K-State’s ‘swicy’ sweet wins ASB’s 2026 PDC

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K-State’s ‘swicy’ sweet wins ASB’s 2026 PDC

20 Feb 2026

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

CHICAGO — A new victor has been named in the American Society of Baking (ASB)’s latest iteration of its Product Development Competition (PDC), sponsored by the National Honey Board.

The annual contest came to a close during BakingTECH 2026, held Feb. 16-19 in Chicago with presentations from the three finalist teams: Cal Poly Pomona, Cornell University and Kansas State University.

This year’s competition theme was Honey in Action, tasking students with creating a new baked good using honey for its functional properties beyond flavor. Entrants were evaluated by the product’s prospective success in today’s market, scalability and the participant’s technical problem-solving skills.

The K-State team — comprised of Addison Brandau, Rachel Featherstone, Pedro Souza and Lei Zhong — took home the grand prize for their entry, Gochuhoney Bites, a spiced shortbread cookie enrobed in a ‘swicy’ hot honey caramel coating inspired by tanghulu, a popular Japanese street fruit candy, and topped with sesame seeds. Cal Poly Pomona placed second with its Sticky Honey Pudding and Cornell took the bronze for its Flan de Luxe.

“It’s really an honor to represent K-State and be on that stage,” Featherstone said. “A lot of hard work went into this by each of these team members, and it was fun to work with them on this product and use their ideas to make something fun like Gochuhoney Bites.”

This cohort of students was assembled by Dr. Elisa Karkle, an assistant professor in K-State’s Department of Grain and Food Science.

Participating in the process — which spans nearly every stage of a product’s creation, from ideation to R&D to scaling — offered Zhong a taste of what the professional world could look like.

“I learned a lot about making decisions and working with other people,” he said, expressing that the collaborative part of the competition set him and his teammates up to enter the industry.

The K-State team — comprised of Addison Brandau, Rachel Featherstone, Pedro Souza and Lei Zhong — took home the grand prize for their entry, Gochuhoney Bites.

Souza echoed the sentiment, noting the contest pushed the team’s creativity to new heights.

“For the industry, we need to be creative and know how to work in a group,” he said. “Everything in this project pushed us to be better professionals for the future.”

Developing Gochuhoney Bites required the students to look beyond what they learned in the lecture hall, digging into what today’s market looks like and what innovations align with consumer interests.

“It was a good challenge and learning experience to put ourselves in the shoes of the target market and create something they’d truly want,” Featherstone shared. “Ultimately, we looked at the trends and what was driving consumers.”

For Brandau, the opportunity offered her a chance to work on an assignment not tied to a grade but instead tied to growth and professional development through real-world experiences.

“This is a real-world experience of how a team can come together, as they do for large-scale food companies, and create and pitch a product just as we did without the pressure of traditional school curriculum, grades and rubrics,” she said.

As these students look to their future, getting a more intimate view of what a career in baking could look like is helping them understand their prospects.

“It was a good project to go through all steps of the process,” Featherstone said. “It was really beneficial to understand the industry and what it takes to get a product to market.”

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