Cold drinks are overtaking hot in the coffee market – here’s how to maximise this trend in your café
We are amid a global coffee revolution which has been quietly changing the way coffee is being consumed in recent years.
From east to west, hot drinks are being overtaken by cold and the flavours and combinations are becoming increasingly experimental. Starbucks recently reported that they are selling up to 75% of their drinks as cold, a change believed to be driven by a new generation of consumers, Gen Z, now having purchasing power.
It is not just the temperature of our coffee that is changing, flavour combinations are growing in popularity, moving away from the more traditional coffee, water and milk mix. Limited time offers (LTO’s) like shaken espresso over ice with a pumpkin foam top are in this season and an iced strawberry and matcha latte was the ‘it’ drink of this summer. These drinks have something beyond being cold and exciting new flavours, they are visually striking too, with different layers of bright colours swirling together as the drink is mixed – which of course looks exceptional when posted online!
Non-coffee beverages are gaining popularity too, with matcha becoming a major trend in the UK this year, and chai expected to rise in popularity this winter. This shift in consumer preferences comes at a critical time – the World Coffee Institute predicts that the land suitable for coffee cultivation will almost half between 2016 and 2050, due to the effects of climate change in key growing regions. These challenges are already affecting production yields and driving up the C-Price (the Coffee Futures price that sets the trading costs of for Arabica coffee globally). As consumers, we have a responsibility to lessen our environmental impact through what we consume, by switching to Oatly Barista Edition in your coffee, you can almost halve the total footprint of that one drink, making it a meaningful first step toward a more sustainable future.
What does this mean for the wider hospitality world? For bars and restaurants that are already exploring different flavour combinations through their drinks menus, this is a fantastic opportunity to start to see coffee through a different lens. Coffee and tea based drinks should move into that drinkscape, as ingredients that can be combined with other flavours and visual elements that create something more complex in taste and visually appealing… lets not forget that layered drinks are old hat for cocktails -imagine an espresso martini without a head, or a pisco sour without heart shaped bitters in the foam!
If you want to try making something delicious for yourself, here is a recipe developed by two time Coffee in Good Spirits world champion Dan Fellows.
Glass: Chilled coupe/Martini
Garnish: Cinnamon powder
Method
Shake hard with ice and fine strain
Oatly is the world’s original and largest oat drink company. For over 25 years, Oatly has exclusively focused on developing expertise around oats: a global power crop with inherent properties suited for sustainability and human health. Their commitment to oats has resulted in core technical advancements that enabled the team to unlock the breadth of the dairy portfolio, including alternatives to milks, ice cream, yogurt, cooking creams, and spreads. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, the Oatly brand is available in more than 20 countries globally. For more information, please visit www.oatly.com