Every year brings its own edible landscape: flavors that surge, fade or quietly endure. Some appear overnight, flooding menus and social feeds before vanishing just as quickly, while others take root, not through hype but through usefulness, comfort or sheer deliciousness. And then there are the flavors that linger in the background, steady and unfazed by whatever trend cycles spin around them.
This year’s lasting flavors weren’t viral; they were the comforting ones cooks kept close. Photo credit: Depositphotos.
This year, the flavors that survived weren’t the loud, high-drama ideas engineered for virality. They were the ones that felt grounded; ingredients that delivered warmth, brightness and depth without demanding spectacle. Meanwhile, the flavors that faded revealed a shift in how people want to cook and eat. The pendulum moved away from excess and visual gimmicks and toward clarity, intention and everyday pleasure.
Below is a look at the flavors that defined the year. These are the ones that held on, and the ones that quietly slipped away.
The flavors that stayed
Warm, layered heat held strong this year. People drifted away from challenge spice, the kind designed to shock, and embraced more rounded, comforting heat instead. Chili crisps with depth, chili flakes that add warmth rather than fire and gentle peppers like Aleppo, Urfa or Calabrian chili became go-tos. These flavors didn’t overwhelm; they supported. They made weeknight cooking feel vibrant rather than punishing.
Brown butter proved unstoppable. Its appeal came from both nostalgia and versatility; nutty, aromatic and transformative in nearly everything it touched. It surfaced in simple pasta, roasted vegetables, cookie dough and even drizzled over grain bowls. Brown butter stayed because it asked nothing of the cook except the patience to brown the butter in a pan, and the payoff was enormous.
Herbs moved from the garnish section to the center of the plate. Salsa verde spooned over roast chicken, dill-laced dressings, chimichurri on everything and mint and cilantro tangled through salads. These herb-forward sauces became the way cooks brought brightness to heavy meals, especially through the darker months. Parsley, particularly, had a renaissance, proving once again that the most underestimated ingredients can become the most indispensable.
Comfort broths continued their ascent. But not plain broths or broths with a point of view, such as miso-ginger, coconut-turmeric, tomato-fennel and deeply seasoned vegetable broths made conveniently in a slow cooker. They created space for meals that felt both soothing and flavorful, especially for cooks looking for low-effort, high-reward dinners that stretched across days.
And finally, citrus held steady. Blood orange, Meyer lemon, yuzu and even humble grapefruit made their way into salads, desserts, marinades and drinks. The brightness cut through monotony, enlivened winter cooking and offered the kind of freshness that felt necessary rather than ornamental.
The flavors that faded
This year saw the retreat of maximalist everything seasoning. What had once promised convenience became clutter. Heavily blended mixes felt heavy-handed, masking rather than enhancing the ingredients they touched. Cooks returned to individual spices and simpler blends that offered specificity rather than chaos.
Artificially flavored ube, matcha and pastel-colored sweets lost momentum. Real ube and real matcha remain beloved, but the imitation versions that were often chosen more for TikTok aesthetics than flavor no longer resonated. The trend revealed something telling: diners are craving authenticity again, even in whimsical desserts.
Fad-driven salad dressings, especially those engineered on social media for shock value or novelty, slipped from view. Home cooks turned instead to simpler combinations with a single point of focus, like lemon-tahini, cilantro-lime, yogurt and dill, bold ginger-scallion or a classic olive oil with crushed garlic and anchovy. These dressings didn’t try to impress; they tried to work, and they did.
Overly sweet wellness drinks also fell out of favor. Bottled golden milks, superfood lattes with lengthy ingredient lists and fruit-heavy smoothies lost ground as people reached for simpler, savory-forward beverages. Brothy sips, herbal teas and green juices with minimal sweetener became the preferred forms of hydration and comfort.
And the charcoal-black aesthetic, like black ice cream, black bread and black latte foam, quietly disappeared. The novelty wore off, and eaters sought a return to food that looked like food. Plates turned warm and colorful again, celebrating texture and natural tones.
The flavors that endured
The flavors that survived shared a common quality: they were usable. They made sense not just on a menu or a feed, but in actual home kitchens. They fit into the rhythm of real life, such as a weeknight dinner, a last-minute gathering or a cold evening when comfort needed to be uncomplicated.
The enduring flavors also struck the right emotional chords. Brown butter, warm heat, herb sauces, citrus: these are flavors that offer comfort without heaviness and creativity without labor. They feel intuitive and invite improvisation. They don’t exhaust the cook or overwhelm the eater. In other words, they stayed because they were genuinely loved, not algorithmically amplified.
Why others disappared
The flavors that faded weren’t failures. They simply stopped matching the cultural moment. Some demanded too much effort, leaned too heavily on visual theatrics or tasted better in theory than in practice. Others relied on novelty, which is the most short-lived currency in food. Most importantly, they lacked emotional resonance. People no longer want flavors that perform; they want flavors that linger.
What this year’s flavors tell us about the next
If this year’s trends hold, the coming year will belong to flavors that balance clarity with warmth, ranging from more herb-forward sauces, nuanced uses of heat, simple broths with character and citrus in places that need a little lift. Less pretense and maximalism.
Home cooks, more than restaurants or social platforms, are setting the tone now. They want food that feels grounded, generous and adaptable; food that can hold space for busy weekdays and celebratory weekends alike.
The flavors that survived this year didn’t just taste good; they also made sense. And that, more than anything, suggests they’ll be with us for a long time.
Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju is a food and travel writer and a global food systems expert based in Seattle. She has lived in or traveled extensively to over 60 countries, and shares stories and recipes inspired by those travels on Urban Farmie.
The post The flavors that survived this year, and the ones that didn’t appeared first on Food Drink Life.
