Limited-time snack launches:
- Oreo is letting consumers choose which of its three new flavours returns, turning an LTO into a product development tool.
- Brands including Joyride and Hampton by Hilton are using competitions to give consumers a direct role in creating new products.
- Pringles’ travel retail-exclusive suitcase tin shows that distinctive, collectible packaging can generate urgency without relying on a new flavour.
Limited-time offerings (LTOs) used to be driven largely by the calendar. Pumpkin arrived for autumn, peppermint appeared before Christmas and products quietly disappeared once the next seasonal theme took over.
That playbook is becoming far more ambitious. Brands are now using short runs to test unconventional flavours, invite consumers into product development and create the urgency needed to turn an ordinary launch into an online event. Scarcity isn’t simply a supply decision – it’s part of the entertainment.
The latest crop stretches from Oreo asking US consumers to choose between chicken and waffles, deep-fried cookies and banana pudding to Joyride creating a gummy exclusively for Idaho after a record-breaking social media competition. Elsewhere, hotel guests are influencing breakfast menus, while pumpkin and warming spices are already spreading through bars, biscuits, butter and protein snacks.
Oreo lets fans decide which flavour survives
Oreo is handing US consumers an unusually direct role in deciding what comes next. Its Twist, Lick, Vote campaign introduces three limited-edition cookies – Chicken & Waffles, Deep Fried and Banana Pudding – with fans choosing which one will return in 2027.
Banana Pudding combines vanilla wafer cookies with two layers of banana- and vanilla pudding-flavoured creme. Deep Fried uses fried dough-flavoured cookies around dark chocolate and fried dough cremes, recreating the indulgence of an American state fair without the queue. The wild card is Chicken & Waffles, which features a waffle-textured cookie and dual-layered creme intended to deliver sweet and savoury notes of fried chicken and maple syrup.
US presales open on 17 August, with limited quantities also available through the SnackWorks TikTok Shop. The three flavours reach retailers across the US on 24 August while stocks last.
Voting runs until 12 October through QR codes on packs and Oreo.com/twist-lick-vote. A consumer’s first vote automatically enters them into a sweepstake to win a year’s supply of original Oreo cookies. The winner will be revealed on 13 October before returning for another limited run in 2027.
Day Out gives dessert a protein makeover
New Jersey-based Day Out Snacks is turning two classic American autumn desserts into portable protein bites. Apple Pie and Pumpkin Cheesecake launch exclusively online and on Amazon, with both available only while stocks last.
Apple Pie was developed after consumers asked the brand to increase the apple and spice notes found in its previous Apple Cider Donut flavour. Pumpkin Cheesecake combines pumpkin spice, white chocolate chips and creamy cheesecake notes. It’s also Day Out’s first dairy-containing product.
Both use the brand’s nut butter and date base and are gluten-free and non-GMO. Each 4.5oz bag contains nine protein balls, providing three servings with 9g of protein per serving. Four-bag bundles cost $33, six bags cost $49.50 and eight bags cost $66.
Founder and CEO Becky Dheri said the seasonal programme gives Day Out room to explore flavours consumers are actively seeking. It also allows the company to collect feedback that could guide future product development – showing how an LTO can double as a relatively low-risk market test.
Seven Sundays puts pumpkin into pancake form
Seven Sundays is combining oatmeal and pancakes in a new breakfast format it calls Oatcakes. The just-add-water mixes have launched online and in the US at Target, Sprouts and Fresh Thyme in Original, Double Chocolate and limited-time Pumpkin Spice varieties.
Made with 11 plant-based ingredients, the Oatcakes provide 9g to 10g of upcycled plant protein and 20% of the recommended daily fibre intake. They contain no refined sugar, gluten, glyphosate, preservatives, artificial flavours or other artificial additives.
Each pack has a suggested retail price of $7.49. Original and Double Chocolate give Seven Sundays a permanent base from which to build the format, while Pumpkin Spice supplies the seasonal hook – and an early indication of whether consumers want their autumn flavours served for breakfast.
Pepperidge Farm refreshes its autumn biscuit tin
Pepperidge Farm is bringing three limited-time cookies to US retailers including Target, Walmart and Kroger, priced at a suggested $5.89 each.
New Chessmen Spiced Orange Cranberry combines the buttery character of the original cookie with warming spices, bright orange and tart cranberry. It follows the introduction of permanent Salted Caramel, Cinnamon Sugar and Brown Butter Pecan Chessmen flavours earlier in 2026.
Returning Milano Pumpkin Spice pairs crisp Milano cookies with a filling of milk chocolate and pumpkin spice. The soft-baked Pumpkin Cheesecake cookie completes the Autumn Exclusives Collection with real pumpkin and white chocolate chips.
The collection shows seasonal ranges don’t have to rely entirely on novelty. One new flavour gives shoppers something fresh to discover, while two returning products offer the reassurance of familiar favourites.
Land O Lakes spreads the pumpkin window
In the US dairy aisle, Land O Lakes has brought back its Pumpkin Pie Spice Butter Spread for a particularly brief appearance. Available during August and September, it blends the company’s creamy butter with warming autumn spices in a ready-to-spread format.
The product can be used on English muffins and pancakes or incorporated into quick breads and other baked goods. That versatility gives Land O Lakes access to several consumption occasions without asking consumers to buy separate pumpkin-flavoured products.
Its short sales window also reflects how quickly the seasonal calendar is moving. Pumpkin spice is no longer waiting for October – brands and retailers are using it to signal autumn while summer is still in progress.
Idaho wins its own Joyride sweet
Joyride has turned a state-by-state social competition into one of the roundup’s most geographically specific LTOs. The US better-for-you confectionery brand, co-owned by YouTuber Ryan Trahan, challenged fans to post an Instagram selfie holding a Joyride bag within 24 hours. Whichever state produced the most photographs would receive a custom sweet.
The 50 States Challenge attracted 11,495 submissions, which Joyride says set a Guinness World Record, while more than 2.6 million viewers followed the live leaderboard during Trahan’s 24-hour livestream. Idaho emerged victorious.
Its prize is Joyride Potato Wedges – chewy gummies shaped like potatoes but flavoured with huckleberry, Idaho’s official state fruit. The sweets launched on 10 August exclusively from Joyride in extremely limited quantities.
Perfect Bar brings pumpkin to the chiller
Perfect Bar’s limited-edition Pumpkin Pie refrigerated protein bar returns to US stores at the end of August, initially through Trader Joe’s. Target follows from 20 September.
The bar combines freshly ground organic peanut butter, honey, organic dried pumpkin and warming spices, with 14g of protein and more than 20 ingredients the brand describes as superfoods.
Its staggered rollout gives the product two distinct opportunities to attract attention, first as pumpkin season begins and again as the US moves towards Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Hampton puts a guest’s waffle on the menu
Hampton by Hilton is serving its first guest-created waffle at nearly 2,500 participating hotels across the US and Canada. Available for a limited time, the Peach Cobbler Waffle tops a Belgian waffle with ripe peaches, oat crumble, caramel sauce and whipped cream.
The recipe was created by Kaylee Voight of East Lansing, Michigan, who won Hampton’s inaugural Guest Waffle Boss competition. She received one million Hilton Honors points, a five-night stay at any Hampton by Hilton worldwide and the distinction of having her creation served to hotel guests.
Hampton estimates guests make 30 million waffles across its hotels annually. Peach Cobbler now joins previous seasonal flavours including Red Velvet, Pumpkin Spice and S’mores – proving that even complimentary breakfast can become a platform for consumer-led innovation and limited-time excitement.
Pringles packs its crunch into a suitcase
Pringles is taking the LTO beyond seasonal flavour with a travel retail-exclusive format designed to double as a souvenir.
The Traveller’s Collection Suitcase Tin, previewed at the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference in Singapore, is rolling out through global travel retail. The colourful reusable metal tin has been styled to resemble a suitcase and contains two 70g cans of Original Pringles, along with a selection of travel-inspired stickers. Shoppers can use the stickers to personalise the tin or decorate luggage and other belongings.
The product is designed specifically for airports and other international travel retail locations, where distinctive packaging, portability and gifting appeal can be as important as flavour innovation. Its durable keepsake format also gives Pringles a way to attract impulse purchases without creating another short-lived crisp variety.
Brechje Houben, Kellogg’s Benelux key account manager for international travel retail, said the collection was created to capture “the joy of travel” while retaining the familiar Pringles crunch. The stickers add another interactive element, encouraging travellers to turn an everyday snack container into a memento of their journey.
