IHOP Is Upping Its Grocery Store Game With New Bottled Syrups in 2 Flavors

Here’s a game: Name every brand of pancake syrup you can think of. 

It’s not a very long list, is it? Most people can probably name Mrs. Butterworth’s and Hungry Jack. Maybe Pearl Milling Company and Log Cabin, if they think hard enough. But beyond those name brands, there just aren’t a lot of contenders in the breakfast aisle. That’s why a major player is entering the game in 2024: A new line of IHOP-branded flavored pancake syrups is now available nationwide.

The syrups are in collaboration with Kraft Heinz and they’re available in two flavors: Original and Butter Pecan. The retail price starts at $3.98 and you can learn more about where to find them by checking the Kraft Heinz website. “As with the syrups in its restaurants, IHOP retail syrups also do not contain high fructose corn syrup and feature the same iconic flavors that have made IHOP the leader in breakfast,” notes the statement. 

According to the latest edition of Technomic’s Top 500 Report, IHOP is one of the top 30 chain restaurants in America, pulling in $3.4 billion in sales in 2023 and maintaining more than 1,500 locations in the United States. Still, given the economic headwinds restaurants have faced over the past several years, from COVID-related supply chain disruptions to the dual impacts of inflation and rising food costs, it never hurts to build up an off-site revenue stream. 

In fact, this isn’t even the restaurant’s first foray into grocery stores. In 2023, Kraft Heinz partnered with IHOP to bring the brand’s coffee to retailers, in both a bagged and a K-Cup format. Cleverly, the product came in three flavors, one of which embodied the classic coffee served at IHOP restaurants (Signature Blend) and two of which emulated the flavors of popular IHOP pancake orders (Buttery Syrup and Chocolate Chocolate Chip). 

“Our purpose at IHOP is to serve more joy to more guests every day, and offering syrup at retail allows even more guests to experience that joy at home in addition to in our restaurants,” Candice Jacobson, executive director of brand communications at IHOP, said in a statement provided to Food & Wine.

Other restaurants have made similar leaps to retail, some of them seemingly more cautious and calculated than others. While Panera makes virtually every part of its in-restaurant menu available in a grocery context and has done so for years, Wendy’s waited more than a half-century to start selling its signature chili in cans. These days, you can find everything from AMC-branded popcorn to Chick-fil-A sauces at the supermarket, and you might even interface with these brands more in your home kitchen than in their respective dining rooms.

The new IHOP syrups are part of Kraft Heinz’s so-called Taste Elevation platform, one of six divisions within the company and the one dedicated entirely to flavor enhancements like hot sauce, condiments, spreads, nut butters, jams, and similar products. 

Although the Taste Elevation category makes up 41% of the company’s global portfolio, it hasn’t historically focused on breakfast—these new flavored syrups are, notably, its first breakfast-specific additions. Given how few icons there are in the syrup aisle, catering to the breakfast crowd certainly seems like a savvy move.