The baby boomer generation might be infamous for encasing foods in Jello, fashioning bread into a bowl and turning meat into a loaf, but they’re not trading in for avocado toast anytime soon. While millennials are staging a photo of a $30 stack of pancakes and a $12 latte for the ’Gram, boomers are wondering when we stopped being a real society. Here, the millennial food trends that really grind boomers’ gears.
6 Millennial Food Trends That Drive Boomers Crazy
“Camera eats first!”
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Published Feb 23, 2024
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“Artisanal” Everything
Even we couldn’t quite tell you what it means, but if you slap the word “artisanal” on a six-pack of IPAs and mark up the price, millennials will gobble them up. Merriam-Webster defines the word as “made in the traditional way.” Think: cheeses and cured meats. Can a piece of toast served up by a beanie-clad waiter really be artisanal? The jury’s out.
Mylk
While boomers prefer half-and-half in their morning cup, millennials are searching for anything but the real deal. Soy, almond, oat—you name it, it can be milked. Per The New York Times, millennials “laid the groundwork for milk’s identity crisis, with their focus on health and wellness and demand for transparency in the food system.” Big Dairy is in crisis.
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Expensive Coffee Drinks
Boomers want their caffeine hot and cheap with no frills. But according to Newsweek, millennials, emotional spenders that they are, are willing to shell out $7 on a cup of coffee because a little treat brings them joy. As the saying goes, money can’t buy happiness, but this low-fat vanilla mochaccinolatte might make us forget some of our late-stage capitalist dread.
Overpriced Brunch
Speaking of expensive, why are the pancakes always over $20…when they’re little more than sugar, flour, eggs and some (non-dairy) milk?
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Waxing Nostalgic
Cosmic brownies, Lunchables, Dunkaroos: Millennials will try to make anything nostalgic. And boomers just don’t get it. (Maybe because they’re trying to leave tomato aspic in the past? Just a thought.)
Instagram Food
No, the camera does not eat first.
