Dan O’s Adds Outlaws To Core As Seasoning Blends Surge

The spice and seasonings category has traditionally been a slow moving, over-saturated set, but according to NielsenIQ, sales grew 5.8% over the past year and are still heating up.

Within that flaming hot rise, Dan O’s today unveiled a new line of blends known as Outlaws. The 3-SKU assortment includes Sweet & Tangy BBQ with Tamarind, Spicy BBQ and Sweet Caribbean.

“Dan-O’s Outlaws include ingredients we always considered off-limits,” said Dan Oliver, founder and blend officer, in a press release. “While we are breaking our own rules, we truly believe we are taking flavor to new heights. Dan-O’s Outlaw blends are great for grilling, smoking, and everything in between. Flavor this bold should be illegal.”

The 10-year-old, Kentucky-based business has grown significantly in the past five years after recipe videos posted to its TikTok began to go viral during the pandemic-induced at-home cooking wave. Since then, the company has continued to capitalize on that traction, introducing new products to its Premium Blends line, such as Chili Lime, and retooling its front-of-pack design earlier this year.

The new line is made with brown sugar, sea salt and a blend of peppers. According to Dan O’s, the sugar inclusion is what differentiates this new line, enabling the product “to enhance caramelization, texture, and flavor complexity.” That also puts the products right on trend, per Mattson, which recently shared with Nosh that crunch and texture enhancements are helping drive the latest wave of seasoning blend innovation.

Dan O’s portfolio now includes 16 SKUs across three lines: Premium Blends, cheese-like seasonings known as Cheesonings and now Outlaws. The products are available in over 20,000 doors nationwide including retailers like Kroger, Walmart, Jewel Osco, Giant Eagle, Lowes, and more.

Other flavor-forward brands like Tajin have also worked to squeeze the most out of this rise in recent years. Rather than innovating on new blends, the company has stuck its tried-and-true pepper, lime and sea salt combination into a range of other products to drive growth and awareness to its core, via collaborations with Pop-Tarts, Bud Light, Hellmann’s and many more.

The performance of spice and seasoning giant McCormick mirrors the general upward category momentum as the company reaffirmed its guidance after notching comparable net sales to the year-ago period and 2% volume growth in its second-quarter earnings, reported at the end of March; organic sales were up 2%, driven by volume growth.

But there could be a limit to how much brands like Dan O’s can lean into innovation for growth. As consumers seek high-value pantry items, the physical space of their spice cabinets could hinder continued upward momentum.

“What we’re really seeing right now with seasonings is versatility,” Gina Hampe, senior innovation manager at Mattson, told Nosh. “[People] want to be able to use it on more than just one thing. From an economic standpoint as well as a space standpoint, [they] don’t have room for all of these things in [their] pantry.”