Coffee shop flavour trends summary 2026
- Hospitality drives flavour innovation influencing retail and ready to drink launches
- Iced tea trends favour homemade less sweet nostalgic summer menus
- Ube lattes surge visually across formats but mainstream adoption remains uncertain
- Matcha persists beyond trend cycle expanding retail ready to drink offerings
- Iced chocolate and turmeric iced drinks signal less sweet savoury shift
Many food trends begin in hospitality. Restaurants, boutique coffee shops, and even foodservice chains tend to be closer to customers, giving operators more freedom to test new flavours and formats and gauge feedback in real time.
For food and drink manufacturers, the stakes are often higher and the feedback loop slower. That’s why hospitality remains such an important source of new product inspiration. If a flavour or format lands in a coffee shop, it has every chance of succeeding on retail shelves too.
With that in mind, we’re tracking the flavour trends set to shape coffee shop menus in the months ahead – and perhaps the next wave of ready-to-drink launches in the supermarket aisle.
1. Iced tea for nostalgia hit
In recent years, coffee shops and RTD brands have benefited from the iced coffee craze. But now it’s time for coffee’s counterpart, tea, to have its iced moment.
Well and truly aligning with consumer trends for nostalgic and retro food and drink, iced tea is expected to hit coffee shop menus this summer. This may not feel especially new for food manufacturers: Lipton’s entire cold drink offering is iced. But the range is sweet, and importantly, not homemade.
In the coming months, expect to see more homemade, less sweet iced tea on coffee shop menus. In the UK, coffee and bakery retail chain Gail’s Bakery is preparing its seasonal versions to land this summer. And for a brand that’s in a period of mega-growth, having opened 25 new stores in 2025 alone, that move’s worth listening to.
In previous years, Gail’s Bakery’s iced tea flavours have included strawberry with Darjeeling tea and Szechuan pepper; elderflower with hibiscus, raspberry and sparkling water; and blackberry with rosemary and basil.
2. Ube in all formats
If 2025 was all about matcha (hint: it was, and still is), this summer will be defined by purple yam lattes. Otherwise known as ube, the sweet potato-like base offers an earthy sweetness, and the all important colour bomb content creators love.
Ube lattes can be served hot or iced, with plant-based or cow’s milk, and with a shot of espresso or naturally caffeine-free.
But despite the hype, the test of whether consumers will go as wild for ube as they have for matcha is still unknown. Even those in the coffee world can’t predict the outcome.
“It will be really interesting to see whether ube gains any traction, and whether it’s something that people will embrace,” says Will Kenney, commercial director at 200 Degrees Coffee – a specialty coffee roaster boasting 20 stores across the UK.
3. Iced chocolate - an oldie but a goodie
Again tapping into the nostalgia trend, industry experts expect to see a rise in iced chocolate sales this summer.
Although iced chocolate is nothing new, and indeed its close cousin – the chocolate milkshake – was an especially popular staple last century, chocolate trends have since evolved.
In 2026, that means iced chocolates could be made with single-origin cocoa with more bitter notes than the iced chocolate of old. Who knows, it could even be made with cocoa-free chocolate.
200 Degrees Coffee’s Kenney is intrigued by the return of the classic in modern coffee shops. “It’s quite interesting to see that sort of trend coming through a little more.”
4. Matcha is here to stay
“Clearly matcha is here to stay,” says 200 Degrees Coffee’s commercial director. “That trend is going to continue.”
That won’t come as a surprise to many; matcha is becoming a mainstay of many a coffee shop menu, and is infiltrating mainstream retail.
Hailing from Japan, the finely ground powder of shade-grown green tea is commonly mixed with milk to be sold as a matcha latte – whether hot or cold. Its popularity nearly broke the supply chain, with lower quality powders flooding the market.
But it’s also flavouring the alternative dairy space, with oat drink brand Oatly selling pre-made matcha-flavoured drinks, and most recently a strawberry matcha-flavoured offering.
5. Turmeric latte, but iced
Turmeric lattes, otherwise known as “golden milk” drinks, also aren’t anything new. The hot beverage, made with powdered turmeric, ginger, and a spot of sweetener like honey or maple syrup, started hitting coffee shops around a decade ago.
Like matcha and ube, their colourful hue – giving a warm yellow glow – is a winner for social media users, and has won acclaim among the wellness community for turmeric’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
But this summer, the turmeric latte’s getting a revamp. At Gail’s Bakery, turmeric iced drinks are the latest addition to the menu – feeding into the newfound craze for iced drinks.
“In the last two to three years, we’ve massively increased the sales of iced drinks at Gail’s,” says Edyta Stec, the company’s operations director. “We see massive growth across this category.”
6. Overall flavour trend? Less sweet, more savoury
So what do these beverage flavours reveal about consumer demand? A clear shift is emerging towards a different taste profile, moving away from the overt sweetness that dominated menus just a few years ago.
“Customers are looking for low sugar, well made, well served, interesting and delighting drinks,” says Gail’s Bakery’s Stec, adding that consumers increasingly want to be surprised.
The shift is accelerating. “Historically, lots of coffee shop specials have been very sweet,” recalls Will Kenney of 200 Degrees Coffee. Today, however, he is seeing growing interest in savoury and “slightly more neutral” flavour profiles.
For beverage manufacturers planning their summer launches, the direction of travel looks clear.
