Viral to vanishing: the food and drink trends losing relevance ahead of 2026

New data from consumer intelligence platform Tastewise shows once-viral food and drink formats are slipping fast – raising questions for brands building 2026 strategies on short-term buzz.

Food and drink trends rarely fail because they are flawed. More often, they collapse because brands treat them as shortcuts. Fresh data from consumer intelligence platform Tastewise suggests a growing number of once-viral formats are already losing traction, with steep year-on-year declines in social discussion and minimal remaining share.

Analysing billions of data points across social media conversations and restaurant menus, Tastewise identifies a clear pattern: formats that peaked on virality but failed to convert into repeat behaviour are now falling out of the conversation. For drinks brands planning for 2026, the warning is clear – hype alone is no longer enough.

Better-for-you alcohol loses momentum

Several alcohol formats once framed around lighter, functional or lifestyle-led positioning are now in sharp decline.

Hard kombucha now holds a 0% share of social discussion, down 29.8% year on year. Hard tea has slipped to a 0.01% share, falling 33.79%, while hard seltzer sits at 0.02% share, down 33.67%.

The contraction extends beyond these formats. Craft beer, often seen as culturally resilient, is down 16.52% year on year with a 0.84% share, while generic IPA beer has fallen 17.28% to a 0.38% share.

Tastewise’s data suggests the broader “better-for-you drinking” narrative is losing attention. Products that relied heavily on pseudo-functional positioning are struggling to maintain relevance, pointing to a need for clearer occasions, flavour-led propositions and tighter ranges.

Viral formats fail to stick

Short-cycle novelty foods are also ageing out quickly, particularly those driven by social media hacks.

The crookie – a hybrid of croissant and cookie – now holds just a 0.01% share of conversation and is down 43.6% year on year. Flat croissants have effectively disappeared, registering a 0% share and a 40.72% decline.

Other internet-led snacks show similar trajectories. Freeze-dried candy sits at a 0.01% share and is down 51.38% year on year.

According to Tastewise, these formats peaked without becoming habits. Once the novelty fades, they increasingly register as outdated food trends, and for many consumers, even among the worst food trends as interest rotates elsewhere.

Cannabis and CBD slide out of the mainstream

Cannabis-linked ingredients show some of the steepest declines in the dataset.

Cannabis itself holds a 0.12% share, down 53.8% year on year. CBD matches that share and is down 49.23%, while terpenes have dropped 49.18% to a 0.01% share. THC has fallen 31.77% year on year, holding a 0.03% share.

Despite continued product launches, the “edible wellness add-on” era appears to be losing mass relevance. Tastewise positions cannabinoid callouts as increasingly niche, rather than a broad-based growth lever for 2026.

Wellness substitutions and industrial cues weaken

Several formats once associated with “smart choice” eating are also declining, particularly those perceived as engineered replacements.

Buddha bowls are down 30.95% year on year, vegan bowls have slipped 18.94%, and plant milk as an ingredient has fallen 40.99% to a 0.14% share. Textured vegetable protein is down 35.40%, while cauliflower wings, despite a 17.9% year-on-year rise, now hold a 0% share of conversation.

A similar shift is visible in ingredient perception. Grapeseed oil has dropped 23.4% year on year, soybean oil is down 21.65%, and sunflower oil has fallen 18.75%. Tastewise notes growing resistance to inputs that read as industrial-coded, with attention moving toward cleaner labels and simpler ingredient cues.

The biggest trends in freefall

Tastewise highlights ten formats showing the fastest and steepest declines:

• Crookie: down more than 48% in consumer interest over the past year
• Flat croissant: 0% measurable share, down around 40%
• Freeze-dried candy: down more than 51%
• Cosmopolitan: down 26% year on year
• Sex on the Beach: down 33% year on year
• Cannabis: down 56% year on year
• CBD: down 49.2%, with terpenes also down 49.2% and THC down 32%
• Hard kombucha: down 45.5%, with hard tea and hard seltzer each falling by roughly a third
• Grapeseed and soybean oils: down 29% and 21% respectively
• Vegan bowl: down nearly 19%, with plant milk down more than 40%

Avoiding yesterday’s hype

Tastewise argues that not all declines signal category weakness. Pizza, for example, remains up 13.52% year on year, even as specific styles such as Neapolitan pizza (-5.88%), stuffed crust (-0.5%) and tavern-style pizza (-1.3%) soften.

A similar pattern is emerging in bar culture. Nostalgia cocktails remain recognisable, but attention is slipping. Sex on the Beach is down 33.38% year on year, while the Cosmopolitan has fallen 26.02% to a 0.27% share.

The lesson for brands is to separate category health from format fatigue. As Tastewise’s data shows, many food and drink trends leaving relevance are those that peaked quickly, spread widely, and failed to anchor themselves in repeat behaviour. For 2026 planning, the risk is not missing the next big thing, but investing too heavily in formats already on the way out.

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