According to what we have seen in the latest tapas contests, the following are the most relevant trends that we should expect with regards to tapas and pinchos in 2016.
Trend #1: Escalating imaginative looks
Though nothing new, tapas appearance climbs to a greater rank day after day. The inclination for a sophisticated appearance intends to capture all our senses, including our hearing. Everything plays a fair part to add spectacularity, including mist and smoke or ingenious eye deceiving tricks to make us believe what is not true.
Trend #2: Shorter and less descriptive names
Long descriptive formulas revealing all the secrets in a tapa and leaving hardly anything to imagination are falling out of use. Now, unconventional names such as Oysters!! Where is my oyster? (Miguel Pérez), Old woman striptease (Antón Castiñeiras) or Thunder (José Manuel Chazarra) intend to shock and stir peoples curiosity.
Trend #3: predominance of fish and sea produce
Former meat predominance has been declining for the last few years. Foie, which was once an omnipresent ingredient at bar tapas, has hardly made any appearances this year. We have tasted all kinds of fish and sea food though, including those which were not traditionally found in these bites because of their fiddly handling.
Trend #4: humble traditional produce
The trend for crisis time is to drop costly ingredients and to turn to a novel use of humble traditional products. Traditional ingredients are reinvented and handled to be palated in surprising combinations and they come with the additional advantage of an affordable final outcome at the sales end. Mushrooms and fungi keep on sharing a protagonist role.
Trend #5: geometric shapes and focal unity
The trend for geometrically shaped presentations is still going strong. Ingredients and colours combine spectacularly in tapas with a powerfully impacting look. Diffuse and structured layouts are still valid and there is a predominance of single focal units to facilitate the presentation flow.
Trend #6: a finger-picked single bite
Tapas are becoming smaller, with just one or two bites to be picked up into your mouth with your bare hands. The tendency is to cook tapas that are easy to eat without the assistance of any cutlery, a nippy snack that allows you to quickly move on to the next tapa. Another advantage of small tapas is, once again, their final price.
What are your views on tapas and pinchos trends for 2015? Do you think that the trends that we saw in Valladolid are representative of the current trends in this gastronomic sector? Leave your opinions and comments and do not hesitate to share this article with your social networks.
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