Consumer demand for spicy heat is evolving with peppers appearing in unexpected places across platforms and categories to deliver different layers of warmth and flavor-pairings to meet consumers’ increasingly sophisticated palates.
At the Specialty Food Association’s Winter Fancy Faire, brands showed how habaneros and other peppers can inspire comfort – not just tears – depending on the other ingredients they sit beside and the applications in which they are delivered. Likewise, they showed how packaging for spicy foods is breaking free of fiery tropes to welcome a larger consumer base and usher in a new era of everyday, elevated spice – not just tastebud obliterating heat.
Flavor moves to the forefront
The gamification and competition of who can eat the spiciest food, such as in the one chip challenge, created buzz in recent years to draw more consumers to hot sauces and spicy flavor profiles, but as Maria Covarrubias, the founder of Cien Chiles, explains consumer interest in the flavor profile is evolving.
She explained modern consumers now understand “having a crazy amount of heat doesn’t necessarily mean its going to be the greatest,” and that bringing the heat down a notch can let the subtle flavors of peppers shine.
“My oldest sauce is the habanero. Habanero is known to be a very spicy pepper, and it is true,” but it also has a “beautiful tropical flavor” that creates a “very pleasurable” eating experience, she said.
In addition to her habanero sauce, Covarrubias offers a medium jalapeño chile verde made with tomatillos, onion and garlic, and a Thai Bird sauce that offers a building heat “but not in an overwhelming way,” she said. She explained she wants her sauces to offer more than heat because she respects the food and wants to complement any kind of meal.
“Whether it is sushi night or taco night – we got you covered,” she said.
Sweet heat and ‘darling’ packaging makes habaneros more accessible
Across the floor, that same idea kept surfacing: heat as a complement – and even a comfort – rather than an assault.
Startup Profanity Jam delivers this idea in its habanero-based jellies that blend sweet and heat so that consumers can enjoy the building warmth of habanero peppers without crying, said Kay Brockmeyer, who works in sales in the family-run company.
She also calls out the company’s packaging as a point of differentiation from other spicy foods.
She said, the “bright, cheery” floral patterns on Profanity Jam’s tubes highlight the fruit flavors in the jams, making the spicy condiments more accessible to people who might be turned off by the more traditional design elements of skulls, peppers and flames.
Cleaner, convenient options draw more consumers to spicy foods
Companies aren’t just making heat more approachable by making it sweeter, they also are boosting its appeal by making it cleaner and more convenient, as in the case of Craize, which won a Sofi Award for its Toasted Corn Snacks Everything flavor, but which also recently launched aJalapeño Lime option.
“We have a unique fire griddle process that makes us unusual,” and gives the corn-dough based arepas a crunchy texture, while baking real ingredients into the dough gives the finished product “an amazing flavor,” said Michele Abo, general manager of Kayco Beyond Division.
She notes that Craize’s newest flavor – Jalapeño Lime – includes jalapeño pepper purée, lime juice powder and jalapeño powder.
“So, you are getting real ingredients coming through on the product,” she said.
By comparison, she explained, other crackers and chips might be clean label but bland, or flavorful but filled with ingredients consumers increasingly don’t want.
“People want the flavor, but the don’t want the fat or the heaviness or stuff that is unhealthy, and so you can spice things up and get flavor, and not have it be bad-for-you,” she said.
What is driving the sustained demand for spicy food?
Consumer demand for “spicy” heat has been building for years – but Gen Z are breathing new life, and direction, into the trend, according to Ruby Chan, founder of FreshZen – a clean label Asian condiment brand.
She explained that younger generations are learning about global cuisines and different types of spicy heat through social media and in doing so they are discovering that it can be more than tastebud searing heat – it can have layers.
FreshZen is rising to meet this demand by offering “really clean, healthy condiments” and sauces that make bold, spicy global flavor profiles accessible at home.
It is part of a collection of authentic Asian sauces and flavor under the Table for Six Brands collective, which also includes Ooh Nami! – a condiment line that blends Vietnamese heritage with cross-cultural influences to offer “unexpected and dynamic flavors.”
Both lines speak to the increasingly sophisticated consumers who now think of spice the same way they do coffee or wine – as connoisseurs, said Ruby Chan, founder of Table for Six Brands.
“What we are trying to do here is say, ‘How do you bring spice in different layers and complexities within your tastebuds’, just like you do with a bottle of Pinot Noir,” wine, she said.
Based on the insights and innovations of these brands, the message at this year’s show was clear: Heat is growing up. It’s cleaner. It’s more global. And it’s less about proving how much consumers can handle, and more about how much flavor brands can unlock.
