TOU 1040

TREND

Isherwood

DESCRIPTION

Food & Beverage Trends

Name: ___________________

TOU 1040

Isherwood

Part 1: Watch the video and fill in the chart below.

Part 2: Perform a Close Reading on the non-fiction article below.
The 4 Steps of Close Reading
1)

2)

3)

4)

PumpkinistheNewBacon
Tastetheubiquity!
By Felix Salmon
Published Oct 14, 2012
We carve them at Halloween, and well bake them into the obligatory Thanksgiving pie, but
pumpkins have never been very popular as an ingredientuntil now. Suddenly, pumpkin is
everywhere: in high-end cocktails and mass-market bagels; in Pumpkin Custard n
Gingersnaps ($2.99 at Cracker Barrel, for a limited time only), and, of course, in the
pioneering Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (about $4 for a small cup, assuming your local
branch hasnt sold out). According to a seven-page PowerPoint from the MenuTrends
database of the firm Datassential, This year is on track to be one of the most active years for
seasonal pumpkin menuing and could top the 2011 record, when more than 60 pumpkinrelated dishes appeared on the menus of Americas top 250 chain restaurants. (Datassential
really gets into this stuff, further reporting, among other things, that in appetizers, pumpkin is
more likely to be roasted than toasted or pured.) Zero in on beverage menus, and the

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Isherwood

increase is even more striking: Pumpkin

drink offerings have increased 400 percent
during the past five years.
The weird thing about pumpkins rise to
baconlike ubiquity is that pumpkin, on its
own, is not a very appetizing food at all. A
dense and stringy fruit, it needs the
accompaniment of a lot of sugar and spices
before it becomes particularly palatable.
As a marketing tool, however, pumpkin is
perfectly pitched for todays eaters. The fact that it needs that extra flavoring? Thats a bonus,
not a bug, as far as the restaurant business is concerned. A pumpkin dish, in the era of the
locavore, has connotations of virtuewhen you think of pumpkin, you think of something
farm-grown and wholesome. That helps make it a permissible indulgence, even when what
youre eating is mainly just sugar and spice. Never mind the recipe realitiessavor those
associations!
The semiotic power of pumpkins is so great, in fact, that pumpkin dishes dont even need any
actual pumpkin in them in order to cash in on the warming, autumnal vibe. Specials
masquerading as seasonal and fresh from the patch turn out to be a variation on the old trick
of manufactured scarcity, the most famous food-world example of which is the legendary
McDonalds McRib. The secret of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, for instance, is that its
just a latte spruced up with pumpkin-flavored syrupconnoisseurs cite cinnamon, nutmeg,
clove. Dunkin Donuts takes the feint further, dropping the spice from the name, though
thats mostly what youre tasting. But no matter: If a restaurant served actual pumpkin pure,
the taste and texture might shatter customers illusions. Pumpkin, on the other hand, is
delicious.

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Part 3: Choose one of the Food & Beverage trends we have learned about (or
check with Miss Isherwood if you have another idea) and create an informative
poster about the trend.

PROFILING A FOOD & BEVERAGE TREND

You may make a poster digitally, or using paper. You make work with up to two
other people on this project.
Please include the following on your poster.
CONTENT:
-Name of the trend
-When it became popular
-Why it is popular
-The positives of the trend
-The negatives of the trend
-How the Food & Beverage industry is selling products related to the trend
-Your opinion on the trend
IMAGES
-Image of the trend
-At least one graph or chart showing how the trend has grown