Hey guys! I’m home from Seattle from the International Food Bloggers Conference. I love Seattle  – I’ve been here approximately a billion times. I get to go at least once a year for work and I love this city. It just feels like home! And yes, every time I go – I still do all the tourist things too!

But let’s get to the good stuff. Here’s some of the highlights and trend-spotting that I saw at IFBC 2015 (besides alcohol – see photo below for proof).

FOOD TRENDS:

• Champagne is the new wine pairing. Tea might be the new coffee – but never to me, because coffee will always be king.
• Chefs are tired of sriracha guys. While consumers may love it, sriracha is out and Harissa is in. Get to know this spice. Also Indian food/spices are upcoming.
• Flavored Butter is going to be the next big thing. You can infuse anything into butter like hot harissa, miso, sriracha, maple, etc. Sorry for us dairy-free weirdos, but I bet you can still infuse these into Earth Balance!
• Luckily, bacon isn’t going away.
• Smoothie Bowls are in and salads are out. Basically if you put anything into a bowl, it’s going to be popular, even entrees (ex. quinoa bowls).
• Matcha is upcoming. 
• Familiar items in unique ways is a big trend that we’ve been seeing in consumers too (see Pinterest): Waffle Iron hash browns, meatloaf muffins. Take an every day recipe and use it in a new way in a new form or function. 
• Hacks are also hot: Hack in kitchen examples are scrambled egg muffins, waffle iron hash browns, lasagna muffins, breakfast popsicles, etc.
• Next hot veggies: Cauliflower and Cabbage
• DIY is for food too: homemade sausages and making your own vanilla extract from scratch are all what’s next.
• S’mores ALL the time – made indoors is the next trend.
• Lamb may be the next new protein.
• Gluten-free is MORE STABLE than a traditional trend (huzzah!), and paleo is moving far beyond a diet need and into a lifestyle (but we already knew that, didn’t we?).
• Clean eating is so hot: knowing where did it come from, its ingredients, does it have additives, can I buy it locally? 
• Cooking with Cannabis will be a smokin’ (okay I couldn’t resist the pun) trend for chefs and home cooks with marijuana becoming legal in so many states.

FOOD LOVE

• For foodies, KitchenAid and Sur La Table are like our Disneyland. You can find anything and everything in the store, including KitchenAid must haves for the holidays. I covered all of them in my last post here.

• American Lamb Board – lamb is pretty damn tasty. And the lambs seemed really happy before they were butchered. I want a happy lamb life. And you should too.

• Sabra Pizza Hummus – get this.

• Analon – I’m getting a free crepe pan and I’m pretty excited about it.

• Crunchmaster: Harvest Stone line (think party mix for gluten-free) and original crackers, made their appearance and I was so happy to see so many gluten-free sponsors!
• Coravin wine system – open any bottle without actually opening it. It’s like black magic. I love it.

• Teavana ceremonial matcha tea set is beautiful! As you saw above, matcha is mentioned as an upcoming trend and I plan on making match powdered sugar donuts!

• Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery – check out their GF vegan caramel sauce!
• Seattle’s new GF soda hot spot: Rachel’s Ginger Beer (yes, you can order online + ship!!!)

FOODIE GIVEAWAY

You know the drill! Below is a Rafflecopter. There are different ways that you can enter to win this giveaway. Please read the terms and conditions in the rafflecopter – they matter! This is a random giveaway with no requirement to purchase anything, except my love. Please – US only (sorry my Canada besties).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Disclaimer: As a blogger at IFBC, I need to write three posts about the conference. I could literally write about anything I wanted. While I really wanted to devote three posts about how Sheraton hotel beds are somehow more comfortable than any other bed in the universe, I decided to post about brands and a giveaway instead.**

Tagged: giveaway, IFBC, Seattle