Move Over, Hot Honey. Swicy Flavors Are Getting More Interesting

Hot honey has spent the past few years turning up on everything from fried chicken and pizza to biscuits and ice cream. The mix of sweet and heat became so popular it earned its own name: swicy.

The trend is not disappearing, but it is changing. Restaurants and food brands are moving beyond the familiar pairing of honey and chile peppers to create flavors that are fruity, smoky, tangy, creamy, and connected to cuisines from around the world. The goal is no longer to make food as hot as possible. It is to make the heat taste better.

Diners Want Flavor, Not a Dare

Spicy food has been popular for years, but younger diners want more of it. About 95% of restaurants now offer at least one spicy item, according to market research firm Datassential. U.S. restaurant chains added 76 new spicy items between March and June 2025 alone.

That might suggest diners want intense heat, but the numbers tell a more interesting story.

Rubix Foods found that 66% of Gen Z consumers are more likely to purchase a menu item advertised as spicy, and 44% would pay more for it. At the same time, 74% said they prefer a mild or medium spice level.

"I like spice when it adds something to the food, not when it takes over," said Bella Bucchiotti of xoxoxBella. "Pairing heat with something sweet, tangy or creamy makes it much more interesting and lets you actually taste everything else on the plate."

Rubix calls this "complex heat," which simply means pairing spice with other flavors instead of making the food as hot as possible. Examples include peach habanero chicken, coconut lime fries, mango chile wings, and smoky chipotle butter.

Swicy Is Moving Beyond Hot Honey

Fruit is playing a major role in making spicy flavors more approachable. Mango and habanero are already a familiar match, but peaches, pineapple, watermelon, guava, and citrus are giving restaurants and food companies more room to experiment.

"We're adding to the 'swicy' vernacular with 'fricy,' combining fruit with spice in pairings like peach and habanero or mango and serrano," said Katie Ayoub, managing editor of Flavor & The Menu.

Frank's RedHot leaned into fruit and spice with four new sauces released in 2026: Spicy Maple, Pineapple Hawaiian, Garlic Parmesan, and Ghost Pepper Ranch. The collection ranges from sweet and fruity to creamy and extremely hot, but each sauce offers more than heat alone.

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The pineapple sauce, for example, combines fruit with tamari and a gradually building heat. Spicy Maple adds a rich sweetness to a medium level of spice, while ranch makes ghost pepper seem at least slightly less intimidating.

Restaurant chains are adding these flavors to their menus, too. Recent examples include Cava's Harissa Honey Chicken, Taco Bell's Mike's Hot Honey Diablo Sauce, Chipotle's Adobo Ranch, and Wendy's Takis Fuego Meal.

Sauces make it relatively easy for restaurants to introduce something new without changing an entire dish. A familiar order of chicken tenders, fries, or pizza can feel completely different with a peach habanero glaze or spicy maple dip.

Where These Spicy Flavors Come From

Many of the spicy flavors now showing up on menus have long been staples in kitchens around the world.

Innova Market Insights says two flavors to watch are harissa and shatat dakwa. Harissa is a North African chile paste made with garlic, oil, and spices, with an earthy, smoky flavor. Shatat dakwa comes from Sudan and combines peanut butter, chile peppers, lime, and garlic.

You are also more likely to see Korean gochujang, Chinese chili crisp, Portuguese and African piri piri, Thai nam phrik, Japanese karashi mustard, and Sichuan pepper on menus. Sichuan pepper stands out because it creates a tingling, slightly numbing feeling in the mouth rather than the usual chile pepper burn.

For diners, these ingredients offer a small taste of a different place or food tradition. They also provide the depth that a generic "extra hot" sauce often lacks.

Heat Is Turning Up in Unexpected Places

The next round of swicy foods will not be limited to wings and chicken sandwiches. Innova expects spicy flavors to move further into chocolate, desserts, coffee, fruit drinks, and nonalcoholic beverages.

Chile can make sweet fruits like watermelon taste even sweeter. The rich, slightly bitter flavors of coffee and chocolate can balance the heat, so the spice does not take over.

Do not let the words habanero or ghost pepper scare you off. When those peppers are mixed with fruit, honey, ranch, or something creamy, the dish may not be nearly as hot as it sounds.

The next time you are out to eat, try a peach habanero glaze, spicy maple dip, or harissa honey sauce. If you're unsure, order it on the side. You may be surprised by how quickly sweet heat wins you over.