I was just reading an article in the New York Times, and something felt very familiar. My wife has been telling me for about a year that caramel is the new chocolate, and this article backs her up (much later than she realized it, of course). Previous inexplicably popular food fads like asiago cheese, chipotle, mesquite grilling and now salted caramel go through a five phase journey from adventurous chefs to McDonalds and mainstream supermarkets as originally described by the Center for Culinary Development in San Francisco. Goosed by an endorsement from Barack Obama, salted caramel candies and flavours are well on their way to mainstream acceptance.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle also has five phases defining a similar track for new technologies. I suppose salted caramels are at about the same phase on its journey as blogs are on the social software hype cycle 2008 (subscription may be required).
I wish Happy New Year and a tasty box of salted caramels to all who follow this blog.
Category: caramel Hype Cycle Tags: caramel, Hype Cycle

Jeffrey Mann





































































































1 response so far ↓
1 Don Neely December 31, 2008 at 10:36 am
So can one assume that after 20 years, Ronald Reagan’s jellybeans are in the “Plateau of Productivity?”
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