Baby Boomers Change Chocolate Too

Baby boomers’ chocolate tastes have become more exotic over the years. White chocolate martinis, cayenne chocolate bars, and Mexican kajeta cream chocolate cakes are just a few of the new chocolate favorites among boomers.

The conventional explanation for these new chocolate trends is that Americans are more sophisticated eaters because of immigration and prosperity, but boomers have always been adventurous and continue to explore new avenues through food. Boomers experiment with new and unusual brownie recipes to chocolate chip cookies that are more mint and almond favor than chocolate. They savor Belgian and French chocolate candies and truffles as if they had grown up with them.

Boomers also like changing food combinations and pushing the limits of food favors. All of this experimentation relates to their desire for personal growth and change. They want to make their own new food dishes, and they are combining, diluting, and inventing new chocolate favors. Boomers now enjoy exotic hot chocolate mixes including Green Papaya, Goji Berry Powder, Amaretto, Butterscotch, and Cheesecake, to name just a few.

Every seven seconds, a boomer turns 55 in the United States. By the year 2030 when all boomers will be over 65, their numbers will swell the over 65 age population to more than 20 percent of the total American population.

As boomers age, they change what they eat based on their increasing desire to age well and stay healthy. For example, boomers are making dark chocolate, which has been shown to be plentiful in flavonols and antioxidants, more popular then ever.

Not only are boomers becoming more focused on adult health issues, they are also concerned about the environment. More of them prefer organic and functional chocolates, and they are purchasing them in the form of specialty dark chocolate and premium gourmet boxed chocolates. The growth of chocolate sales as a whole is around 3.5 percent a year, in part because of boomers. Gourmet chocolate sales are increasing at an average rate of 20 percent a year.

Boomers are seeking premium chocolate, in the hope that it will help them reduce their risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer, and diabetes, and medical research suggests that it can.

From the inexpensive chocolate used to make the chocolate bunnies that boomers ate as children in the 1950s and 60s to the exotic chocolate favors and gourmet chocolate of today, boomers keep changing the chocolate landscape.