The arrival of the Instagram age has not only ushered in a period in history where it is fully acceptable to stand on a table in public to photograph your dinner, but a whole new fleet of food trends too.
And let’s not kid ourselves - these trends are 99% about how something looks on the plate, rather than how it tastes in your mouth.
These are the six food trends that simply would not exist if we weren’t greedy for attention from strangers on social media.
1. Rose gold prosecco.
Just in case your Thursday-night Prosecco sessions aren’t drawing in the likes that they used to, why not consider pimping your drink with some rose gold shimmer? Now on sale, these bubbles of glitter explode in your alcohol, making it really aesthetically pleasing, but obviously serving no other function than that.
Oh, Instagram you fickle beast.
2. Unicorn lattes.
Starbuck’s latest offering to the world of coffee is the ‘unicorn latte’ a brightly coloured hot mess, that no one could argue was being presented to customers for it’s caffeine credentials.
The unicorn latte is 100% Instagram fodder, not to mention you can get it in your paper Starbuck’s cup - one of the essential Instagram must-haves for every millennial.
3. Avocado roses.
Thanks to Instagram (and it’s not-so-distant cousin Pinterest), avocado flowers are one of those food trends that we’re all lead to believe we should have mastered by now, instead what we actually do which is smoosh it into a slice of toast with a fork - that may or may not have been washed properly - when we’re hungover.
Not only does the avocado rose fail to improve the eating experience (just the looking one), it stops people from using the brown bits and encourages food waste.
4. Waffle cone coffee.
Let’s face it, one of the fundamental requirements of a coffee cup is that it holds the scolding hot liquid within it, and doesn’t go all over your lap on the way to work.
Now as much as we love how waffle cone coffee looks (you’ll be getting our double tap for sure) we can’t help but think that if there were no pictures to be taken for social media, no one would be buying into this trend. Just us?
5. Drinking from a jam jar.
In a similar way to the waffle cone, drinking out of jam jars feels an awful lot like an unnecessarily complicated way to serve a drink (see also mason jars).
The lip of the jars (not to mention the fact it is made out of glass) doesn’t always maketh for the best vessel for hot liquid. But damn, if it doesn’t half look good on Instagram.
6. Deconstructed anything.
Now we don’t know about you, but we always thought that part of the unwritten agreement between us and the people we pay to make our coffee was that, they made it.
Deconstructed coffees, deconstructed chicken pie on Masterchef, and lets not forget the deconstructed spaghetti Bolognese. Yeah it looks good on Instagram, but can we all just agree this needs to end?