2006 was a year of minor embarrassments that we’re happy to leave behind. Britney and K-Fed split up, black nail polish was making its way onto every teenagers fingernails (boys and girls alike), along with the wide belt that girls boasted on top of dresses. What some people don’t seem to remember are the food trends that gained traction.
While 2000 brought on the cupcake, a smaller version of a delicious cake, 2006 brought the bite-sized desserts, mainly the mini cupcake. And while I’m all about cake in all forms, bit sized desserts just weren’t a good thing. They were about two dollars per dessert, which is two thirds the price of a regular cupcake but about 40% the size. Then the mini dessert took to the forms of mini cheesecakes and mini donuts. It went crazy and while the concept was good, the cost was ridiculous. Thankfully, in 2016 the trend is gone and now we just eat more expensive versions of regular sized desserts, I’m looking at you $6 donut.
Bottled water also caught traction in 2006, no thanks to big soft drink companies. This lead to more wastage and then the discovery that bottled water was just public tap water put into bottles and marked up at a bajillion percent. But we were naïve in 2006; we thought it was convenient. Flash forward to 2016 and bottled water is still popular among people and still creating tons of waste. Let’s leave it behind people, buy a filter is you’re really worried about minerals.
2006 was the year of bitter foods, specifically chocolate, wine, and coffee. The more bitter the better…unfortunately. Wine and coffee make sense, they’re bitter and people are used to it. But suddenly, consumers wanted chocolate with the highest cocoa content even though it tasted less and less like chocolate the higher you got. Don’t get me wrong, I love some dark chocolate and it’s definitely healthier but 90% cocoa content might as well just be raw cacao, which is unprocessed. Chocolate is supposed to be a treat, not a punishment.
Let’s hope 2016 bodes better for our bellies!