The Story of How 'Last Year's Trend Forecast' Is Expanding Business This Year: The Summer of the Deep Rich Black Curry Resurgence

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When and How Is Curry Trend Information Planted? - The Reverse Engineering of Product Planning Learned from Deep Rich Black Curry -

Last year, we proposed the "Deep Rich Black Curry." Although we should have already moved on to the next trend this year, it has seen an unexpected resurgence this summer. By looking at the process leading up to its adoption as a new product at 7-Eleven, we decode the "six-month to one-year delay" planning cycle unique to the curry industry.
When and How Is Curry Trend Information Planted? - The Reverse Engineering of Product Planning Learned from Deep Rich Black Curry -
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Prophecies always arrive a little late

Trends have a mysterious time lag.

It can take longer than one might imagine for information that we are convinced is "the next big thing" to reach the public, go through someone's planning meeting, and actually appear on store shelves as a product. Six months, or perhaps a year. Much like starlight reaching us from space, there is an insurmountable time lag between the moment it is broadcast and the moment it becomes "visible."

There is a keyword that we, the Curry Research Institute and Curry University, actively promoted to the media and curry industry stakeholders from March to May of last year, 2025. That was "Deep Rich Black Curry."

This summer, in 2026, that very term was heard from an unexpected place. TV commercials, social media like YouTube, and convenience store shelves—specifically, 7-Eleven.

Deep Rich Black Curry—What is it?

First, I would like to explain the content of this term.

When people hear "black curry," many might imagine a curry that is simply black in appearance. This refers to the old-school black curry that was "black only in color," colored merely with squid ink or caramel sauce.

However, the "Deep Rich Black Curry" we proposed is a cut above that. It is a term that refers to a high-quality black curry created by fusing premium European-style curry with Indian-style curry—specifically, an evolved curry that could be called Neo-Kashmiri curry.

Its blackness is not due to coloring. It is a blackness born as a result of accumulating the essential labor required in curry making, such as the process of slowly sautéing onions until they go beyond caramel-colored to black, and the process of deeply roasting spices. That is why it can embody not only visual impact but also a sense of spice and a deep, layered flavor simultaneously.

The other keyword, "Neo-Kashmiri curry," is an evolved form of the Kashmiri curry that has spread primarily through Delhi. While retaining the unique, strong personality of traditional Kashmiri curry, it has been finished to be less spicy and easier to eat, and by incorporating a wealth of ingredients, it has evolved into a form accepted by more people. It is a curry that could be called a "demand of the times," born as the genre of Kashmiri curry itself has expanded nationwide.

This year's trend is already on to the next stage

What is interesting is that we ourselves have already categorized this "Deep Rich Black Curry" as "last year's news."

Trend research is destined to always be one step ahead. This year, 2026, we are focusing our efforts on a completely different trend—the spread of "second-generation keema curry." While I will leave the details for another occasion, we are continuing to promote this theme to all media and business stakeholders in the curry industry at this very moment.

In other words, from our perspective, Deep Rich Black Curry was already a trend we had left in the past. However, this summer, the situation took an unexpected turn.

Last year's 'prophecy' blossoms in stores this year

For the past few months, I have had a strange feeling.

The note article I published last year about 'Deep Rich Black Curry'—an article that should have already served its purpose—had suddenly seen a sharp increase in traffic since the beginning of 2026. Something was happening. Just as I felt that, the answer came from the television.

7-Eleven had begun a campaign centered on black curry.

The product they are selling as the centerpiece is exactly the 'Deep Rich Black Curry' (rice ball). The name we proposed and continued to promote in 2025 was adopted exactly as the product name for the rice ball. Furthermore, they have even introduced a bento box that is an upgraded version of the Kashmir curry from Delhi.

It was the moment when the seeds sown last year bore fruit in stores a year later. Honestly, I never imagined it would be adopted in such a direct form, including the naming. That is precisely why this event made me realize once again the magnitude of the influence our messaging has had on the industry.

Why do trends appear with a 'six-month to one-year delay'?

I would like to touch upon the structure of the industry here. This time lag is not a coincidence, but a somewhat inevitable phenomenon rooted in the product development cycle unique to the food industry, especially the curry industry.

Trend research organizations like ours release information roughly between March and May each year. The peak when that information becomes widely known to the public and is actively covered by television, magazines, and web media arrives in the summer—from July to September—which is also the peak demand period for curry itself.

Personnel at convenience stores, restaurant chains, and major manufacturers who encounter this information at this timing begin to refine their product plans from there. Prototyping, verification, internal approval, and securing production lines—these processes naturally require a corresponding amount of time, and the plans are finalized at the earliest around January to March of the following year. After going through the manufacturing and deployment processes from there, the products actually hit the shelves in the summer of that year.

In other words, personnel who obtained information through the media between July and September 2025 spent six months refining their plans, decided on commercialization between January and March 2026, and released it in the summer of 2026—this is the true nature of the 'Deep Rich Black Curry, Second Summer' that we witnessed this time.

Trends do not end in one go. Information that is released can mature over time within the industry cycle and return to the center stage at unexpected moments. This case can be said to be a typical example of that.

For those who want to know 'what's next' as soon as possible

If you are involved in the curry business and want to know 'what will be popular next year' as early as possible, there is something you should know.

Our company, the Curry Research Institute and Curry University, officially releases information around March every year. However, in reality, the direction—what kind of curry will be popular next year—is already taking shape to some extent by December of the previous year through our internal research.

If you are someone who wants to 'get information as early as possible and speed up the initial stages of your planning,' please do not hesitate to contact us. Being able to anticipate the landscape six months to a year in advance, as with this Deep Rich Black Curry, should be a significant advantage in product development.

Please note in advance that we may decline to provide information to competing companies or if a non-disclosure agreement cannot be signed.

What are we 'predicting' for next summer? The answer will likely appear on store shelves a little further down the road.

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