The 2010s were a wild decade for food trends. From rainbow-colored everything to exotic superfoods, it seemed like a new must-try sensation popped up every few months.
Social media played a huge role in making these trends explode overnight, but it also meant they faded just as fast. Here are 19 food fads from that era that burned bright and then basically disappeared.
1. Cronut
Remember waiting in line for hours just to bite into a pastry? That was the cronut craze of 2013.
Invented by chef Dominique Ansel in New York City, this croissant-donut hybrid had people setting alarms before dawn just to snag one.
Scalpers even sold them on the street for crazy markups. The hype was real, but once every bakery started copying the idea, the magic faded fast and people simply moved on.
2. Charcoal-Activated Everything
Black food was suddenly everywhere around 2015 to 2017. Activated charcoal got mixed into burger buns, ice cream, lattes, and even pizza dough, turning ordinary foods an eerie, Instagram-worthy shade of black.
People loved the look, but the taste was mostly unchanged, and health experts quickly pointed out the charcoal could actually interfere with medications. Once the novelty wore off, the dark aesthetic lost its appeal almost overnight, vanishing from menus just as suddenly as it arrived.
3. Unicorn Frappuccino
For exactly five days in April 2017, Starbucks unleashed a color-changing, sugar-loaded drink that broke the internet. The Unicorn Frappuccino shifted from pink to purple when you stirred it, and the photos were absolutely everywhere on social media.
Baristas, however, were not fans, reporting exhausted hands and messy workstations. Once the limited run ended, the craze evaporated almost instantly.
It proved that sometimes the picture matters way more than the actual flavor.
4. Kale Chips
Kale was crowned the king of superfoods in the early 2010s, and kale chips were supposed to be the healthy snack that replaced potato chips forever. Bags of them lined grocery store shelves, and food bloggers raved about baking them at home.
The reality? Most people found them a bit bitter and way too fragile.
By mid-decade, the kale obsession had cooled significantly, and the chip version quietly disappeared from most snack aisles without much fanfare.
5. Freakshakes
Subtlety was not on the menu when freakshakes hit the scene around 2015. These towering milkshakes were loaded with entire slices of cake, candy bars, cookies, and rivers of whipped cream, all balanced impossibly on top of a glass jar.
Australian cafe Pâtissez is credited with starting the madness, and copycats spread globally within months. Health concerns and the sheer impracticality of eating one eventually cooled the trend, though the photos still live on social media forever.
6. Avocado Toast
Few foods defined a generation quite like avocado toast did in the 2010s. Smashed onto thick sourdough with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and a perfectly poached egg, it became the unofficial symbol of millennial brunch culture.
It even sparked a bizarre news debate about whether eating it was why young people could not afford houses. While avocado toast still exists on menus today, the frenzied cultural moment around it has long since settled into quiet, ordinary breakfast territory.
7. Cauliflower Everything
At some point around 2016, cauliflower stopped being a side dish and became a full identity. It was riced, mashed, turned into pizza crusts, and even shaped into buffalo wings.
The vegetable basically tried to replace every carb known to humanity.
Low-carb diet trends fueled the obsession, and grocery stores could barely keep cauliflower in stock. Eventually, people got a little tired of pretending cauliflower tasted like bread, and the extreme hype settled back down to normal vegetable status.
8. Rainbow Bagels
The Bagel Store in Brooklyn, New York, created rainbow bagels back in the 1990s, but they exploded into viral fame around 2016 when a video racked up millions of views. People traveled specifically to Brooklyn just to hold one for a photo.
Topped with funfetti cream cheese, they were colorful, fun, and extremely photogenic. However, the taste was pretty much just a regular bagel, and once the novelty factor wore off, the lines disappeared and so did most of the buzz.
9. Cronuts Competitors: The Waffogato
Waffogato was the dessert mashup that tried to ride the wave of hybrid food mania. Combining a warm waffle with a scoop of gelato and a shot of espresso poured right over the top, it was basically an affogato with a waffle twist.
Trendy cafes loved putting it on their menus because it looked spectacular and felt premium. Like many hybrid dessert concepts of the era, it had a short spotlight before customers moved on to the next photogenic creation.
10. Spiralized Vegetables
Zoodles were going to change pasta forever, or so everyone thought. Spiralizers flew off store shelves as home cooks enthusiastically turned zucchini, sweet potatoes, and beets into curly noodle shapes, hoping to cut carbs without missing their favorite dishes.
The gadget was genuinely fun for about two weeks. Then most people realized watery zucchini noodles were not quite the same as a real bowl of spaghetti.
Spiralizers quietly migrated to the back of kitchen drawers, where many of them likely still remain today.
11. Acai Bowls
Acai bowls burst onto the health food scene with gorgeous purple hues and promises of antioxidant-packed goodness. Smoothie bowls piled high with colorful toppings became the go-to breakfast photo on every fitness influencer's feed throughout the mid-2010s.
Prices were steep, often hitting twelve to fifteen dollars per bowl, which raised eyebrows once the novelty faded. Nutritionists also pointed out that many versions were loaded with sugar.
The trend cooled, though acai itself stuck around in less glamorized forms at health food stores.
12. Matcha Everything
Green was the color of the 2010s food scene, thanks largely to matcha. This finely ground Japanese green tea powder found its way into lattes, cakes, ice cream, Kit Kats, and even face masks.
Its earthy, slightly bitter flavor was an acquired taste, but that did not slow anyone down.
Matcha still exists in cafes today, but the wild fever pitch of the trend has calmed considerably. It went from revolutionary superfood to just another menu option fairly quickly once the next green thing arrived.
13. Cronuts Competitors: The Ramen Burger
Chef Keizo Shimamoto debuted the ramen burger at Smorgasburg in Brooklyn in 2013, and the line stretched around the block instantly. The concept replaced traditional bread buns with compressed, pan-fried ramen noodle patties, creating a crispy, chewy alternative that was unlike anything people had tried before.
Food media went absolutely wild for it. Pop-ups spread across major cities, and everyone wanted a bite.
Within a couple of years, the frenzy had faded, and most ramen burger spots quietly closed or moved on to the next big thing.
14. Poke Bowls
Poke bowls exploded from a Hawaiian staple into a full-blown mainland obsession around 2016 and 2017. Customizable, fresh, and photogenic, they seemed like the perfect modern fast-casual meal, and poke restaurants popped up on nearly every corner in major cities.
The market became oversaturated almost instantly. Many poke chains that opened aggressively during the boom struggled to survive once the initial excitement faded.
Some locations remain today, but the gold-rush energy of the poke boom era is long gone.
15. Cronuts Competitors: The Brookie
Half brownie, half chocolate chip cookie, the brookie was the dessert mashup that bakeries everywhere embraced during the hybrid food craze of the early-to-mid 2010s. Stacked in layers or swirled together, it offered the best of both worlds in one indulgent square.
It was clever, delicious, and simple enough for home bakers to try too. Unlike some trendier creations, the brookie never had a single viral moment, which might explain why it quietly slipped away from specialty menus without anyone really noticing or mourning its exit.
16. Bulletproof Coffee
Blending butter into your morning coffee sounded absolutely bizarre when bulletproof coffee first gained traction around 2014. Created by entrepreneur Dave Asprey, the idea was that mixing black coffee with grass-fed butter and MCT oil would supercharge your brain and keep you full for hours.
The keto and paleo crowds went all in, and coffee shops started offering it on menus. Over time, the scientific backing was questioned, and the trend lost steam as people grew skeptical of its bold health claims.
17. Dessert Sushi
Somewhere around 2015, creative bakers figured out that sushi shapes made out of candy and sweets were wildly shareable online. Dessert sushi used Rice Krispie treats as the rice, fruit roll-ups as the seaweed wrapper, and gummy candies or fresh fruit as the fillings.
Kids loved it, and it made for genuinely fun party food. But it never quite crossed over into mainstream restaurant culture.
It stayed mostly a Pinterest project and novelty catering item before quietly fading from the food trend conversation.
18. Cronuts Competitors: The Sushirrito
The sushirrito was exactly what it sounds like, a burrito-sized sushi roll stuffed with Japanese-inspired fillings and wrapped in seaweed instead of a tortilla. San Francisco-based Sushirrito restaurant is credited with popularizing it around 2011 and 2012.
The concept spread to food trucks and pop-ups across the country, attracting long lunchtime lines. It was portable, filling, and genuinely tasty.
Yet somehow, despite all the initial buzz, most sushirrito spots eventually closed or scaled back, unable to maintain the momentum beyond the initial excitement.
19. Edible Cookie Dough
Everyone sneaks a bit of cookie dough while baking, so making a safe, egg-free version specifically meant for eating raw seemed like pure genius. Edible cookie dough shops opened across the United States starting around 2017, with DŌ in New York City leading the charge.
Lines wrapped around the block for months. The concept was sweet, nostalgic, and just rebellious enough to feel fun.
However, once the initial novelty of eating raw dough guilt-free wore off, most standalone shops found it tough to sustain enough foot traffic to stay open.
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