What We Learned From Google's Top Food And Drink Searches

Before we can move forward (the next POTUS! losing 10 pounds in 2016!), we need to look back. Specifically, we should look back at what we googled over the past year: those wild searches for what to do with all the slime-covered pumpkin seeds covering our elbows and just what the heck gose is anyway.

The search engine giant just released its results for the top trending food and drink searches for the year. Some of them surprised us. Some of them didn't. Here's what we learned from the meticulous findings:

① People clearly have too many pumpkin seeds on their hands.
Maybe 2015 was the year of constant pumpkin carving or people discovered the joys of crackly, spice-tossed pepitas. Either way, the almondine leftovers of pumpkin flesh are at the top of the trending recipe search. It's a surprising winner—beating out chicken and brownies, but more on that later—and it just goes to show how versatile the ingredient is, like in this salty-sweet brittle.

② There's just something about gose . . .
Despite a mostly homegrown, all-American beer search, the second most-searched beer is gose, the German-style ale that's usually slightly sour, low in alcohol and made with salt and coriander. 2015: the year of the gose! As craft beer continues to boom, we can only imagine this very specific query is a residual effect.

③ Sangria isn't just a summer thing.
Not surprising at all, sangria reigns in trending cocktail recipes. We're living in a golden age of specialty cocktails, so it's interesting to see that the classics, like sangria, cosmos and Long Island Iced Teas, are the ones people want to make at home. However, just one tip from Drinks Editor Jim Meehan: Skip the brandy for your next pitcher of sangria.

④ Chicken is so over, kind of.
Outranked by the above-mentioned pumpkin seeds, sweet potato fries and Philly cheesesteak, the white meat sits lower than expected at fourth in the recipes search. Perhaps people are more interested in making sides and sweets—hence other tops searches of pancakes, pesto and brownies—but, clearly, people aren't as interested in making mains.

⑤ Don't mess with the people's Bud Light Mixxtail.
It's a beer. It's a cocktail. It's the top trending beer search on Google this year. Budweiser's trio of cocktail-inspired brews are a real hit. They just launched this past February and will be hitting every frat backyard bash this summer.

Here are the full lists:

Top Trending Beers

1. Bud Light Mixxtail
2. Gose Beer
3. Grapefruit Beer
4. 805 Beer
5. SweetWater 420
6. Blue Moon
7. Abita Purple Haze
8. Wild Blue Beer
9. Skol
10. Miller High Life

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Top Trending Cocktails

1. Sangria
2. Moscow Mule
3. Gimlet
4. Cosmopolitan
5. Long Island Iced Tea
6. Margarita
7. Mojito
8. Aviation
9. Sex on the Beach
10. Daiquiri

Top Trending Recipes

1. Pumpkin Seeds
2. Sweet Potato Fries
3. Philly Cheesesteak
4. Chicken
5. Apple Pie
6. Brownies
7. Pesto
8. Pancakes
9. Cabbage
10. Chili