Menu Trend Watch: New Dessert Rollouts
By Aimee Harvey on May 10, 2017CHICAGO -- Recent daypart research from Technomic’s C-Store MarketBrief revealed that three out of four (76%) consumers visit convenience stores for a snack. That makes snacking the most frequented foodservice occasion in c-stores—and not just for packaged snacks.
Prepared snacks represent a rapidly flourishing category, particularly sweet snacks. Technomic data also shows that desserts are the fastest-growing snack on c-store menus, and baked goods, specifically, are among the top five fastest-growing snack categories in c-stores.
Numerous dessert snacks are appearing on c-store menus lately, from seasonal and limited-time offers (LTOs) to items joining the permanent menu lineup.
Here's a look at new dessert snacks, from handheld treats to dessert-inspired drinks …
7-Eleven's Twix Donut
7-Eleven Inc. just introduced a new Twix Donut, its first fresh doughnut topped with chocolate bar pieces. The Twix Donut is a yeast-raised rectangle bar topped with caramel icing, drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with chopped Twix pieces.
Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven is leveraging a solid consumer preference for foods with name-brand ingredients. Technomic's 2017 Consumer Food Trends issue detailed how 68% of consumers want their snacks to feature a name brand that they like. Additionally, 66% are more likely to purchase name-brand foods when they dine out, while 30% say that they're willing to pay more for foods that feature a name-brand ingredient that they like.
Family Express' Unicorn Donut
Valparaiso, Ind.-based Family Express took a page from Starbucks' promotional book and introduced a colorful new Unicorn Donut for a limited time ...
Family Express' Triple Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Muffin
... and Family Express capitalized on the popularity of Reese's Pieces candy with the rollout of a new Triple Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Muffin.
QuickChek's Buttered Rum Cake Coffee
QuickChek, Whitehouse Station, N.J., introduced a decadent new dessert-inspired coffee, a Buttered Rum Cake Coffee LTO ...
QuickChek's Frozen Yogurt Shakes
... QuickChek also recently rolled out a whole new range of blended frozen-yogurt shakes. Flavor varieties include Banana Berry Freeze, Banana Cream Pie, Chai Tea, Chocolate Monkey, Mayan Mocha Freeze and Spiced Chocolate Banana—to name a few.
Stewart Shop's seasonal ice cream lineup
Ballston Spa, N.Y.-based Stewart's Shops revealed a new seasonal line of ice-cream flavors. The limited-time options include:
- Cherry Cheesecake—cheesecake-flavored ice cream with a cherry swirl and graham cracker pieces
- Happy Camper—graham-cracker-flavored ice cream with pieces of graham cracker, chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and a marshmallow swirl
- Cookieccino—mocha-cappuccino-flavored ice cream with crushed Oreo pieces; the flavor was named by Stewart’s Shops customers via a social-media campaign
- Chocolate Caramel Tornado—Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel ice cream with a chocolate-caramel swirl and chocolate-covered honeycomb pieces
- Key Lime Pie—Key-lime-flavored ice cream with whipped cream and swirls of graham cracker
Thorntons' Bourbon offerings
Thorntons, Louisville, Ky., brought back its seasonal Bourbon-flavored offerings, including its signature Bourbon Ball Donut and new Bourbon Vanilla Latte. The yeast doughnut is filled with Bourbon-flavored sweet cream and topped with Bourbon-flavored chocolate icing and a pecan.