My resolution is to be more open about my feelings, and I’m kicking things off by telling you what I really felt about some of the innovations from the last year. “Are you f*ing serious?!” was a common refrain from me for both the brilliant and the batshit. 

Here are my completely biased and totally unsolicited opinions on a bunch of products.

I love a good subversion of expectations. Makes things memorable. And there have been a few of these that caught my attention. Nothing screams for my attention more than an unexpected ‘soup-çon’ of change in format. 

1. Sipping Broth

Millie’s Sipping Broth is such a simple solution for a mid-meal craving when you don’t want something sweet or bitter or substantive, I can’t believe it hasn’t been done earlier (maybe it has, there’s no way to find out). It’s just savory tea at just 10 calories. Just bloody, ummm, brothy brilliant!

Soup Drops

I’m adding this one in even though it’s from 2025, because it jives with the previous one.

General Mills’ soup brand Progresso just “dropped” a limited edition candy called Soup Drops. This sweet is said to contain the flavors of the brand’s chicken noodle soup, including the broth, savory greens, chicken, soft egg noodles, and parsley. Part of me thinks this is kind of gross, but another part of me is tickled by the fact that it reminded me of ‎Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. So, full marks for nostalgia. 

Plus, the savory+sweet combo is becoming pretty popular. There are brands in several parts of the world that have confectionery products going down this route with great success. 

3. Coffee for kids

Now, as a childless cat lady, I don’t have an opinion on what parents choose to feed their kids. But I had a pretty visceral reaction when I saw Kiid Coffee.

Its positioning as “the world’s first coffee crafted specifically for kids” raised my hackles. It’s made with 99.9% caffeine-free coffee, cacao, prebiotic fiber, and vitamins and minerals for growing kids.

First off, there’s probably a very good reason why this is the first. Many people, including medical professionals, don’t think it’s a great idea giving kids coffee regularly, even if it’s decaf. Decaffeinated doesn’t mean completely free of caffeine (note the 99.9% on the pack). Coffee also has hundreds of other compounds that may have different effects on children compared to adults.

So, do I really feel comfortable crapping all over the 7-year-old founder’s entrepreneurial dreams? Yes. Yes, I do. Life’s tough, failure’s inevitable, and there’s quite literally not enough coffee in the world to share with children. (Hmmm, did I just make a breakthrough re all that consternation?) 

Could I interest these latte loving kids in all that coffee-free coffee that actually can be caffeine-free?

4. Chocolate Butter

Another alleged category shaker-upper! Butter’s been having a moment – check out our in-depth piece on the trend. All Things Butter launched what it’s saying is the industry’s first chocolate butter. This product combines chocolate with twice-churned British cream for a “more grown-up take on a classic chocolate spread.” This product can also be used for cooking and baking. I guess I can see the appeal for a not-so-sugar laden Nutella alternative, but one-trick ponies are a bit passé now and I’ll pass on this.

I noticed that the company’s website doesn’t have this on their products list anymore. What gives?

Gut health’s significance in the health discourse is growing at a fever pitch. We’re now casually throwing around words unheard of in common parlance a decade earlier – probiotics, prebiotics, microbiome, postbiotics, synbiotics, gut-brain axis, gut-skin axis, and so on. And let’s not forget fermented foods. Fermented foods are seen as the holy grail for good gut health. And the food industry is carpet bombing us with this claim across categories. Just to be clear, I’m not against this. I love most fermented foods and their weird funkiness. So I’m absolutely looking forward to the following two products. 

5. Chickpea tempeh

Food scientists in the US are trying to create a new type of tempeh made from chickpeas and peas instead of the more traditional fermented soybeans. And the USDA is throwing money at this project – US$387,000 – to address the negative effects of the Western diet.

6. Fermented pasta

Pinsa Love is a startup trying to make fermented pasta a thing. This apparently hasn’t been done before (successfully?), but this company wants to break some eggs. Pinsa Love is known for its Roman-style frozen pizza crusts called pinsas, which are sourdough crusts that have been allowed to ferment for 72 hours. The process used is cold fermentation, a slow-rise process where dough is left to develop in a cool environment, like a refrigerator, over an extended period. This is said to enhance the flavor, texture, and digestibility of the dough.

The idea is that fermenting pasta could help improve its digestibility. Does this mean I can have pasta more often? I really hope so.

Like what you’re reading?

7. Fusion cuisines go wild

Japan-based Italian food brand Amici is adopting a new strategy to expand into Southeast Asia. The company is going to combine elements of Japanese cuisine with Italian cuisine, like using Japanese rice flour for the dough, incorporating Japanese flavors like matcha or adzuki for fried pizza.

Now, I’m reserving judgement till I actually taste this combo, but I do like the fusion energy. With a world that’s so interconnected and so diverse, the possibilities for fusion flavors and cuisines are endless as there’s something for everyone. And we could always use more things for people to fight about, no? 

Jokes aside, I think that we will see more such collab foods between different cuisines become more common and popular in the coming year. It’s not a new concept, but it is one that has a lot of potential especially as the thirst for novelty in F&B refuses to die down.

8. Rice-based vegan cheese stick

Thai company Swees launched what it’s calling the world’s first vegan snackable rice-based cheese sticks. The other main ingredients are nutritional yeast and soy protein isolate, along with rice protein. The use of rice is interesting because it’s a cheaper alternative to other ingredients, and also because it makes the product eligible for a government grant supporting national innovation.

I respect the heck out of that hustle, but cheese sticks are strange and I don’t know what to make of this. I’d definitely be willing to give it a go!

9. Reusable pizza box

This is not food, but food adjacent, and so very baffling to me. German company PIZZycle launched a reusable container for pizza made from polypropylene. It’s supposed to cut down on the standard single-use cardboard boxes. 

Packaging-free or bring-your-own-pack is a good idea in theory, but isn’t always feasible. I have so many questions.

• How many people are picking up pizza so that this is a viable business model?

• This pizza box works if you’re picking up the pizza, but what about delivery? 

• Do you keep the box till the next time and work out an exchange system?

• This product doesn’t really have the shape for anything else but pizza, and single-use tools are just too much clutter to have around.

• I have a bunch more, but you get the picture.

I also thought it quite ironic that the pizza box that’s supposed to help you say goodbye to the cardboard box comes in a cardboard box that looks like a pizza box… 

This concept is fine, except if you think about it for like 3 seconds. Not that we don’t need to reduce pizza packaging waste, but I don’t know that this is the way to go. Prove me wrong, PIZZycle. 

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