There used to just be Old Bay seasoning; now, all of a sudden, there’s Old Bay beer and Old Bay bitters. Does that mean that Old Bay cupcakes and Old Bay margaritas are on the horizon?
According to some fancy graph and statistical work by the Washington Post, maybe yes. Firstly, a Google Trends graph that shows that interest in Old Bay growing steadily every year (and peaking during crab season).

As you could probably guess, Maryland is the nation’s hotbed of Google searches for Old Bay, with our neighboring states following suit. Washington State is interested in Old Bay. New Hampshire, too. New Mexico and Montana? Not so much.

This last data visualization is the most telling. State-level interest in Old Bay started as just a Maryland thing, even back in 2010; now it’s a regional thing.

And now the piece de resistance: The Washington Post found that Google searches for Old Bay has finally started to overtake that other famous spicy seasoning, Tabasco, in search data.

So let the year of Old Bay begin!
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