Google has released its annual summer food and drink trends report, and two names sit at the top of the list for 2026: the spritz and Spam.

The compilation, surfaced through Google's news feed and picked up by MarthaStewart.com, identifies the food and drink topics gaining the most traction in U.S. search interest heading into the summer season. The spritz — the low-alcohol, bitter-and-bubbly cocktail format built around prosecco, sparkling water and an aperitivo base — and Spam, the Hormel-produced canned pork product, anchor the list.

For restaurant operators, the value of these lists is not the tastes themselves but what search behavior signals before it reaches the table. A rising query volume around a drink category like the spritz typically precedes menu demand by a season or more, giving bar programs time to build a pour cost around accessible sparkling wine and pre-batched bitter components. A spike in interest around a shelf-stable protein like Spam points toward kitchen teams testing menu engineering plays — fried rice formats, breakfast applications, bao fillings — where a low-cost, consistent canned ingredient can anchor a profitable small plate.

What does this change for operators?

Trend lists do not move checks on their own. They move them when a chain or independent operator converts a search signal into a limited-time offer, a cocktail-menu refresh or a brunch platform before the curve peaks. Summer is the highest-stakes window for that conversion: it is the season when beverage programs typically drive their largest share of traffic, and when guests are most willing to order a drink they first saw online.

The broader pattern in Google's seasonal food reporting has favored familiar formats given a new context — nostalgic or pantry staples reframed through international lenses, and classic cocktail structures reworked with lower-alcohol profiles. The 2026 list, with the spritz and Spam at its center, fits that shape: a drinks trend built on sessionability and a food trend built on pantry economics.

Search-interest data remains a leading rather than lagging indicator. Operators who act on it in the spring — pricing a house spritz program, sourcing canned pork for a test kitchen run — will know by Labor Day whether the signal held.