Down the Rabbit Hole
Patterns, peculiarities, and the odd epiphany
The Guilty Pleasure of Coffee Syrups
I’ve become a bit peculiar about my coffee. I used to drink black filter coffee by the pot. These days, I can only stomach two cups at most. With plenty of milk and just enough syrup to hide that double espresso underneath.
Looking through coffee syrup conversations in YouScan, I found that people are actually making their own coffee syrups at home. Adjusting the sweetness, skipping ingredients they don’t want in there and coming up with flavours I’ve never even thought to try.
I’m not sure I’m ready to start simmering up sugar and spices before my first coffee. But I wanted to look into why we want to turn a functional drink like coffee into a daily treat.
Trends & Artefacts: hush trip edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Plant Diversity Hits Mainstream
Giftful Curates Teen Desire
IKEA Launches Peer Marketplace
Explainer: Hush Trips
Pigeon Apps Miss The Point
Trends & Artefacts: dead zoning edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Cinemas Deliver Concessions Home
Live Shopping Hits $20 Billion
Purple Fabric Beats White Cotton
Explainer: Dead Zoning
Hangover Prevention Goes Mainstream
Trends & Artefacts: throwback trips edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Humour Drives Gen Z Trust
Luxury Hotels Embrace Pets
Ghost Posting Reclaims Control
Explainer: Throwback Trips
Travellers are seeking Jane Austen-inspired getaways
Trends & Artefacts: bedside basket edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Venues May Get Noise Ratings Next
China's Weight-Loss Boot Camps Go Viral
"Ceremonial Cacao" Rises As Chocolate Alternative
Explainer: Bedside Baskets
Protein Bars In a Tin
Trends & Artefacts: friendslop edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Tinder Pivots From Swiping To In-Person Events
Dutch Bros Turns Customer Hacks Into Menu Items
Tech Brands Now Sell Friction
Explainer: friendslop
Barbershops Become An Investable Asset Class
Gamified Novels are Levelling Up
I read about gamified novels, LitRPG (literary role-playing games) and instantly fell down a deep rabbithole. LitRPG weaves the mechanics of video games or tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons into a novel. The protagonist can see their stats or their character sheets, they can interact with them and they can level up.
One of the most successful LitRPG novels is the Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl. My library had 168 digital editions of it, so I did not have to wait a single second before I could borrow it. It follows a protagonist who is forced into a game-like reality controlled by an alien race.
Then I pulled data from YouScan Social Listening ✨to see what the conversations actually look like and who the loudest voices in the fandom are.
Trends & Artefacts: anti-blush edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Soft Serve Ice Cream Sees Wild Reinvention
Rome's Pasta Windows Spark Debate
Aarhus Pilots City-Wide Reusable Cups
Explainer: Anti-Blush
Luxury Brands Turn To Ballet For Prestige
Trends & Artefacts: luteal uglies edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Croissants Get Stuffed With Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Invades Every Menu Category
Japanese Milk Buns Surge At Waitrose
Explainer: luteal uglies
Oddbox & Fruits of the Forage Turn Surplus Veg Into Chutney
Trends & Artefacts: main character travel edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Teen Inventors Tackle Microplastic Pollution
IKEA Designs Furniture For Renters
Fashion's "Grandma Aesthetic" Goes Mainstream
Explainer: main character travel
"Cityboat" Trend Takes Off In China
Trends & Artefacts: affordable indulgence edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Fake Delivery App Sells No Food
Fancy Dinners Become Everyday Habit
Study Finds Nearly Half Show Shopping Addiction Signs
Explainer: affordable indulgence
Brand Names Matter Less Than Function
“If this is your first time being poor...”
"If this is your first time being poor..." this is how Kiki Rough opens her "Recession Recipes" videos on TikTok: bean "meatloaf," chickpea "chicken nuggets," whatever gets a family fed on cheap ingredients and pantry staples.
It got me looking into my own childhood meals, growing up in Germany: Eintopf, Pellkartoffeln mit Quark, Königsberger Klopse. All of them are considered "struggle meals", even though I never saw them as such.
The memories sent me down a rabbit hole and I looked into YouScan Social Listening ✨ data to see how struggle meals and the nostalgia of Oma's recipes are being discussed online.
Trends & Artefacts: DINKWAD edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Younger Crowds Fill Art House Cinemas
Bleak Week Builds A Festival On Sadness
Cars Are Getting Older, Not Newer
Explainer: carspreading
Tech Demand Drove Car Prices Up
Trends & Artefacts: carspreading edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Younger Crowds Fill Art House Cinemas
Bleak Week Builds A Festival On Sadness
Cars Are Getting Older, Not Newer
Explainer: carspreading
Tech Demand Drove Car Prices Up
Trends & Artefacts: chalance edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Gen Z Feels Nostalgic For Eras They Missed
Korean Beauty Splits Sun Care By Body Part
Taylor Swift Sends Sancerre Searches Soaring
Explainer: chalance
Gen Z Treats Drinks As Identity
Trends & Artefacts: workation edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
London's Late-Night Dessert Cafés Are Booming
Americans Are Snacking More, and More Often
Blouge Wine Offers a Simpler Way Into Summer Drinking
Explainer: workation
Show and Tell Is Back, and Adults Are the Audience
Someone Banned a Book. Everyone Read It.
Dua Lipa's Manifesto Library has opened inside Livraria Lello in Portugal, one of the most photographed bookshops on Earth. It features 100 books that have been banned somewhere in the world, sorted under the headings Control, Voice, Memory and Power.
Whether it is Reese Witherspoon, Oprah or Dua Lipa, celebrity book clubs work by attaching a famous person's taste to a list of titles and that list moves units. But is reading a banned book actually resistance?
So I looked social listening data in YouScan. While much of the conversation focuses on institutional battles, there is a distinct and growing cluster that reveals people bypassing traditional libraries and schools entirely.
Trends & Artefacts: mallmaxxing edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Cash App Turns a Viral Wand Trend Into a Payment Product
Pill Form Could Widen Access to Weight-Loss Drugs
Decathlon Pays Cash for Returned Festival Tents
Explainer: mallmaxxing
AI Is Powering a New Wave of Return Fraud