7 Brilliant Holiday Flavors
It's not too soon for your store, food truck, or venue to begin planning for Christmas-time holiday traffic and sales. The winter holidays bring tremendous opportunity for food businesses to sell festive, seasonal snacks that can boost overall sales. Some time-tested snacks are positively predictable because of their proven success, but this is a great time to add in new flavors and menu items that will delight your customers. In addition to sweet treats such as frosted nuts and hot chocolate, give one of the following concession food ideas a try this holiday season!
7 Holiday Flavors to Help Boost Your Sales
1. Winter Frost Cotton Candy
Just the name “Winter Frost Cotton Candy” is enough to give visions of snowmen clad in scarves and blankets of delicate snowflakes resting on pine trees. You don’t need many cotton candy ingredients for this treat – simply start with Gold Medal Winter Frost (Item #3225) for a one-of-a-kind peppermint flavor that’s reminiscent of candy canes. Sell it with hot chocolate as a combo upsell, or add it to the hot chocolate itself for a gourmet drink.
2. Red and Green Popcorn
Making gourmet popcorn in holiday colors is an easy way to provide eye candy that can translate to additional sales for your food truck, concession stand, or retail store. Follow the recipes for making Green Apple, Red Cinnamon, and Vanilla popcorn, then mix the three together before packaging for sale. These can be sold for immediate snacking and also put into decorative boxes, bags, or tins that your customers can serve later at their own holiday parties.
3. Ginger Snap Caramel Popcorn
Warm gingerbread cookies fly off the shelf at holiday events, so consider the possibility of offering caramel corn that provides the same nostalgic flavor while delivering an attractive profit margin. To help you get started, here are the directions.
4. Peanut Brittle
Another treat that is associated with the holidays is peanut brittle. Don’t buy it premade when you can prepare it fresh and offer the highest quality. If you’re able to make the preparation visible to your customers, you’ll awaken their senses of sight and smell (and taste, when you offer free samples). Here’s how to make peanut brittle.
5. Mint Chocolate Swirl Fudge
The flavor of mint is so festive, it works well in all types of holiday treats! Mint Chocolate Swirl Fudge combines the delicious taste of mint with Christmas-themed green swirls, making it the perfect item to help boost holiday season food sales. Start with Sweet Selections® fudge, then gently swirl Green Mint Flavoring (Item #1379) into your batch. Try it with chocolate fudge, vanilla fudge, or both. Get the complete recipe here.
6. Candy Cane Fudge
Similar to the mint fudge, but more visually apparent, candy cane fudge is another simple way to take a year-round favorite and give it a holiday spin. For this treat, start with the Sweet Selections® Base Mix. Crush candy canes either by using a blender or by putting them between two layers of parchment paper and breaking them with a meat tenderizer. Then while the fudge is still cooling, sprinkle the candy cane pieces onto the top of the fudge. Gently press them into it so that they stay in place until they’re enjoyed by your customers. Find the complete recipe here.
7. Festive Funnel Cakes
Make your candy canes do double-duty when you use them for more than one menu item, especially one that’s so popular during the holidays and colder seasons in general. You can sell traditional funnel cakes that are plain, with powdered sugar, and/or whipped cream, and offer a festive version that has the crushed candy canes sprinkled onto whipped cream (this will help them stay in place instead of falling off of the funnel cake onto the plate).
Love this list? Then you'll enjoy learning more about how gourmet popcorn can benefit your holiday sales. Remember to trust Gold Medal for your concession needs, including equipment, supplies, and creative ideas.