Raphael Stevens

“Swicy,” a portmanteau of sweet and spicy, has become the popular term to describe the resurgence of sweet and spicy food and drinks appearing on menus this year.
Nearly a tenth of U.S. restaurants have “sweet and spicy” menu items, according to Datassential.
While sweet and spicy pairings are nothing new, a more diverse population and Gen Z’s desire for heat have fueled the latest iteration of the trend.

A general view of atmosphere during ‘Sonic Desert’ presented by Coca-Cola Spiced and Topo Chico in partnership with BPM Music on April 13, 2024 in Thermal, California. 
Randy Shropshire | Getty Images

The hottest food and drink trend this year isn’t just spicy — it’s also sweet.
“Swicy,” a portmanteau of sweet and spicy, has taken over restaurant marketing. While the term hasn’t actually appeared on menus, the shorthand has become a popular way to describe the resurgence of foods and drinks marrying sweet and spicy flavors. The Food Institute even dubbed it the “Summer of Swicy” this year.

Nearly 10% of restaurant menus have “sweet and spicy” items, up 1.8% over the last 12 months, according to market research firm Datassential. Over the next four years, its menu penetration is expected to rise 9.6%.
A slew of restaurant chains have embraced the trend, from Shake Shack’s swicy menu to Burger King’s Fiery Strawberry & Sprite to Starbucks’ Spicy Lemonade Refreshers. Common menu items have paired fruity flavors and chili powder, or used sauces like hot honey and gochujang, a red chili paste that’s a popular Korean condiment.

Starbucks Spicy Lemonade Refreshers.
Courtesy: Starbucks

Although the menu items were largely only available for a limited time, culinary experts think that the swicy trend has staying power.
Buzzy, trendy menu items are more important now to restaurants, which are leaning on both discounts and innovation to attract diners and reverse declining sales. In August, traffic to U.S. restaurants fell 3.6%, the industry’s second-worst monthly performance this year since January, according to Black Box Intelligence. Limited-time menu items are particularly attractive to Gen Z customers, a key demographic because they account for roughly a fifth of Americans.

The ‘swicy’ story

While the swicy portmanteau might be new, the flavor pairings have been around for decades, according to trendologist Kara Nielsen. The one element that might have changed over time are the spice levels.

“I’m sure food is hotter now than it was 20 years ago,” Nielsen said.
She remembers when Jeffrey Saad opened a fast-casual Mexican restaurant in San Francisco called Sweet Heat in 1993, before he became a celebrity chef and Food Network star.

Fudio | Istock | Getty Images

The second coming of the sweet heat trend started when Mike’s Hot Honey started blowing up around 2010, according to Nielsen. Korean cuisine, especially its sweet and spicy gochujang sauces have become more popular, too, helping to drive more people to the flavor combination.
The pandemic also led more consumers to return to classic comfort foods: burgers, fried chicken sandwiches and pizza. But the desire for familiar favorites has faded, and now diners are once again seeking novelty — or at least a twist.
“Now, four years on, we’re moving out of this and adding more spicy flavors,” Nielsen said.
Experts at McCormick first called out the reemerging trend in its 2022 flavor forecast report, according to Hadar Cohen Aviram, executive chef for the spice and flavoring company’s U.S. consumer division.
McCormick highlighted “plus sweet,” when sweetness acts as a flavor enhancer rather than being the star of the show. The forecasters were even considering naming the trend “swicy” in their report but went with “plus sweet” because it was broader, she said.
The following year, McCormick, which owns Frank’s RedHot and Cholula, called out “beyond heat,” or using other flavors to bring out more flavor in addition to the spiciness.
“We see lots of different people wanting to add some heat to their plates, but they do want to make sure that there’s something for everyone,” Cohen Aviram said.

Gen Zwicy?

One reason why so many U.S. consumers are seeking out spicy foods and drinks? Increasing diversity.
“The reason that sweet heat or swicy is sort of everlasting is that it’s a key component of traditional global cuisines like Mexican, like Thai, like Korean, that a lot of people of those ancestries and heritages are familiar with it. Then it gets introduced and repackaged,” Nielsen said.
For example, Shake Shack’s culinary team was inspired to make Korean-inspired items for a limited-time menu, according to John Karangis, the company’s executive chef and vice president of culinary innovation.
One of the menu items was a Korean fried chicken sandwich, coated in a sweet and spicy gochujang glaze. After it created the limited-time menu, Shake Shack’s marketing team pitted the chicken sandwich against the Korean BBQ burger, with savory and salty flavors. It told customers to pick a side: team swicy or team umami.
The swicy trend also appeals to Gen Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012.
“We have a new generation, Generation Z, that’s really excited about complex flavor profiles — but there’s only so many you can taste: sweet, salty, bitter, umami,” Nielsen said.
Here’s one example of the generation’s heat-seeking behavior: over half of Gen Z consumers identify as “hot sauce connoisseurs,” according to a survey conducted by NCSolutions.
And with swicy, achieving the perfect ratio can be tough because it’s so personal, McCormick’s Cohen Aviram said.
Feedback from Shake Shack’s customers reflects that, too.
“Of course, we hear a lot of great feedback from guests, and we also heard other feedback like ‘Hey, you could have punched it up a little bit,'” Karangis said.
Cohen Aviram prefers about 40% sweet, 60% spicy when she’s creating swicy concoctions, like a Frank’s RedHot ice cream bar.
“The thing with sweetness if that it kind of hijacks your palate, so if you use too much of it, you’re just not going to sense the nuance,” she said.
When Burger King released its Fiery menu this summer, it ranked the items on a scale of spiciness. At one – meaning the least spicy – was its Fiery Strawberry & Sprite drink. The swicy menu item was inspired by another trend: “dirty sodas,” the combination of soda, creamers and syrups started in Utah, according to Pat O’Toole, Burger King North America’s chief marketing officer.
The drink marked the first time that Burger King tweaked a classic fountain beverage, but it previously introduced a Frozen Fanta Kickin’ Mango, with a similar swicy flavor profile.
“Guests can easily and accessibly try a ‘swicy’ beverage offering and work their way up the spice scale with other food items, if they so choose,” O’Toole said, adding that the chain saw strong interest across its focus groups for a spicy take on Sprite.
Of course, not all swicy profiles resonate with customers. For example, Coca-Cola in September discontinued its spiced Coke just six months after it hit shelves, after it initially intended it as a permanent offering.
But despite some missteps, the swicy pairing is likely here to stay – at least for a while.
“The flavors will stick around, for sure. I think the name will get tiresome. … It probably still has a couple of years to go,” Nielsen said.

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Lucid Group announced a public offering last week to raise roughly $1.75 billion.
CEO Peter Rawlinson said the raise was a timely, strategic business decision to ensure the EV maker has enough capital for its ongoing operations and growth plans.
He told CNBC that investors should have expected the move, saying it was “misinterpreted and misreported” after the company’s stock fell.

Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson poses at the Nasdaq MarketSite as Lucid Motors (Nasdaq: LCID) begins trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange after completing its business combination with Churchill Capital Corp IV in New York City, New York, July 26, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters

DETROIT — Investors misinterpreted a public offering on Wednesday by Lucid Group that raised roughly $1.75 billion — and led to the stock’s worst daily performance in nearly three years, CEO Peter Rawlinson told CNBC.
Rawlinson said the raise, which included a public offering of nearly 262.5 million shares of its common stock, was a timely, strategic business decision to ensure the electric vehicle company has enough capital for its ongoing operations and growth plans. It also should alleviate any potential worries that the company would need to issue a “going concern” disclosure regarding its operations, he said.

“We’d signaled that we had a cash runway to Q4 next year. As a Nasdaq company, we have to avoid a going concern. And a going concern is issued within 12 months of your financial runway,” Rawlinson said Monday from the company’s newly opened offices in suburban Detroit. “So, it should have been no surprise to anybody.”
But Wall Street analysts largely took a negative view of the move due to its timing. Several said the raise was unnecessary or came earlier than expected for the company, which had $5.16 billion of total liquidity to end the third quarter. That included more than $4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investment balances.
The announced transactions also come two months after Lucid said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had agreed to supply the company with $1.5 billion in cash, as the EV maker looks to add new models to its product line.
“A cap raise was slightly larger and earlier than we had expected,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote following the raise being announced Wednesday after markets closed.

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Lucid’s stock

RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan shared similar thoughts: “We suspect that investors will wonder why LCID is raising more capital just after it secured the PIF capital in August, and at currently depressed share price levels. We expect Lucid shares to trade sharply lower as a result,” he wrote in an investor note Wednesday night.

Rawlinson on Monday reiterated that the company would raise capital “opportunistically.” He said the company’s current funds now secure its capital into 2026, ahead of it launching a new midsize platform later that year.
“This is exactly as expected. It is exactly to the playbook. It should have come as zero surprise to anyone,” he said. “And why did I choose this moment? Because I didn’t want to string it out to the end, because I didn’t have to.”
Shares of Lucid declined about 18% on Thursday after the announcement — marking the worst daily decline for the company since December 2021.
Rawlinson said Lucid is currently in a highly capital-intensive investment period as it expands its sole U.S. factory in Arizona; builds a second plant in Saudi Arabia; prepares to launch its second product, an SUV called Gravity; develops its next-generation powertrain; and builds out its retail and service network.
“Those five categories are the long-term investment for the future that we’re making now,” Rawlinson said. “Have we got to cut costs with every car we’re making? Absolutely.”

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Wednesday’s announcement was made in conjunction with plans for Lucid’s majority stockholder and affiliate of PIF, Ayar Third Investment Co., to purchase more than 374.7 million shares of common stock from Lucid to maintain its roughly 59% ownership of the company.
Such a transaction is called pro rata, which allows an investor such as PIF to participate in future rounds of financing and retain its ownership stake. It’s something the PIF has routinely done with Lucid.
Individual investors were likely concerned by share dilution following the action, but Rawlinson said the continued support of the PIF should be viewed as a positive.
“I think it’s been misinterpreted and misreported,” Rawlinson said. “The norm is to go pro rata. If we didn’t go pro rata, it surely would be a signal that the PIF were losing faith in us.”
Lucid last week said the public offering was expected to raise about $1.67 billion, with a 30-day option for underwriter BofA Securities to purchase up to nearly 39.37 million additional shares of Lucid’s common stock as well.
Lucid has reported record deliveries in 2024 of its current model, an all-electric sedan called Air. The company expects to produce 9,000 vehicles this year. Production of its Gravity SUV is expected to start by the end of this year.
However, Lucid’s sales and financial performance have not scaled as quickly as expected following higher costs, slower-than-expected demand for EVs, and marketing and awareness problems for the company. More

Nike will be the exclusive uniform provider for the NBA and WNBA for another 12 years.
The sneaker giant, which also designs uniforms for the MLB and NFL, has shored up its relationship with one of its most important allies as it struggles with falling sales and looks to hang on to its contract with the NFL.
Nike’s previous contract with the NBA was reportedly worth $1 billion and its latest contract is “much bigger,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The NBA logo is seen outside an NBA store in New York on July 8, 2024.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

Nike will be the exclusive uniform and apparel provider for the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association for another 12 years after they renewed their partnership with the sneaker giant, the leagues announced Monday.
Under the terms of the deal, Nike will be the leagues’ global outfitting, merchandising, marketing and content partner until 2037. The company will also be in charge of designing and manufacturing uniforms, on-court apparel and fan merchandise.

Nike’s last deal with the basketball leagues, which kicked off during the 2017-18 NBA season, was reported to be worth $1 billion and marked the first time an apparel partner had its logo on an NBA or WNBA jersey. It is unclear how much Nike’s contract renewal with the leagues is worth, but a source familiar with the deal characterized it as “much bigger” than the previous contract.
As the largest athletic apparel company in the world, Nike has long been a favorite among professional sports leagues and their athletes. Even so, its contract renewal with the NBA comes at a time when the sneaker giant has had to work harder to maintain its critical partnerships, and new CEO Elliott Hill tries to regain market share lost in recent years.
Nike is also the official uniform supplier of the National Football League and Major League Baseball, but those relationships have taken a hit as the company faces declining sales and criticism that it has fallen behind on innovation.
The NFL’s deal with Nike expires after the 2027 season, but the league has opened up the process to other bidders and is already in talks with several companies interested in competing for the agreement, a source told CNBC.
Nike’s contract with the MLB does not expire until 2029. However, it will have to repair its relationship with the league after it debuted new uniforms earlier this year that led to widespread complaints from players and fans that they were see-through, did not fit right and looked “amateurish,” ESPN reported at the time.

Despite Nike’s recent stumbles, the NBA told CNBC it has no concerns about continuing its partnership with the apparel company.
“From our perspective, we have 100% confidence in Nike on a long term global basis,” said Sal LaRocca, the NBA’s president of global partnerships. “They’re endemic to basketball. They’ve been a partner of ours in one form or another for well over 30 years.”
LaRocca added the partnership has been so strong that the league did not even open the process up to other bidders.
When asked about the MLB fiasco, LaRocca defended Nike and said those kinds of issues come with the territory.
“I think any company that is on the edge of innovation and is always looking to push the envelope for improvement may run into some unintended consequences,” said LaRocca.
Nike has not faced significant criticism for its basketball uniforms. LaRocca said, “you’ll certainly see fresh new products on a regular basis from them.”
Nike has had a marketing partnership with the NBA since 1992 — and with the WNBA since its 1997 founding — and the brand endorses most of the leagues’ biggest players, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu.
As of Friday’s close, Nike’s stock has fallen about 24% this year and has underperformed both competitors and the S&P 500, which has gained about 23% this year. On Running and Deckers, two companies that have been taking market share from Nike, are up 79% and 43%, respectively.
Historically, Nike has outperformed the S&P 500 by an average of about 8%.

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Top universities are tapping into the family office boom, with a growing number of programs and courses aimed at training the next generation of family office leaders.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business launched the Booth Family Office Initiative, a combination of research programs, courses and summits aimed at current and future family office executives.
Talent is scarce, and family offices are battling for experienced investors, accountants, lawyers and estate planners.

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Courtesy: The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Top universities are tapping into the family office boom, with a growing number of programs and courses aimed at training the next generation of family office leaders.

Last week, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business launched the Booth Family Office Initiative, a combination of research programs, courses and summits aimed at current and future family office executives. The initiative includes a council of 50 family office leaders and Booth alumni who will help steer the program.
“If you think of the family office market, the amount of capital overseen, and the importance of family offices commercially, in investing and philanthropy, the growth has been significant,” said Paul Carbone, co-founder and vice chairman of Pritzker Private Capital and a member of the Family Office Initiative Steering Committee. “The challenges they face have only grown. Here at Booth we have a deep intellectual capital base that can be applied to these questions.”
The Booth Initiative is part of a surge in family office programs at top universities. Business schools at Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, Pepperdine and other universities have started offering courses aimed at family offices or family-owned companies.
Yet the Booth program marks the biggest university bet on family offices in 20 years. In 2004, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the CCC Alliance, the family office peer group, teamed up to form the Wharton Global Family Alliance. With research, roundtables, courses, special presentations and workshops, the Wharton Global Family Alliance has become a leading resource for family offices and the broader wealth-management industry.

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For top universities, family offices offer a rich potential source of research funding and business school students, along with expertise in one of the fastest-growing fields in finance. For family offices, the programs can help train the next generation of family office leaders at a time when talent is scarce and family offices are battling for experienced investors, accountants, lawyers and estate planners.

The number of family offices has grown to more than 8,000 from about 6,000 in 2019, according to Deloitte. Their assets are expected to top $5.4 trillion by 2030, up from $3.1 trillion today. As more wealthy alumni launch family offices or work for one, they’re becoming an important pipeline of donors and funding. Trust companies, private banks and consulting firms eager for family office clients are also potential sponsors for the programs.

“It’s a great opportunity for Booth School, the students and the community,” said John C. Heaton, a finance professor at Booth who will start teaching a new MBA course next year called “The Family Office.”
The core of the Booth and Wharton programs is research. Private banks and wealth management firms already publish a steady stream of family office surveys and analyses. Yet the universities say their research will be more rigorous and objective.
Booth, for instance, said it’s working with software companies that provide back-office platforms for family offices to get anonymized, aggregated data on their portfolios and investment changes.
“That’s real data, not filtered opinions about what people are doing,” Heaton said.
The initiative will decide what to research based on suggestions from its family office council. When Booth asked family offices for research priorities, for instance, the top answer was behavioral economics. Booth is famous for its behavioral economics program, so helping family office professionals navigate the interpersonal relationships with families and their decision-making process will be useful, Carbone said.
“It was surprising to us that the No. 1 issue wasn’t investing or risk management,” Carbone said. “It was about the human dynamics.”
Wharton’s research is also driven by questions from family offices. Along with regular research papers, it produces an annual, 100-page “benchmarking study” covering a broad array of topics that’s only available to the participating family offices.
Raphael “Raffi” Amit, professor of management at the Wharton School who founded and leads the Wharton Global Family Alliance, said one issue he looked at in this year’s benchmark study was the rise of direct deals. While more family offices are bypassing private equity funds to invest directly in private companies, for instance, few have the necessary expertise.
“Most of these families don’t staff up with private equity professionals,” he said. “Those are professionals who know how to evaluate a transaction, structure a transaction, manage the exit, how to add value. They do club deals. But putting it politely, the jury is still out whether this strategy will actually work.”
Universities can also offer an increasingly rare experience for family office professionals — non-commercial gatherings. With the majority of family-office conferences becoming overrun by sponsors, salespeople and vendors, family offices are turning to universities to convene more “pure” gatherings of peers.
Wharton’s annual Family Office Roundtable Forum, a collaboration between Wharton and leading families, has become one of the most coveted events of the year for family offices, limited to 60 or 70 invitations a year. Last year’s roundtable was in Tokyo, while the 2022 meeting was in Zurich.
“We have a lot of family offices that want to come, but we had to cap it at 76 families,” Amit said. “We want to keep it private and small enough so people are sharing ideas and perspectives. It’s a pure play. There is no commercial agenda.”
Booth is planning its own Family Office Summit next May. It’s inviting around 200 attendees from families and multifamily offices, including members of its family office council.
“Families can go to a family office gathering every week if they want to,” Carbone said. “But we’re creating a safe network — no commercial angle and no one selling a product or service.” More