The Collab Era: Why Today’s Wild Food & Drink Mashups Are Exactly What We Need

I adore a good collaboration. It’s the clearest path to fresh ideas: two brands celebrating each other’s strengths to build something new. That spirit is exploding right now in snacks and sips—and it didn’t just happen overnight. Below, I spotlight the standout new food and drink collaborations fall 2025 landing in stores, then trace the lineage back through decades of American food history and the nostalgic food collabs that made it all possible.

New Food and Drink Collaborations Fall 2025

SNICKERS × Josh Allen: three limited-edition sauces The candy bar teamed up with the NFL MVP on savory-sweet Game Day Sauces:

• Caramel Buffalo (caramel + Buffalo heat)

• Peanut Teriyaki (peanuts, soy, garlic)

• Chocolate Barbecue (SNICKERS chocolate in a smoky BBQ base)

  They dropped Sept 7, 2025, tied to NFL Sundays—one of the boldest brand mashups of sports and snacks we’ve seen this year. Tied to NFL Sundays through weekly releases on Snickers.com.

General Mills Holiday Cereals Two festive, limited-edition cereals are hitting shelves this season:

• Cinnamon Toast Crunch: Mexican Hot Chocolate (cinnamon-chocolate with a hint of spice)

• Caramel Corn Chex (holiday popcorn-tin vibes)

Expected Fall 2025 (TBD exact date, Walmart exclusive).

These limited-edition snacks are already being talked about as a must-try for the holidays.

OREO: Apple Pie à la Mode (limited edition) Golden cookies with apple pie + vanilla ice cream-flavored creme. Nationwide beginning Aug 11, 2025 (also online at Oreo.com).

Pepsi’s new theater line: DRIPS by Pepsi (Regal Cinemas exclusive) Three over-the-top, photo-ready mixes:

• Tropicana Cotton Candy Lemonade

• Pepsi Cherry Boba Burst (with cold foam + mini marshmallows)

• Starry Dragon Fruit Blast

Rolling out across Regal locations starting Fall 2025 (TBD, staggered launch).

Taco Bell × Mountain Dew: Baja Midnight (permanent)The first new Baja Blast flavor in 20 years—a passion-fruit twist on the OG tropical-lime—launched Aug 14, 2025. It’s available as a permanent fountain drink at Taco Bell, with a limited-time Freeze option.

M&M’s: fresh flavors

• Cookies & Creme (limited run; blue bag) hit shelves in summer 2025 and is still in stores now.

• Bakery Collection (Flavor Vote): Cherry Chocolate Cupcake, Lemon Meringue Pie, and Peanut Butter Cinnamon Roll will debut in Jan 2026 nationwide, with fans voting for the winner.

Kroger’s Snack-Counter Specials (seasonal chips) Limited-time, game-day inspired flavors—Pigs in a Blanket, Mozzarella Stick, Buffalo Wing—are returning Fall 2025 (TBD, Kroger exclusive).

Goldfish × Harry Potter: Butterbeer Grahams Butterscotch-and-vanilla grahams channeling Hogsmeade’s favorite frothy beverage. Sept 2025 (TBD exact date).

McDonald’s: Special Edition Gold Sauce A tangy, honey-smoky, mustard-and-vinegar North Carolina BBQ-inspired dip paired with Snack Wraps, McCrispy variations, and McCrispy Strips. Rolling out nationwide Sept 3, 2025 (limited time).

Hot Cocoa, Candy-Bar Edition Instant cocoa sticks inspired by M&M’s Milk Chocolate and SNICKERS (chocolate, caramel, peanuts, nougat notes). Perfect for cozy season, hitting shelves Fall 2025 (TBD, grocery/seasonal sections).

More New & Notable This Fall

• The Lay’s Do Us a Flavor contest returned, spotlighting some of the most creative 2025 snacks, with Bacon Grilled Cheese winning over Wavy Korean-Style Fried Chicken and Valentina & Lime—all three were stocked in stores during voting and the crowned winner is now in stores.

• Oreo “Manhattan Project” (Mondelez × Hershey): a behind-the-scenes co-creation platform teasing future mashups like Reese’s with OREO Creme and OREO Cups.

How We Got Here: The Collab Timeline

1962 — Tang × NASA General Foods’ Tang wasn’t invented for space, but its use on John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission made it a household name and pop-culture phenomenon.

1971 — Post × Hanna-Barbera Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles became the first cereal brands built around TV characters (The Flintstones), reshaping breakfast marketing forever.

1979 — McDonald’s × Star Trek The very first Happy Meal launched in 1979, themed to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It showed how QSRs could spark excitement with entertainment tie-ins—and birthed the Happy Meal itself.

1982 — Hershey × Universal: Reese’s Pieces in E.T. Mars turned down Spielberg, Hershey said yes, and Reese’s Pieces sales skyrocketed. It was one of the most iconic product placements in U.S. history.

1985 — Dairy Queen × “Mix-Ins” Go Mainstream The Blizzard debuted—and with over 100M sold in its first year, it pioneered the customizable, mashup dessert trend.

1994 — General Mills × Hershey: Reese’s Puffs A cereal inspired by the candy cup, which went on to become a grocery-store staple.

Late 1990s — McDonald’s × Candy Brands: The McFlurry Launched in Canada in 1995, the McFlurry quickly spread worldwide, bringing Oreo and M&M’s into fast-food dessert culture.

1998 — Post × Nabisco: OREO O’s Cookies for breakfast became real with this mashup. A cult favorite that defined late-90s kids’ cereal nostalgia.

1990s — Jelly Belly × Soda Brands The Soda Pop Shoppe lineup recreated 7UP®, A&W® Root Beer & Cream Soda, Dr Pepper®, Orange Crush®, and Grape Crush® in jelly bean form.

2004 — PepsiCo × Taco Bell: Mountain Dew Baja Blast The exclusive flavor that built its own cult following—and remains so popular that Taco Bell keeps innovating (hello, Baja Midnight).

2007 — Taco Bell × Doritos: Doritos Locos Tacos (test phase) Official nationwide launch hit in 2012. Combining Taco Bell shells with Doritos dust became one of the most successful fast-food product launches ever, selling over a billion in the first year.

2014 — McDonald’s × Hello Kitty Special edition Hello Kitty Happy Meal toys became instant collectibles in the U.S., echoing the 70s Pebbles model of cartoon tie-ins.

2017 — Starbucks × Unicorn Frappuccino Limited-time drink that went viral on Instagram/Twitter. Proved the power of social media hype × food collabs for Gen Z

audiences.

2023 — Pepsi × Peeps (“Peepsi”) Cola blended with marshmallow Peeps flavor, released nationwide for Easter. Originally a limited test, fan demand pushed it into stores.

2023 — Hidden Valley Ranch × Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Ranch-flavored ice cream drop shocked consumers and went ultra-viral online, much like Starbucks’ Unicorn Frap years before.

Why Collabs Matter (and What They Teach Every Business)

Partnerships do what solo efforts can’t: they borrow trust, cross-pollinate audiences, and spark creativity. From Tang’s space-age glow to today’s Pepsi theater DRIPS, the throughline is clear—brands win when they co-create experiences, not just products.

And then there’s Mike’s Hot Honey—from pizza to donuts to chips to cheese to baked beans. It’s the poster child for “put it on everything” collaboration culture. The champion of collabs. Vibe USA is here for it, along with all the brand mashups and 2025 snacks shaping this new era.