7 Fall Food Trends That Will Take Over Your Kitchen This Season

Potato chip brands often launch off-the-wall flavors in the fall, but this year, there’s a common thread: appetizer-themed crisps. Specifically, chips flavored just like the finger foods they’re typically served alongside during watch parties and tailgates. You can now find Lay’s Kettle Cooked Cheesy Buffalo Dip and Wavy Loaded Nachos flavors at grocery stores nationwide, and at Kroger stores, you can sample the brand’s limited edition Champion Chip Collection, featuring mozzarella stick, pigs in a blanket and Buffalo wing-inspired chips.

The PSL isn’t going anywhere, but it is starting to face some serious competition as the It latte flavor of fall. Pecan latte orders are up 28 percent year over year, Doordash reports, and cafes are following suit. Starbucks brought back its Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte on August 26, and expanded its offerings by launching a new Pecan Oatmilk Cortado. (They also started selling Maple Pecan Latte-Inspired Non-Dairy Creamer at Target stores.) Meanwhile, PJ’s Coffee is coming out with a Praline Chai Latte and butter pecan is such a hit that Dunkin’ made its Butter Pecan Iced Coffee a permanent menu item two years ago, and it’s still going strong.

There’s a really good chance you’re not getting enough fiber—95 percent of people aren’t, according to one measure. And since it’s been linked to helping manage weight and reducing the risk of cancer, strokes and high cholesterol, it’s no wonder people are passionate about getting in their American Heart Association-recommended 25 to 30 grams a day. Enter: Fibermaxxing, a term buzzing on TikTok where people share all the ways they’re adding more of the nutrient into their diets, from whipping up chia seed puddings to simply noshing on more nuts, legumes, yogurt and whole fruits and vegetables. (For the most part, doctors are on board with this trend, though they caution to add fiber gradually, so you don’t wind up with gas and bloating issues.)

Fall is prime baking season, especially as we head into the holidays, and if Taylor Swift is any indication, there will be plenty of sourdough starters popping up nationwide. The singer recently shared that she’s “talking about bread 60 percent of the time now,” going deep on her love of baking all kinds of sweet riffs on sourdough, from blueberry lemon to cinnamon swirl to Funfetti.

For those who feel a bit intimidated by the commitment of caring for a sourdough starter, they might be more inclined to try similar flavors with focaccia. Pinterest noted that the bread is surging in searches on the platform, specifically for dessert-inspired varieties: lemon blueberry is up 308 percent, cinnamon has risen 562 percent and general queries for “sweet focaccia bread” are up 218 percent.

Snickers dates took over TikTok in 2023, offering a healthy-ish twist on the beloved snack. Since then, it’s inspired all kinds of riffs—and an all-new appreciation for the (ahem) fiber-rich fruit. They’ve also become more refined; with packaging and flavor combinations that elevated them to gift-worthy status. (See: Gato’s pistachio-butter-stuffed, dark chocolate-covered creations, which taste better than truffles. Seriously.)

Once reserved for the kiddie table, sparkling apple-flavored drinks are getting a glow-up for grown-ups. Welch’s launched Sparkling Crisp Apple this year, a drier alternative to its traditional sparkling cider that’s gluten-free (and still non-alcoholic). And fibermaxxers can enjoy it in Bloom Nutrition’s new Sparkling Energy Crisp Apple flavor, as well as GT’s Living Foods Synergy Honeycrisp Apple kombucha. Across the board, the latest iteration of apple is less sweeter than your typical juice.

There is no corner of the food world that the swicy (sweet & spicy) trend hasn’t hit. Now, it’s coming for your charcuterie boards. Oishik Dey, marketing manager at Black Diamond Cheese, says the brand has seen increased interest in aged, sharp cheddar, pairing that punchy flavor with fig jam, apples and hot honey. Similarly, some brands are cutting out that extra step, like Saputo Dairy’s collab with Mike’s Hot Honey to create Hot Honey Goat Cheese, and Henning’s Cheese’s Mango Fire Cheddar.