KANSAS CITY — With every season that passed in 2023, food and beverage manufacturers introduced a spate of unusual limited-time offerings (LTOs), each trying to up the ante on each other and garner news and social media attention.

Spring saw a flurry of odd LTOs, most notably, PepsiCo, Inc. partnered with the Peeps brand once again to launch Peeps-flavored soda. The limited-edition soda featured PepsiCo’s cola, paired with the Peeps marshmallow flavor.

The wacky LTOs didn’t stop at retail, either. Over the summer, IHOP, a business of Dine Brands Global, launched a line of pancake tacos, which came with a series of sweet and savory flavor mashups like strawberry cheesecake, caramel banana, and country chicken and gravy.

“As the leader in breakfast, we were inspired to expand the Pancake Taco concept following IHOP’s ‘Choco-Pancake’ cultural innovation from last summer,” said Arthur Carl II, vice president of culinary at IHOP. “We didn’t want to simply redo that item, but rather bring to life a dish that leverages our best-selling pancakes in an innovative way that is both fun and different to deliver guests a unique dining experience.”

DiGiorno, a brand from Nestle USA, Inc., took inspiration from online discussions surrounding controversial pizza toppings over the summer and launched pineapple pickle pizza. The pizza, which featured social media’s most divisive ingredients, had a hand-tossed crust, layered with garlic sauce, mozzarella cheese, sliced dill pickles on one half and pineapple chunks on the other.

Holiday flavors returned to shelves moving into the fall and winter months. Baskin-Robbins leaned into Thanksgiving with its November flavor of the month: Turkey Day Fixin’s. The limited-edition flavor included a mix of sweet potato and autumn spice ice creams, with honey cornbread pieces and swirls of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.

Several companies added LTOs to close out the year in December. Meal kit company HelloFresh brought back its Buddy the Elf spaghetti meal kits, inspired by the movie “Elf.” The holiday kit included Colavita spaghetti, along with sweet toppings like maple syrup, chocolate syrup, marshmallows, chocolate nonpareil sandies and chocolate frosted pastries.

Lastly, Doritos, a brand from PepsiCo, Inc.’s Frito-Lay division, partnered with Empirical to debut a limited-edition Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit. The alcoholic beverage, which “offers a multi-sensorial, delicious beverage experience that smells and tastes just like the real thing,” was created through a production process using real Doritos chips and retaining their essence through vacuum distillation, according to the company.

“Doritos is all about disrupting culture and bringing our fans unexpected, bold experiences,” said Tina Mahal, senior vice president of marketing for Frito-Lay North America. “We're always pushing our fans to try new things, so we figure it’s time we disrupt the spirits category by offering our iconic nacho cheese flavor in a bottle.”

Click to view some of the most unusual products introduced in 2023.