Now that the festive holiday season is in full swing it appears that American consumers are in a celebratory mood, according to research carried out by Mintel. They found that many chain restaurants are spicing up and adding to their menus in response to demand from consumers. Seasonal offerings featuring fall and winter ingredients are beginning to appear on restaurant chain menus. Popular seasonal flavors and ingredients include such items as squash, apple, pumpkin, caramel, hazelnut and cinnamon.
Food service analyst Kathy Haden notes that it is not unusual for the operators of restaurants to include fresh, seasonal ingredients in their menu items. As temperatures go down it indicates to people that it is time for a change in diet. Menus can cue customers to cold weather dishes by using words such as spiced and harvest.
One always popular fall menu item is pumpkin and it appearance on menus went up by an amazing 161 percent between summer and fall in 2009. At the same time dishes using squash went up by 150 percent and dishes flavored with hazelnut and cinnamon were up five percent. Apple cider is another item that has a lot more popularity in the cold seasons. Many large coffee chains, like Tim Horton’s, serve hot cider and donuts with apple cider flavoring during the autumn and winter.
The challenge for restaurant chains is to add seasonal dishes that are appealing to regular customers and that have enough seasonal draw to bring in new customers.