The New Dessert “It” Flavors

In 2008, in the New York Times, Kim Severson wrote about how salted caramel had snowballed from “a chef’s indulgence to a supermarket staple.” The flavor was pioneered by chocolatiers like Pierre Hermé and pastry chefs like Claudia Fleming, and then began to expand into brands like Häagen-Dazs and Starbucks.

Now, 18 years later, salted caramel is old news, but this is still a common (and predictable) trajectory for viral dessert flavors. We’ve seen “Dubai chocolate” go from a costly, coveted chocolate bar to a catchall descriptor for anything involving pistachio and chocolate. Now, everything can be “Dubai.” Everything can be matcha.