Gen Z sure does love its soda – so much so, it wants to transform it into condiment form and put it on everything.
That’s right; sodas have evolved from mere soft drinks to full-fledged sauce ingredients, according to the results of the latest NEXT Flavor Report by Rubix Foods, which analyzed 45,000+ Gen Z responses gathered via influencer-led polls on social media.
While developing the report, the NEXT Flavor Network asked its Gen Z followers on Instagram which foods and drinks they most wanted to experience in a saucy form, and 10% of all responses referenced a soda – some by its brand name; others by its flavor profile.
So, what’s Gen Z’s top choice?
Doctor It Up
A whopping 56% of the survey participants who craved soda-flavored sauces listed Dr Pepper as their top choice.
“Dr Pepper trended all of summer 2024 on TikTok – where 74% of viewers are 18-24 years old,” said Shannon O’Shields, VP of marketing at Rubix Foods.
Root beer claimed second place, making an appearance in 15% of all responses, followed by Coca-Cola and cherry-flavored sodas of some kind.
Soda Gets Saucy
Curious how the trend is showing up in the wild? Barbecue sauce is high on the list, with 71% of Gen Zers expressing that they’d go to a restaurant that served a Dr Pepper-flavored BBQ sauce on chicken. In addition, YouTube searches for “coke BBQ sauce” have surged 60% since November of 2023.
And the soda-inspired flavor trend extends to other categories beyond sauce, as 77% of Gen Zers said they would either “definitely” or “probably” buy Taco Bell’s MTN Dew Baja Blast Gelato.
Lost in the Sauce
Gen Z may not drink as much alcohol as its older generational counterparts, but that doesn’t mean the young cohort doesn’t enjoy cocktail-inspired flavors.
In the Rubix survey, 7% of Gen Z participants referenced alcoholic beverages – and 87.5% of those responses included cocktails.
As for the most commonly requested cocktail-flavored sauces, the top choices included:
- Margarita: 34%
- Bloody Mary: 17%
- Beer: 6%
- Wine: 6%
This cocktail-inspired flavor trend is also making its way into the barbecue space, with bourbon-flavored BBQ sauce projected to grow 33% on U.S. restaurant menus through 2028.
“For a restaurant to do a ‘cocktail’ sauce, I feed like they’d have to market it by pairing it up with foods that would be appealing to each specific sauce – like a Bloody Mary sauce for shrimp and seafood, a spicy margarita sauce with quesadillas or flautas, or a champagne sauce with steak,” said Nate Llorin, a member of the NEXT Flavor Network.
Dips Inspired by Chips
Gen Zers also hope to see their favorite chips flavoring their dips, with 13% of the survey respondents reaching for sauces in chip-inspired flavors, including:
- Cheetos: 39%
- Doritos: 11%
- Takis: 11%
And much like the soda-inspired sauce trend, the chip version also influenced online searches, with Google searches for “salt and vinegar chicken” increasing by 70% in September 2024.
The Food Institute Podcast
It’s a big world out there – what trends are percolating on the global scene? JP Hartmann, director of Anuga, joined The Food Institute Podcast to discuss the intersection of U.S. and international trends and how the Anuga show is one not to miss.
