A Dilly of a Trend

Pickles and pickle-flavored foods have long been popular, and they have been getting progressively more so over the years. The trend has picked up steam since the mid-2010s, with no end in sight, as sales, new product releases, and online searches are all on the rise. At the end of 2022, organizations ranging from the National Restaurant Association to Yelp, which saw searches for pickle-flavored foods increase 55% in 2022, identified pickles as one of the top flavor and menu trends to watch in 2023.

Not surprisingly, the number of collaborations is also growing, as pickle marketers and their partners create pickle-flavored products including snacks, sauces, and spirits.

The clear leader to date among pickle makers when it comes to limited-edition food-to-food brand-extensions is Grillo’s. Last month it partnered with Two Robbers for pickle hard seltzer and with Newks for dill pickle hot sauce, following pairings in 2022 for potato chips with Utz Brands, ice cream with J.P. Licks, beer with Lord Hobo, and hummus with Ithaca. But other pickle makers have been lending their names and flavor profiles to a variety of foods as well, with three categories leading the way:

• Beer. In 2022, Wickles Pickles collaborated with Hi-Wire Brewing for Wickles Pickles Beer, a sour ale brewed with cucumbers, dill, coriander, Himalayan salt, and black pepper. In 2020, Martin House Brewing Company launched Best Maid Pickle Beer with Best Maid Pickles, a collaboration between two Texas companies. Other examples over the years have included Levante Brewing Co. with Fishtown Pickle Project, Great Divide Brewing Company with The Real Dill, and East End Brewing with Primanti Bros. restaurant, known for offering deli-style kosher dill pickles with its sandwiches. This is one of the most common categories for collaborations, as the rise of craft beers has paralleled the growth in popularity of pickles, and as the combination of the two flavors is appealing to many beer drinkers, especially in the summer months.

• Salty snacks. U.S. Foods’ Cleveland Pickle brand paired with Campbell’s Sweets in 2018 for honey dill popcorn; Mr. Crisp Pickle Co. currently collaborates on a similar honey dill popcorn, also with Campbell’s. In an example that has been on the market since the late 2000s, well before the current trend really took off, Vlasic paired with Thanasi Foods’ BIGS brand for co-branded pickle-flavored sunflower seeds that are still on the market.

• Hot sauce. In 2022, Dillicious Pickle partnered with Mat’s Hotshop for a one-day relaunch of their previous collaboration, Dillan spicy dill pickle hot sauce. And in Australia, Picklehead and its Hot Patootie brand paired with Sanarac for a Picklehead Hot Patootie hot dill pickle and pepper sauce.

There is certainly more opportunity for growth in partnerships in this space, as a number of marketers have been launching pickle-flavored foods without the benefit of a co-brand. These include examples in the categories named above, as well as in as-yet-untapped-for collaboration categories including pizza (Pizza Hut), candy (Haribo), jerky (Slim Jim), ranch dressing (Hidden Valley), and slushies (Sonic), among others.

Meanwhile, a number of pickle makers are collaborating with owners of food brands whose flavors lend themselves to the pickle category. The Tipsy Pickle has 18 flavored pickles, most in collaboration with breweries and distilleries including Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Switchback Brewing, Saxtons River, Rectified, Smugglers’ Notch, Wild Hart, Citizen Cider, Stowe Cider, St. Johnsbury, and more, for pickles infused with beer, bourbon, gin, and other spirits. Katz’s Deli partnered with Hendrick’s Gin (which includes cucumbers and roses as well as juniper among its ingredients) for gin-infused pickles; both Katz’s pickles and Hendrick’s gin also include coriander. Van Holten’s has collaborated with hot sauce brand Tapatío and candy brand Warheads for flavored pickle-in-a-pouch snacks.

Watch for the next edition of Raugust Communications’ monthly e-newsletter in your in-box next Tuesday, July 18, 2023. If you are not yet a subscriber to this free publication, you can sign up here.