sea salt or smoked garlic granules.
This summer is about adding a bit more heat to your dishes, with many looking to cook outside of their primary culture. More than half of people (65%) are adding spicy condiments to their food, while a further 36% have added more chilli into their diets. Desserts like Vietnamese and Filipino avocado, ice and condensed milk are going viral thanks to social media, as many look for inspiration about cooking dishes from different cultures. Specialities from Italy, India and China will also be popular.
Everything you need to know about cooking with chilli
Since we've covered the most popular food and drink trends for summer 2022, it only seems right to cover the once popular food fads that have now fallen out of favour – so you don't make an embarrassing faux pas at your next gathering. As fun as they were at the time, there are some food crazes that we'd rather forget, from charcoal-infused drinks and alcopops from our teenage years, to those dreaded (and honestly, not tasty) TV dinners.
Over the past few years, the world has gone mad for everything unicorn, including pastel-hued food and drink. From toast covered in multi-coloured spread and sprinkles to cupcakes adorned with cute accessories and horns. Coffee chain Starbucks even cashed in on the trend with the Unicorn Frappuccino – a brightly-coloured, sweet and sour drink containing ice, milk, mango syrup, vanilla cream, and pink and blue powder. This is one trend best left in the past.
Sugary, low in alcohol and made with low-grade wine and fruit juice, wine coolers such as Bartles & Jaymes were consumed in vast quantities in the 1980s – until Congress upped tax on wine. Next, spirit-based coolers such as Smirnoff Ice took over. They didn’t taste like alcohol and were just everywhere at the turn of the millennium. However, these days they’ve thankfully fallen out of favour, replaced by more sophisticated looking and tasting beverages.
Check out these popular drinks from the decade you were born
These bite-sized treats rose to fame when blogger Angie Dudley, also known online as Bakerella, posted a recipe for miniature cupcakes on a stick in 2008 and it went viral. They’re basically cake crumbs blended with cream cheese icing, rolled into balls and decorated with chocolate. The problem is there’s not much else to them. Call us purists but we’d choose a cake slice over a cake pop any day.
Crazy milkshakes, known as "freakshakes", topped with cream, cake, marshmallow fluff, sauce and sweets started appearing on menus around 2015. The drink and dessert mash-up is calorific with some drinks totalling more than 1,000 kcal, which is more than half the recommended daily allowance. However, soon the backlash arrived and the novel appeal of them waned.
In recent years, black activated charcoal lattes, ice creams, pizza crusts and waffles have littered our social media feeds. Not made with the same charcoal that you'd use for barbecues, this is a food-grade version that can be produced from burnt coconuts. However, there are no real health benefits to infusing food and drink with charcoal. Its main appeal was its aesthetic in photos, but interest eventually waned.
The Bagel Store in Brooklyn, New York, was responsible for catapulting the rainbow bagel to its social media fame. The bread ring is made with a blend of different coloured doughs and served with Nutella or Funfetti cream cheese. They were the brainchild of baker Scot Rossillo, who cleverly trademarked the name before the masses cottoned on, but it’s a trend we could have lived without really.
The other rainbow-coloured food that was big on social media
Hear us out! While microwave meals are arguably as popular as ever, we’re talking about the original 1950s TV dinner that came in an aluminium tray with meat, vegetable and potato compartments. It took 25 minutes in the oven and was designed to be eaten in front of the TV. Fast-forward to today and you can make something way more appetising with fresh ingredients in the same length of time.
The bubble gum introduced by Wrigley’s in 1979 was one of the biggest trends of the 20th century. Its super bright colour, sugary taste and ability to form huge bubbles boosted its appeal, but we’ve all moved on since then. Hubba Bubba is a sticky sweet best left in the past.
Popular with 1950s housewives, and again in the 1980s and 1990s, the cabbage soup diet thankfully hasn’t seen a resurgence since. You survive on homemade cabbage soup for around a week. It’s a quick-fix diet and people are said to drop 10lbs fast, however, a lot of it is water weight which people regained quickly afterwards.
The Atkins diet, based on the principles of Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution, became popular in the early 2000s. It had people cutting carbs to near zero and eating bunless burgers, bacon, cream, butter, chicken and steak every night of the week. Now, its popularity has disappeared, only to return under a different guise: the ketogenic diet. It has similar principles with more of an emphasis on the consumption of healthy fats.
The king of fad diets is the Beverly Hills diet, which was published in 1981 by author Judy Mazel who claimed to have lost 72lbs on the programme. The dieter consumes fruit for the first 10 days, carbohydrates on day 11 and protein on day 19. It’s based on the unscientific notion that blending certain foods inhibits digestion and that undigested food is what makes people fat. Of course, this is thoroughly untrue and weight loss on this diet can be attributed to calorie restriction.
Cloud eggs are another of those lightning trends spurred on by a social media frenzy. The woolly-looking eggs are made by separating the egg white and yolk, beating the whites into a meringue-like fluff, then reuniting the two parts for cooking. The result is a silky yolk with a fluffy white, but personally we prefer a good old-fashioned fried egg.
The Ainsworth in New York serves 24-karat gold wings – they’re deep-fried, glazed with honey, chipotle and gold-infused butter, then sprinkled with 24-karat gold flakes. At $45 for 10 wings, the item is more expensive than most – and we aren't convinced it's worth it. In 2018, for one day only, Popeyes followed suit and rolled out its own version of boneless wings battered in champagne and coated in 24-karat gold. While gold may look good, it doesn’t alter flavour. It's a trend we’re glad to be leaving behind.
This potent health drink was brought to us by American entrepreneur Dave Asprey in 2011 after he said he found mental clarity from drinking yak-butter tea while trekking in the Himalayas. The coffee, coconut oil and grass-fed butter or ghee blend is intended as a breakfast meal replacement. Dubbed "bulletproof coffee", the fat and nutrients from the drink supposedly minimise hunger pangs. However, the trend never really caught on as it’s incredibly high in fat.
In the spirit of Halloween, in 2018 Burger King sold a Frozen Fanta Scary Black Cherry Drink and also the Nightmare King Sandwich. The latter featured a beef patty, chicken fillet, cheese and bacon, all sandwiched in a green sesame bun. But this isn’t the only instance of crazy coloured fast food. Taco Bell also trialled a Midnight Melt Taco made with a blue shell. We don’t know about you but we prefer it when our food looks how it’s supposed to.
When EZ Squirt Ketchup arrived on shelves in 2000, it was one of the biggest food crazes of the decade, with more than 25 million bottles of multi-coloured sauce sold. The crazy hues (green, pink, purple, orange and teal) were a novelty, adding heaps of extra fun to daily mealtimes. But by 2006, parents were becoming more cautious about artificial food colourings, the USP was wearing off and the line discontinued. Personally, we always preferred the original.
In the 1970s, home cooks strived to be impressive hosts and loved to set foods into moulds to create showstopping centrepieces. Turning fishy dishes into the shape of fish was particularly popular – pictured is a tuna mousse shaped with gelatine. These days we prefer our food a little more unadulterated.
Read our tips for cooking fish (advice on moulding into a fish shape not included)