Has bacon jumped the shark?

I think it has. Well, not so much bacon itself (as bacon is and forever will be known as delicious and as such can not jump the shark), but the love of bacon. Or the proliferation of bacon into unexpected and unusual arenas. Like coffee.

I havent tried Torani's bacon-flavored syrup for coffee, but I have to agree with Joel Johnson that maybe that's taking it too far. For many years, bacon and coffee have shared a rather intimate relationship, being key components of breakfast. They are really the pillars of the meal, with eggs, toast, cream and sugar playing supporting roles. Was the span of table between mug and plate too far? Is that why we needed bacon-flavored coffee syrup? I don't know what led to this, but I know one thing: it's gone too far.

Let's briefly recap the path by which we've arrived at this point:

There was Bacon Salt, a meat-free flavoring used in adding a light salty, porky touch to a variety of foods, which was a great idea! Meant that I could add the flavor of salted meat to green beans without actually having to defile my stove top with bacon grease. Then there was Baconnaise, a bacon-flavored mayonnaise...delicious in theory; delicious in practice. It's a bit on the salty side, so I cut it with regular mayo for most uses, to balance out.

But from there, it got ridiculous: bacon chocolate, bacon lollipops, bacon ice cream... And it didnt stop with food! There is the bacon wallet, gummy bacon, bacon t-shirts, and that's not even counting the weird stuff (like bacon underwear) and the internet memes (like this one) and....you get the idea; you've seen them.

I think what's really driving bacon toward its inevitable burn-out is that each new iteration (or exploitation, depending on your viewpoint) is trumpeted. Loudly. And people are jumping on the bacon wagon like hogs running for slop. And I'm over it.

Here's the thing: as a consumer, if you keep yelling something at me, eventually my ears are going to hurt. I'm going to get tired of hearing about bacon and start rolling my eyes at each new form it takes. The item (or food) that I loved originally is now tainted. And no one wants to eat tainted bacon.

So let's hope that bacon-flavored coffee syrup is the last straw and in a few months, bacon will return to the simple life it longs for.