Alcohol consumption surged at the start of the pandemic, but as people start going out more, consumers are turning once again to drinks with low ABV (alcohol by volume), or spirit-free beverages, according to international food and restaurant consultants Baum & Whiteman.

Factors affecting this trend include “more mindful eating and drinking, snazzier packaging and
marketing, improved products that taste more like the real thing and restoring physical fitness that went downhill during Covid,” the company said in its annual trend predictions report.

Baum & Whiteman mentioned that phrase as one of the trends to look for in 2022, and indeed many of them are already in restaurants, such as the Citrus Beet Hummus — made with red beets and orange mixed into the garbanzo bean paste — and Kalamata Olive Hummus — a blend of olives and garbanzo beans — at Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh. There’s also the Fall Seasonal Hummus available on the all-you-can-eat Market Table at Fogo de Chão, which is hummus topped with roasted mushrooms, parsley, extra virgin olive oil and garlic chips. Yalla Mediterranean also has a hummus with beets added to it, another for which the chickpeas are flavored with the North African spice blend Chermoula and a third with another North African spice blend, harissa.

Baum & Whiteman expects the next popular plant-based meat substitute to be chicken analogs. Impossible Foods rolled out its version in 2021, and rival company Beyond Meat, which first introduced a bird-free chicken more than a decade ago, launched a new version this year. Those and other chicken substitutes have been tested at Burger King, A&W, Panda Express, KFC and other large chains. Meanwhile, &pizza just introduced Daring brand chicken substitute systemwide in November.

Sister consulting firms AF&Co and Carbonate expect to see beer with fruit purées added after the first fermentation. They report that this is an offshoot of the sour beer trend, with the purées often added to tart brews. Sometimes they have ingredients besides fruit added, too, such as in the PB&J Slushy beer from 450 North Brewing Company in Columbus, Ind., made with blackberry, banana, grape, peanut butter and marshmallow.

Singapore, the city-state on an island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, has a distinctive cuisine that reflects the Chinese, Malay and Indian heritages of most of its citizens, and it is striking a chord with Americans, according to AF&Co. and Carbonate. The firms note that many people might have become acquainted with the country from seeing the 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians.” The two firms declared the Singaporean curry noodle dish laksa to be the “hottest dish of the year.”

AF&Co and Carbonate also predict more dry-aged fish in American restaurants. A practice long applied in Japan to oily fish to concentrate their flavors, similar to the way beef is dry-aged for American steakhouses, the sister consulting firms expect the practice to spread in the U.S. as consumers delve more deeply into the cuisines of Japan. As an example, they point to Lucky Robot Japanese Kitchen in Austin, Texas, which has offered tastings of dry-aged bluefin and big eye tuna.

AF& Co and Carbonate called the food of the region extending from the West Indies to Belize and Guyana the “cuisine of the year.” Encompassing many cultures and cooking styles — from conch fritters and barracuda steaks to goat stew, whole roasted hog, mofongo and callaloo — the foods of the region are becoming increasingly popular, particularly as Black chefs in the U.S. explore their own culinary roots.

Tequila suppliers reported just under $4 billion in revenue in 2020, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, up from $962 million in 2003, an increase of more than 310%. In 2020 alone, revenue was up by 17.4%, and that was before the launch of numerous tequilas by celebrities in 2021. Meanwhile, mezcal sales grew by 17.7% in 2020 to surpass $124.1 billion. In recent years interest has also grown in lesser known agave spirits, including raicilla and bacanora, as well as sotol, which is made from a different type of cactus than agave. Distinctive enough to be interesting, but palate-friendly enough to be used in many cocktails, senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn said you can expect to see growing interest in, and purchase of, this growing family of liquors.

The cuisines of the region stretching from Mauritania to Cameroon are continuing to gain traction, both as chefs such as Kwame Onwuachi — born in New York City but with Nigerian roots — Nigerian chef Simileoluwa Adebajo, Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam and others further share their foods with American audiences, and as other Black chefs explore the more distant heritage of the African diaspora. Thorn said to expect to see charismatic dishes such as the grilled meat called suya and the joloff rice that is probably an ancestor of Jambalaya to appear on more menus, as well as stews made with egusi (melon seeds), on more menus.

It is well known that Mexicans and Central Americans have been heating corn in water mixed with basic compounds (as opposed to acidic ones) such as lime or potash for millennia to improve its nutrition and make it easier to work with. But they also treat high-pectin fruit and vegetables (particularly squash) similarly. The result is a firmer skin and softer flesh that chefs in the U.S. are slowly catching on to (it turns out that french fries treated similarly are more crisp, too). Thorn said you can expect more experimentation with this process in the years to come. 

This breed of cattle, whose name means “Japanese beef,” is prized for its rich marbling and fetches a premium price tag, particularly the ultra-marbled meat imported from Japan. But with conventional beef also causing sticker shock, Thorn said the path is open for both foreign and domestic wagyu — the latter often cross-bred with other breeds such as Angus. If you’re going to splurge on steak, why not go all the way?

And price pressures don’t appear to be as strong for Japanese wagyu.

“While there may be shortages of luxury goods from other parts of the world, one thing there’s plenty of right now is Japanese Wagyu,” said Ayaka Matsui, representing the House of Japanese Wagyu Campaign by JFOODO, a trade organization that oversees the production and export of the Japanese beef. Matsui said exports of Japanese beef rose by 307.8 percent in 2021. The Japanese agriculture ministry said it plans to nearly triple the export of wagyu by 2025 compared to 2019.