Once only found alongside eggs, on top of burgers, and wedged
between its healthier cousins lettuce and tomato, bacon has quickly made itself
the most versatile meat, showing up on cupcakes, garnishing margaritas, and,
most recently, infusing the milky goodness of a sundae at Burger King.
Just look at the Blue
Ribbon Bacon Festival in
Des Moines, Iowa—five years ago, a couple hundred people showed up to its first
iteration. This year, the festival sold out all of its 4,800 tickets in just 24
minutes and has spawned offshoot festivals in North Carolina, Colorado, and
Iceland. People came from more than 30 states, and next year, organizers are
likely going to put the festival outside to accommodate increasing demand.
"We tried bacon-wrapped whale in Iceland, it was
probably the weirdest thing I've ever had," says Brooks Reynolds, founder
of the festival. "Who doesn't love bacon? It takes me back to eating a BLT
on my parents' back deck as a kid. I think it's always been a popular food, but
it's not just for breakfast anymore."
It's now for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and after-dinner
cocktails. In Washington, D.C., Tex-Mex restaurant Tortilla Coast started
serving a frozen bacon pineapple jalapeno margarita earlier this year after
manager Bil Anderson was inspired by Jack-in-the-Box's bacon milkshake.
That margarita features Torani bacon syrup, pineapple juice,
jalapeno simple syrup, a strip of bacon as garnish and, of course, bacon salt
on the rim.
"It seems to have a love-hate thing going on with it. Some
people think the jalapeno is a little intense," Anderson says. "You
see a lot of bacon products now and we tried to not be cliché about it, to do
something that's innovative or different."
Andrea Ramirez, a customer marketing manager with Torani, says
that since being introduced in April, 2010, bacon has become one of their more
popular syrups, selling on par with flavors such as almond and not lagging too
far behind hazelnut.
"We thought it'd be really funny, we were going to make a
limited amount and use it at a cocktail show. … It actually sold out within two
weeks so we had to do a larger production," Ramirez says.
"The growth on it has been extremely healthy," she added
with just a bit of irony.
Ramirez says it took about two months to perfect the flavor, with
failed iterations tasting too hammy or too smoky. She says the secret behind
the bacon craze is the thought of trying meat in unexpected places.
"It makes people so nutty—when I hear about a bacon sundae, I
know I certainly want to try it," she says. "It's something everyone
knows isn't good for you but yet it's really delicious and craveable."
Reynolds' so-called "bacon enthusiasts" might
also own bacon-flavored toothpaste, candy canes, or chapstick and give it to friends wrapped in
bacon-themed gift wrap.
The pork industry has
noticed the uptick as well—the NationalPork Producers Council spent more than $1.3 million in
lobbying in 2011, up from $1.1 million in 2010. According to NPD, a national
market research company, the number of Americans who regularly ate bacon
increased five percent since 2001 to 37 percent in 2011.
"It's meat candy, it's a passion out there," says Pamela
Johnson, director of consumer communications for the National Pork Board.
"It's one of the most popular cuts of pork and we see entire days devoted
to bacon and all the things you can do with it."
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