By: Catherine Barry, director of marketing, National Honey Board

Honey is innovative, creative, and functional. It’s an all-natural sweetener that bakers use for a multitude of reasons to develop breads, sweet goods, crackers, bars, cookies, and more. It’s a clean label ingredient familiar to consumers, and it’s on trend more than ever in 2022, thanks to consumers who are looking for healthful indulgence, better-for-you noshes, and permissible eating in the baking space.

Here are just a few of the new product innovations that bakers are launching at supermarkets that represent honey in the baking category in a multitude of ways. 

• Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Whiskey Cake, Great Spirits Baking Company
  • Great Spirits Baking Company is releasing its Tennessee Honey Whiskey Cake variety at the end of summer, just in time for the beginning of holiday shopping time. This cake is infused with a fan favorite: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Whiskey, and it’s perfect for adult gatherings where a dessert can help amp up the festivities.
• Honey Kookies, Mary’s Gone Kookies
  • Mary’s Gone Crackers expanded its line this year to include Kookies: graham-style, plant-based, organic, and gluten-free snacking cookies. The company recently announced wider distribution, thanks in part to the commitment to providing consumers with a better-for-you Kookie that satisfies consumer cravings.
• Paleo Cookies, Jack’s Paleo Kitchen
  • Consumers are loving the “gift” aspect of baked goods this year, and Jack’s Paleo Kitchen’s Cookie Club not only makes a great gift, but also makes it so consumers can taste test a variety of honey-sweetened, crunchy cookies like Lemon Zing, Cinnamon Raisin, Sunflower Seed Butter or Double Chocolate. The gift that keeps on giving!
• Honey Whole Wheat, Inked Bread Co. 
  • The iconographic Queen Bee is front and center on Honey Whole Wheat’s packaging, making this honey-sweetened bread a standout on store shelves. Honey and organic whole cracked wheat are the star ingredients of this natural, earthy, and delicious loaf.
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Kize Life Changing Bar
  • There are only six ingredients in this clean label bar that was one of our favorites at Sweets & Snacks Expo. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip offers nine grams of protein, and it’s dairy- and gluten-free. Further, proceeds of each bar goes to charity, something consumers can feel good about purchasing.