For many people, lunchtime means going out of the office to a local cafe, coffee shop or supermarket. There they can buy savoury products, drinks and sweet treats. Sweet products are most commonly bought by people experiencing a bad day. The muffin has become a very popular snack for people to buy with a coffee or as a pudding. This is because they are easy to eat, do not need heating up and come in a number of flavours.

Development of muffins has led to it being reclassified as a gourmet snack when produced with good quality ingredients. In part this is down to the growth of gourmet coffee chains like Starbucks. it also helps that ingredients are now luxurious like Belgian chocolate and fresh berries, so food snobs can eat them too.
Even people on a diet can enjoy a muffin with the introduction of the famous ‘skinny muffin’ in a variety of sweet flavours. The health conscious feel that they are eating something which tastes good whilst being healthy for them and the coffee companies do not lose valuable customers.

There has also been a revolution in the shape of muffins and this has had an impact on consumer attitude towards muffins. When muffins were first introduced into coffee shops they were small and evenly shaped. Then, the top of the muffin became the most prized section and manufacturers began to bake them so that the top was larger than the bottom. The ‘muffin top’ has even made its way into every-day speech as we refer to stomachs that creep over tight trousers as a muffin top.

In recent years however the flower-pot or tulip muffin has become the most popular. People are less willing to eat such a big portion of sweet food all in one sitting and this new design is smaller than we have seen for a while. many also come in a luxury wrapping around the base which gives them the flower-pot name.

Coffee stores and shops can make a lot of money from having muffins on their shelves as can pubs where customers like the sweet alternative to crisps and pork scratchings.