Honey garlic: Made for wings

This savory-sweet compound sauce is familiar enough for a wide range of consumers to gravitate toward it but unique enough to create interest and excitement on a menu.

Rising most notably as a flavor for chicken wings, which are growing rapidly on menus this year, honey garlic provides a balanced flavor that doesn’t overpower a wing, and it also goes well with a number of other dippable foods. The flavor combination provides enough sweet zing to satisfy customers’ craving for sweetness and variety.

Although the combination is a natural fit for many American palates, and adaptable to many applications, it has plenty of runway for growth. Market research firm Datassential reports that honey garlic is only found on 1.5% of U.S. menus, but it has increased by 48% over the past four years.

Click through the gallery to learn more about this Flavor of the Week and see how one brand is using honey garlic on its menu.