Texans don’t just eat, they announce their preferences with conviction, volume, and a side of salsa. Favor, H-E-B’s on-demand delivery service, just released its 2025 report “How Texas Orders In,” offering a cultural snapshot of what Texans ordered when no one felt like cooking, and the results might surprise you.
Let’s start with drink orders. Sweet tea, that syrupy Southern birthright, was ordered more than four times as often as unsweet tea. Coffee, meanwhile, staged a quiet coup. Lattes led the pack, iced drinks beat out hot ones, and coffee officially dethroned Dr. Pepper as Texas’ most-ordered beverage. That may sound like heresy, but even icons must eventually share the spotlight.
Alcohol orders told a similar story of familiar tastes with decisive opinions. Texans leaned toward white wine over red, vodka over all other liquors, and lagers over ales by a five-to-one margin. When Texans pour, they don’t waffle.
Food choices were equally assertive. Bone-in wings beat boneless wings, a slight but telling preference for flavor over convenience. Lean brisket outpaced fatty brisket, proving that even in barbecue country, restraint has its moments. And tacos, always tacos, continued their reign. The bean-and-cheese breakfast taco emerged as the year’s most-ordered; corn tortillas beat flour by a factor of 1.3, and red salsa edged out green. The so-called great tortilla war — it turns out— has a winner.
Dinner remained the most popular mealtime statewide, but the most surprising rise came from baked goods. Kolaches, apparently, are no longer bound by breakfast hours. The tacos category surged sixfold, while Kids’ Favorites and Ice Cream followed close behind, a combination that feels less like a meal plan and more like an honest reflection of real life.
Favor’s statewide data also surfaced hyper-local quirks that feel unmistakably Texan. Austin saw Thai food orders double during the season finale of “The White Lotus” on April 6. Dallas–Fort Worth led the state in edamame orders. Houston residents proved themselves the politest, logging the most “thank you” and “howdy” messages to delivery drivers. San Antonio customers requested extra jalapeños more than any other location. The Rio Grande Valley ordered fourteen times as many tamales as the Texas city average. And in Lubbock, tortilla orders spiked during the college football season, then declined after the ban on tossing tortillas onto the field.
One of the report’s most revealing sections focuses on Delivery Notes, those brief messages Texans leave for their Runners. “Don’t knock” remained the most common instruction, but “don’t judge” notes surged, with confessions ranging from neglected porch plants to living uncomfortably close to the store. The notes also captured moments of quiet drama, emergency hair dye deliveries mid-color in San Antonio, a Coke Zero rescue in Austin after a restaurant’s soda machine failed. In those moments, delivery wasn’t a luxury. It was a lifeline.
Founded in Austin in 2013 and now operating in more than 400 Texas cities, Favor has delivered more than 100 million orders since its start. Owned by H-E-B since 2018, the service has become woven into the daily rhythms of the state, from lazy Sunday mornings to late-night cravings and everything in between.
As the report makes clear, how Texans order in says as much about who they are as what they eat. Here’s to another year of memorable food delivery across the Lone Star State.
Dining and Cooking