Our cultural infatuation with all things spicy has begun to squeeze into cheese.
Specifically — hold the sneezes — Pepper Jack cheeses.
Pepper Jack — Monterey Jack cheese blended with spicy peppers — isn't just hot in the consumer products arena, it's on fire. Pepper Jack as a menu offering on fast-food sandwiches has jumped more than 37% over the past four years, reports Datassential, the restaurant market-research firm. During that period, its availability as a menu offering on fast-food burgers has grown more than 56%. That's why brand giants from Kraft to Kellogg to Blimpie are enamored.
Marketing gurus say that simply offering the cheese on restaurant menus can give a chain a competitive edge. "It's one of the fastest-growing cheeses we've ever seen," says Steve Evans, marketing vice president of Blimpie, which recently wrapped it into a turkey and chicken sub. And it's shown up in nearly 50 other new consumer products over the past two years, reports research firm Datamonitor.
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