Move Over Pumpkin Spice – It’s Time for Peppermint Bark Season!

 

Wednesday, December 1, has officially been declared National Peppermint Bark Day by National Today  marking the kickoff of the holiday season and the official start time for Americans to enjoy their preferred holiday treat.

To explore consumer interest in the popular holiday confection, National Today recently conducted a nation-wide survey that revealed that Peppermint Bark is the nation’s favorite holiday treat capturing 34% of consumer votes and beating out both gingerbread at 16% and candy canes which were preferred by only 21% of consumers surveyed.

National Today’s Peppermint Bark Survey also revealed that: 

• Peppermint Bark is the preferred holiday treat to consume while decorating a Christmas tree 
  • 39% of those surveyed cited Peppermint Bark as the preferred treat while gingerbread cookies and candy canes only represented 30% of the market share combined. 
• Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark tops the consumer charts as the ‘most wanted’ foodie gift this year
  • 42% of those surveyed put Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark at the top of their foodie wish list this year, as the most ‘desired’ foodie gift. Trailing behind at 26% was a box of holiday chocolates and decorated sugar cookies – a notoriously beloved holiday treat, fell by the wayside with only 15% of people adding them to their wish list.

So why do consumers love Peppermint Bark so much? Of those questioned, 83% love the flavor, 66% love the crunch and 48% love the seasonality of it. All together that makes for the perfect combination and the ultimate holiday confection.

To help celebrate National Peppermint Bark Day, National Today has teamed up with Williams Sonoma, the original creators of Peppermint Bark.

The Original Peppermint Bark, made its debut in Williams Sonoma stores in 1998 after more than twenty rounds of testing in the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen to develop the now coveted, top-secret recipe. From start to finish, each small batch of Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark takes more than 24 hours to make, and each year, 12 weeks are spent preparing the bark to accommodate the demand for it during the holidays and the limited Peppermint Bark selling season. Every holiday season, over 1 million pounds of Guittard chocolate and 65,000 pounds of peppermint candy pieces are used to create Williams Sonoma’s iconic Peppermint Bark.

The adoration of Williams Sonoma’s Peppermint Bark has led to the confection becoming a cultural phenomenon celebrated and replicated by retailers and consumers all over the world. The popularity of the product even led to Williams Sonoma developing over 18 different Peppermint Bark flavored productsfrom coffee capsules to cookies.