A Throwback To The Food Trends That Ruled Over 2016

I would say 2016 was among the wildest years of popular culture. Our favourite YouTubers were walking around Los Angeles vlogging their insane sidequests, while music was peaking with one ‘Billboard Top Album’ after another. On our lips were DIYs, David Dobrick vlogs, The Pink Wall of LA, the infamous Mannequin challenge, and Pokémon Go on everybody’s iPhone 6. Pop culture had truly never looked this good, and we were all almost hypnotised by this bubble of all-things-fun-and-extra all around us. And food, you may ask? It was all about ultra-maximalism—in taste, texture, colour, and garnish. If the 2020s have been all about minimalism, beige, and class, then the 2010s were the years of vibrant, chaotic, hyper-realistic, and rainbow-coloured food (with a cherry of galaxy on top). 

And now, a decade later, everyone’s claiming that 2026 is just 2016 in disguise. Perhaps in reminiscence of our relatively carefree, younger selves, 2026 is all about remembering the best of 2016 and turning it into the current. On a casual perusal through your social media feeds, you might find exactly this: the comeback of playful, maximalist food, thanks to nostalgia and the sheer power of the Internet! And honestly? We are all for it! Bringing back the candy-flossed days of ‘16 and colouring them in our stressful, grey and beige lives, might perhaps be all we really need. 

Below are all the food trends that defined the year of no rules, all-things-pink, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade.

The Starbucks Pink Drink Was In Everyone’s Cups

The Pink Drink was the top Starbucks order that was on everybody’s lips in 2016—literally and figuratively. 

What began as a fan-made custom order—Strawbucks’ Strawberry Acai Refresher swapped for coconut milk instead of water—quickly spiralled into a full-blown pop culture moment. Instagram did what it does best, and suddenly, pastel pink Starbucks cups were everywhere: on feeds, in vlogs, and clutched in the hands of anyone who was online. By 2017, Starbucks made it official, adding the Pink Drink to its permanent menu after its popularity became impossible to ignore.

The appeal wasn’t just aesthetic, though the soft pink hue did do most of the heavy lifting online (like I said, 2016 was all about things that looked good). The drink itself hit that very 2010s sweet spot: it was light, fruity, dairy-free, and healthy-ish. More than that, what added to the drink’s iconicity was that this was also one of the first times a major global brand visibly responded to a viral, consumer-created trend, cementing the growing power of social media in shaping what, and how, we eat.

Korean Food Finally Entered The Indian Market

Today, many of us live, breathe, and survive on instant ramen. And 2016 was the year our favourite late-night dinner broke into the Indian mainstream.

This was during the early waves of the Hallyu effect—K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean pop culture at large. And so, suddenly, words like kimchi, ramyeon, tteokbokki, and gochujang were no longer niche. They were being Googled, cooked, tasted, and talked about, especially by younger diners who were discovering Korea through screens before discovering it on their plates. In 2016, Korean food even found its way onto Indian restaurant menus. It became a regular favourite among diners, as dedicated restaurants began popping up in India’s most cosmopolitan cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. 

Instant ramyeon brands started appearing on grocery shelves, Asian supermarkets expanded their Korean sections, and fermented flavours—like Kombucha—slowly found a place in a market dominated by spice-forward food. The thing about this cuisine was that Korean food wasn’t being positioned as a novelty. Instead, it felt cool, global, and culturally relevant. Eating Korean food became part of participating in pop culture, whether it was recreating a drama meal at home or trying cheese-loaded tteokbokki at a café. 

Freakshakes Were Everyone’s Fav Dessert

The year 2016 was all about doing the extra, going the extra mile, and experimenting with what can be called the maximum. Freakshakes are just that.

That year, milkshakes stopped being just ice cream blended with your favourite fruits and chocolates. Instead, they became towering, gravity-defying obelisks, loaded with possibly every dessert you might be able to imagine. Brownies, doughnuts, cookies, chocolate and candy bars, whipped cream, syrups, sprinkles, and sometimes an entire slice of cake perched precariously on top—they had it all. 

After having originated in Australia, the trend made its way to India around this time and quickly took over café and restaurant menus, becoming a peculiar attraction, especially for kids. Suddenly, every new café worth its salt had at least one over-the-top shake, explicitly designed for the perfectly over-saturated, over-edited Instagram photo. Taste was secondary to visual impact, and nobody seemed to mind as the phrase “the more the merrier” captured the trend perfectly. 

While the trend eventually faded (our stomachs and wallets needed and deserved a break), freakshakes remain one of the most iconic reminders of the year when dessert had no limits, and excess was actually the whole point.

Café Culture Became Cool

Can you imagine there was once a time in India when all of suburban Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore were not sprawling with a new café opening in every lane? India’s love story with cafes also began in 2016.

By that year, café culture in India had ceased to be a novelty. From just being places to grab a quick coffee, cafés officially became a lifestyle—hangout hubs, date spots and workspaces. And so, in 2016, it became normal for everyone to have a “regular” café—one where they’d spend long hours of the day, lingering for hours, laptop open, soft playlists in the background, ordering more for the table than they probably needed.

This was also the year when Indian cafés began finding their own identity. Alongside cappuccinos and cold brews, regulars on the menu included avocado toasts, breakfast items served all day, artisanal desserts, and experimental coffee orders. Independent cafés popped up across metros and college towns, each offering a distinct aesthetic—exposed brick walls, potted plants, fairy lights, handwritten menus, and curated playlists. Social media, of course, played a massive role in this shift. Picturesque interiors, creative latte art, and beautifully plated food turned cafés into content gold, making them aspirational and instantly shareable.

Açaí Bowls Were The New Healthy Breakfast

Who remembers Alisha Marie and Niki & Gabi’s vlogs, which were so generously punctuated by the presence of this one regular breakfast that stole everyone’s hearts (and tummies) in 2016? Yes, açaí bowls! These bowls were paired with Greek yoghurt, seeds, fruits, and a purple-hued promise of wellness—the most fabulous breakfast of the year. 

What started as a global health trend quickly turned into the go-to morning meal for anyone trying to eat clean, feel fit, or simply look like they had their life together. Thick, smoothie-like bases made with frozen acai berries were topped with granola, banana, berries, coconut flakes, and nut butters, turning breakfast into something that looked more like dessert but was proudly labelled healthy. And owing to social media’s explosive love for these picture-perfect bowls, cafés and juice bars across cities began adding açaí bowls to their menus, describing them as nutrient-packed superfood meals rich in antioxidants and energy-boosting ingredients. 

And of course, their visual appeal played a considerable role. Bright colours, neat toppings, and perfectly symmetrical bowls made them instant social media stars. Eating an açaí bowl wasn’t just about nourishment; it was about signalling a lifestyle that was marked by early mornings, balanced diets, and never skipping breakfast!

Unicorn (Rainbow) Was Food’s Favourite Colour

If there was anything 2016 loved more than Justin Bieber’s What Do You Mean, it was adding colour to everything, especially food. Rainbow-colored treats were everywhere. Cupcakes, macarons, New York bagels, lattes, milkshakes, and even grilled cheese showed up on Instagram in pastel rainbows. We were all about unicorns, and it really was a time of pure happiness, packed with colour and glitter. Cafés and bakeries were filled with swirls of pink, blue, purple, and gold, turning food into a party both in look and feel.

Yes, taste often took a backseat, but that hardly mattered—these were foods that were designed to be photographed, shared, and admired before being eaten. This unicorn food wave reflected the absolute colour hysteria of the time: playful, unserious, and brazenly extra. In a year that celebrated excess and internet-driven trends, such food became a form of edible escapism. It was proof that food didn’t always have to be refined, nutritional, balanced, or meaningful. Sometimes, just a bit of magic would do!

The Year Of The DIY

Do-It-Yourselfs or DIYs took over in 2016. The year was full of wacky, almost insane 5-minute-crafts, SaraBeautyCorner, and LaurDIY videos. And guess what? The trend had to have made it into food, because the year convinced us that yes, we can, in fact, do it ourselves.

From mason-jar desserts and mug cakes to homemade pizzas, smoothie bowls, and elaborate assemble-it-yourself meals, DIY food became a movement of its own. While all types of cooking are a form of DIY, DIY foods are a specific kind, made to be exceptionally easy, good-looking, and 20 minutes long, procedurally. And thanks to this trend, cooking was no longer just about eating; it was about participation in what went on behind the scenes. People wanted to build their own burgers, customise their pasta, layer their own jars, and document every single step along the way.

A lot of this had to do with the rise of viral recipe videos. Facebook and Instagram were both flooded with sped-up cooking clips that made even the most complex dishes look much too achievable. And so, everyone was trying their hands at the perfect cheese pull or the correct way to layer a tiramisu jar. Restaurants and cafés also caught on quickly. Menus began offering DIY platters, build-your-own bowls, and interactive tableside elements that let diners feel involved in the dish being presented to them.

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