Salted caramel, gingerbread, and pumpkin spice are just a few of the staple flavors of fall, found in coffee, cakes, and a variety of other sweet treats.
But there’s a new flavour that’s revolutionising the UK food industry: spicy honey, and it certainly packs a punch.
What started out as a New York pizza topping, this chili-infused honey has amassed over 912 million followers on TikTok under the hashtag #hothoney.
Not only that, but in the past month Hilltop Honey has seen a boom in sales of spicy honey, increasing by 1,049 percent compared to the same period last year.
This is partly because the product has only just gone on sale in Tesco, but Waitrose has reported that sales of its spicy honey chicken bites have risen by 148 per cent in the past week compared to the previous week.
Meanwhile, supermarkets will begin putting their Christmas-themed foods on shelves in the coming weeks.
Spicy honey was originally used as a pizza topping (pictured)
The flavour, a honey infused with chillies, has become extremely popular in the UK in recent weeks.
In the past month, Hilltop Honey has seen a boom in sales of spicy honey, increasing by 1,049 percent compared to the same period last year.
On the way to ASDA, there will be a wreath of pigs in blankets with camembert and a drizzle of warm honey.
At Tesco, there’s a ‘nduja and pork wellington with a drizzle of spicy honey, as well as a feta and celery snapakopita with spicy honey.
Marks and Spencer has a spicy honey brie brûlée, as well as spicy honey popcorn, spicy honey pigs wrapped in crisps and spicy honey halloumi wrapped in chips.
Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge said he was not surprised by the growing popularity of the flavour.
He told the Times: “It goes really well with cheese. If you think of it as a spicy chutney, it makes sense.”
For him, he said, adding chili to honey works the same way as adding salt to caramel.
“It enhances and elevates the flavor,” he added.
Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge said he was not surprised by the growing popularity of the flavour.
Kathryn Turner, M&S’s product development director, told The Times that the spicy flavour of honey was here to stay and that sweet and spicy was “very much in fashion”.
‘In my opinion, it’s gaining as much popularity as salted caramel.
‘Next week we’ll be launching a whole spicy honey barbecue chicken that customers can grill at home, and by Christmas we’ll have ten unique spicy honey-themed products across the M&S Foodhall.’
TikTok users have been sharing their best recipes using the essential ingredient, from hot honey cheese toast to hot honey fried chicken, hot honey drizzled ice cream and hot honey fruitcakes.
It is clear that, unlike salted caramel, hot honey can be used in both main dishes and desserts.
JD’s Hot Honey was one of the first companies in the UK to sell a range of products with this flavour.
The company began during lockdown in 2021 when Jade Dawson and her husband James began experimenting with homemade ingredients for Neapolitan pizza.
