2026: The Year of the Date
I’m calling it: 2026 is the year of the date. I’ve been watching this trend closely for the past few years, and it seems date-focused and date-sweetened brands are popping up left and right. Would it surprise you to learn that a good portion of the brands I interviewed for the Founder Feature series in 2025 and early 2026 were date-sweetened or date-focused? (Look for 🎧!) If you’ve tuned into any of my episodes or followed me on social media, you’d know: I am a date freak, and this list should come as no surprise.
With many consumers looking to cut down their consumption of added sugar or eliminate it altogether, dates are a perfect replacement for that ever-growing sweet tooth that refuses to be silenced. Dates offer sweetness (of course), but they also offer fiber – a nutrient that’s gaining a lot of traction as of late – perhaps the next big thing like we saw with protein. I’m no physician or nutritionist, but having a source of sweetness that is paired with fiber is a great way to stabilize blood sugar and not succumb to a spike and eventual crash.
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, consider getting your sweetie something sweet – without the BS. Or, if you’re a retailer, now is the perfect time to build out your date-focused product sets that will never get outdated (sorry, I had to). And if you need more options for the future, you know who to call – because I will surely have my finger on the date pulse.
Enjoy this list of brands who are just as obsessed with dates as I am – we’ve got sips, snacks, spreads, supplements, and more!
PS – Are you a brand incorporating dates into your products but don’t see your brand on this list? Get on my radar – join our Slack channel and send me a DM!
– Caitlin (your date-obsessed CPG BFF)
BRANDS WHO LOVE DATES
Amza Superfoods
Ancient Sun
AyurSome Wellness
B.T.R. Nation
Bake Me Healthy
Best Date Ever
BOD Bar
Brause 🎧
Bread SRSLY
CW Dressings
D’Vash
Daramel
Darious Snack Co
Date Better
Date Smarter
Datefix 🎧
Dateworthy
Day Out Snacks
Desert Dust
EveryDate
Figa Foods 🎧
Fresh Fizz
Gato Dates
Goodburn Sauce Co.
Good Dirt
Granolaful
Harken Sweets
Hellava Foods
HOL Health Club
Hot Date Kitchen
Good Girl Snacks
Joolies
Jools
Just Date
Kailo
Kindly Caramel
Let Me Snack
Date-sweetened, cacao dusted popped water lily seeds.
Magicdates
Mild Addictions
Mojave Mallows
Patterbar
Plonty
PurelyB 🎧
Purposefuel
RJ Naturals
Rootsy
SATTVA VIDA
Smood Sweets
Spring and Mulberry
Sukari Sweets
Sunabloom
Tamar Date Coffee 🎧
The Conscious Bar 🎧
Unicorn Bites 🎧
Soft-baked, date-sweetened, bite-sized cookies.
Urthy Eats
Vesucre 🎧
Wild West Chocolate 🎧
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