InSeason August 2023 food trend report: Expect the unexpected

Mochi and textured frozen dessert trends aren’t stopped by cold weather 

Frozen and chilled desserts with intriguing textures have been swamping social media feeds, despite winter in Australia. The trend has been driven by summer in the US, and the internet proves once again that we are a global community online.  

We’ve seen everything from the candy-crunch of fruit roll-up wrapped ice-cream (#rollupicecream 76.9 million TikTok views), to snow-like shaved frozen fruit (#shavedfruit 10.7 million views), chilled lemon posset served in its own skin (#lemonposset 91 million views), and mosaic jelly and fruit-filled watermelons sliced into huge wedges (#watermelonjelly 11.9 million views).  

But it’s mochi-wrapped ice-creams that are front-and-centre, both on social media and at supermarkets right now.  

Posts of the chewy Japanese treat filled with ice-cream, fruit and cream currently have over 293.5 million TikTok views for the #mochiicecream tag alone. The spillover interest is very real, with supermarkets now stocking a range of textural frozen desserts, including chewy bubble tea milk ice-pops, while Coles has even unveiled a pick’n’mix style chilled dessert cabinet with mochi, taking it mainstream for the southern hemisphere summer.  

Garlic confit goes on everything 

The trend for roasting, smashing and whipping garlic has found an undying fanbase on social media, with confit garlic as its pin-up. The trend has been going strong all year, with the emotive sounds of the sizzling pots and luscious glugs of olive oil playing a starring role for the ASMR social media community. The hashtag #garlicconfit has over 869.6 million views on TikTok alone. 

For cookbook author and content creator Daen Lia, it’s a cornerstone that helped build her community of 2.5 million TikTok followers, kickstarting her impressive social media success and earning her the title of ‘the olive oil and garlic girl’, with her confit garlic videos regularly racking up 1 million + views. 

“If you love garlic, you get excited about a dish that calls for 20 cloves of garlic,” Lia tells InSeason. “It’s also just so beautiful to look at. It’s so pretty when you can see it bubbling away, in the olive oil.”  

The fanbase is so strong that her cookbook Garlic, Olive Oil + Everything Else (out from August 29th) features a picture of her viral garlic dish on the front cover. 

“It’s just so versatile. I literally have a whole chapter in my cookbook dedicated to garlic, and 18 of those recipes show you different ways to use garlic confit,” she laughs. “It’s a very different flavour to that more pungent garlic that we think of when we cook with raw garlic,” she notes. “It takes on this subtle and sweet, soft flavour.”    

Protein in everything  

We’ve previously established that health messages are key for social media trends, and right now protein is huge. ‘High protein’ is the hook that can send your dish viral in moments. But we’re not talking protein powders. In recent months, the high-protein trend of cottage cheese in everything from ice-cream to bread was huge, as just one example.  

According to brandwatch.com and their analysis of over 165 million online conversations about food globally; “Search interest for ‘high protein’ reached a five-year high in early 2023 and has remained high ever since,” up 32% in the last year and still rising. The research notes that Millennials show the most engagement, while the hashtag #highprotein has 5.8 billion views on TikTok and 2.3 million tags on Instagram. 

“People have started making high-protein versions of everyone’s favourite meals and foods that are usually ‘unhealthy’,” says Dez Cerimagic. The health and food content creator and fitness influencer, known to his 3.2 million TikTok fans and 1.6 million Instagram followers as @_aussiefitness, has seen the interest first-hand, with his high-protein and low-calorie recipes for hash browns (9 million views), and KFC Zinger sliders (24.3 million views) a perfect example of the trend, while also tapping into cost-of-living pressures.  

“If you go to the shops and want to buy a ‘healthy and high-protein’ frozen meal, some of them can cost up to $15 or more. I love to create high-protein meal preps that taste delicious and are cheap, with a few simple ingredients.” 

The feta revolution is real and evolution is important 

The number-one spot for a trend that keeps evolving is the social media love of feta. We covered the great social media-driven feta shortage of 2021 thanks to the viral baked feta pasta. But from there, the ingredient has only become more prevalent on social platforms, showing up in trends from crispy filo feta parcels, to wrapped in ribbon-fine slices of watermelon. The current viral trend of ‘feta crisp’ eggs shows the fascinating power of evolving trends, with two recent trends now rolled into one; feta, and the chilli-crisp fried egg. Previously the trend was to fry an egg in some chilli oil (or a pesto variation) to create a crisp crust around the eggs. The latest incarnation (every bit as delicious as you’d expect) crumbles feta into the pan and adds chilli oil and eggs, creating a salty, crispy, cheesy ‘feta-crisp fried egg’. The #fetaeggs tag currently has 11.8 million views, up from 7 million in 48 hours, proving there’s growth in evolution.  

Other trends to keep an eye on: 

1. Date bark (healthier rocky road)  
2. Perfect sponge cakes and ogura cakes in various flavours and colours (ube, matcha and more) 
3. Tiramisu in myriad creative flavours (visually stunning) 
4. Hot honey in (and on) everything 
5. Crystal candy (candy that looks like gemstones)