Coffee trends are expanding in consumer attention faster than it’s expanding on menus. Tastewise Category Dashboard data shows coffee at 8.0% social share with +14.3% YoY growth, accelerating over the last 6 months. At the same time, Tastewise Menu Data shows coffee already has 32.8% operator menu share, but only +0.7% YoY growth. For CPG and foodservice teams, that gap is where the work is: demand is moving, while menu execution is barely shifting.
Coffee trends overview
- Social conversations about Coffee are up 14.3% YoY
- 32.8% of operators list Coffee on menus (+0.7% YoY)
- Top consumer needs tied to Coffee are attractive (9%) and tasty (9%)
- Iced coffee leads menu formats at 41% menu share
Coffee trends growth: social vs restaurant menus
Coffee is a part of one of the largest conversation categories in the dataset, backed by 6,640,892 posts and 2,119,539 people.
But menu growth is almost flat. Coffee appears widely across operators, and that creates a different innovation problem than most categories.
Social is growing at +14.3% YoY, while menus are growing at +0.7% YoY. That difference matters because it points to a category where consumers keep posting, remixing, and customizing, while operators keep serving the same base set of drinks.
The opportunity is not “add coffee.” It’s “refresh coffee” through formats and add-ons that fit existing workflows.
Most popular coffee drinks right now
Gen Z is pushing the coffee food trend toward iced, sweet, and highly customizable drinks built for repeat orders and social sharing. Coffee trends are still driven by familiar drinks. Tastewise social data shows the most popular coffee-related dishes are:
- Latte (12% social share)
- Espresso (10%)
- Iced coffee (4%)
Tastewise Menu Data confirms the same foundation, but with heavier weight on cold and operational staples:
- Iced coffee (41% menu share)
- Espresso (34%)
- Brew coffee (33%)
- Latte (33%)
- Cappuccino (28%)
This is useful for teams building new items. It means the fastest path to adoption is staying inside the formats consumers already order repeatedly.
The top coffee drinks in social discussions
Social share concentrates around espresso-based drinks and café staples. Latte leads at 12%, espresso follows at 10%, and iced coffee holds a meaningful 4% share even with many other beverages competing for attention.
Social popularity here behaves like a “default order” map. Consumers post what they buy often, and what they can customize easily.
The top coffee drinks on restaurant menus
Menus are more conservative than social. Iced coffee dominates at 41% menu share, which is not a flavor story. It’s a preparation and workflow story.
Iced formats are fast, scalable, and built for add-ons. Espresso and latte both sit at 33–34%, reinforcing that the core of the category is stable and repeatable.
Iced coffee trend: why cold formats dominate menus
If you want one preparation to explain the current market, it’s iced coffee.
Tastewise Menu Data shows iced coffee at 41% menu share, making it the most common coffee format in foodservice. That level of penetration means operators already have the infrastructure: cold cups, ice, batch brewing, espresso stations, and flavor add-ins.
Cold coffee also stretches across dayparts. It can be positioned as:
- a morning caffeine routine
- an afternoon pick-me-up
- a sweet treat replacement
Tastewise social consumption moments reinforce how much attention iced coffee gets in real life. One iced coffee post alone pulled 2,777,996 likes, and espresso martini content hit 4,006,503 likes, showing cold coffee is tied to both daily and social occasions.
For CPG, this is where creamers, syrups, and RTD upgrades win. For operators, this is where a limited-time flavor system can drive trade-up without changing equipment.
Vietnamese iced coffee is an early-stage dish in Tastewise lifecycle tracking (cà phê sữa đá) and already shows up as a bestselling menu item across multiple operators at $5–$8+. It fits directly into the strongest coffee format in foodservice, with iced coffee holding 41% menu share.
Coffee flavor trends: what people are adding to coffee
The flavor profile of the coffee trends are still anchored in mainstream comfort flavors, but the “what’s next” layer is getting more specific.
Tastewise ingredient popularity in social shows the core set consumers expect:
- Chocolate (5.3% social share)
- Sugar (2.7%)
- Milk (2.5%)
- Matcha (2.4%)
- Vanilla (2.3%)
- Caramel (1.9%)
- Cinnamon (1.8%)
Tastewise Menu Data shows a similar foundation, with heavy usage of dairy and classic flavor cues:
- Milk (37% menu share)
- Vanilla (37%)
- Chocolate (33%)
- Mocha (30%)
- Caramel (28%)
- Sugar (23%)
- Arabica (19%)
This is the practical baseline. If a flavor system doesn’t work with vanilla, milk, caramel, or mocha, it won’t scale in foodservice.
Fast-growing coffee flavors and formats
Growth is coming from sweet-leaning builds and mashups that can be layered onto iced coffee and espresso.
Tastewise dish growth in social highlights which flavors are rising fast around coffee-adjacent behavior:
- Salted honey (+147% YoY)
- Chocolate pistachio (+131% YoY)
- Strawberry white chocolate (+79% YoY)
These are not “new coffee beans.” They’re flavor and format twists. They work because they can be delivered as syrups, creamers, foams, and dessert-style toppings.
Tastewise ingredient growth confirms the same direction, with matcha and fruit-forward profiles rising quickly:
- Matcha pistachio (+169% YoY)
- Yuzu matcha (+165% YoY)
- Strawberry matcha (+151% YoY)
- Salted honey (+147% YoY)
- Chocolate pistachio (+131% YoY)
- Cherry vanilla (+126% YoY)
- Unsweetened cocoa (+125% YoY)
For innovation teams, this points to a clear build logic:
- Start with an iced or espresso base
- Add a sweet premium flavor (honey, pistachio, cocoa)
- Use a recognizable modifier (vanilla, caramel, cinnamon)
- Keep prep simple so it survives rollout
Espresso drinks popularity and coffee pairings
Espresso is doing more than holding its place. It’s functioning as the backbone for the most connected coffee behaviors.
Tastewise Menu Data shows espresso is a popular pairing with coffee at 34.03% share. In social, espresso sits in the highest correlation cluster alongside latte, iced coffee, brew coffee, cold brew, cappuccino, and iced latte, all at 15X social index.
That tight cluster matters because it limits risk. When espresso rises, it tends to rise with multiple familiar drinks, not in isolation.
For foodservice, espresso-driven builds are the easiest place to launch:
- iced espresso + flavor
- latte + flavor
- cold brew + sweet modifier
For CPG, espresso-linked add-ons like creamers and flavor systems have the most obvious usage occasions.
Coffee menu opportunities by chain and category gaps
Coffee is widely present on menus, but not evenly developed across chains. Tastewise whitespace opportunities show where coffee is mentioned infrequently, leaving room for expansion even in large brands.
The clearest gaps include:
- Applebee’s Grill & Bar (very low presence, declining growth)
- Auntie Anne’s (infrequent mentions, slow growth)
- Shake Shack (rare presence, negative growth)
- Noah’s NY Bagels (rapid growth, still small share)
- Kneaders Bakery & Cafe (strong growth, low share)
This is where coffee trends become a commercial play. Brands that under-index on coffee can add one or two scalable items and immediately improve attachment, daypart coverage, and ticket size.
The best fit items are not complicated. They’re iced-first, espresso-based, and built on familiar sweet flavors.
Coffee pricing trends on menus
Tastewise Menu Data shows coffee average price in Oregon increased by 9.38%. Price movement like that pushes operators toward strategies that protect margin without losing frequency.
The most realistic approach is value architecture through add-ons, not base price inflation:
- flavored creamers
- syrups
- seasonal modifiers
- premium ingredient callouts (Arabica, vanilla paste-style cues)
That approach aligns with what’s already common on menus: milk and vanilla both sit at 37% menu share, while mocha and caramel sit at 28–30%. Operators already sell these components. The next step is packaging them into a small number of high-performing builds.
What the data supports for product and menu decisions
Tastewise data makes the category direction clear. The coffee food trend is growing socially at +14.3% YoY, while menus are nearly flat at +0.7% YoY, even with coffee already present on 32.8% of operator menus.
The winning plays are execution plays:
- prioritize iced formats because they dominate menus (41% share)
- build around espresso because it’s central to pairing behavior (34.03% share)
- drive growth through sweet premium flavor systems like salted honey and pistachio (+147% and +131% YoY)
- use matcha mashups to tap the fastest-growing ingredient layer (up to +169% YoY)
That’s how coffee stays familiar, but still sells like something new.
FAQs about coffee trends
Coffee trends are showing consumer demand for coffee across social and menus, driven by format shifts (especially iced coffee) and fast-growing flavor add-ons. Tastewise data shows coffee at 8.0% social share with +14.3% YoY growth, while coffee holds 32.8% operator menu share with only +0.7% YoY menu growth.
eYes in social. Tastewise Category Dashboard data shows coffee social discussions growing +14.3% YoY, with acceleration in the last 6 months. On menus, coffee is stable, growing only +0.7% YoY, which means demand is rising faster than menu innovation.
Tastewise social data shows Latte (12% social share) and Espresso (10%) leading coffee-related discussions. Tastewise Menu Data shows Iced coffee (41% menu share) as the most common menu format, followed by Espresso (34%), Brew coffee (33%), and Latte (33%).
Iced coffee is the top menu format, holding 41% menu share in Tastewise Menu Data. It scales easily in foodservice, supports add-ons like creamers and syrups, and fits multiple dayparts, which makes it a reliable base for new flavor builds.
Tastewise shows the fastest-growing flavor directions tied to coffee behavior include Dirty soda (+289% YoY), Salted honey (+147%), and Chocolate pistachio (+131%). Ingredient growth also points to matcha mashups, including Matcha pistachio (+169% YoY), Yuzu matcha (+165%), and Strawberry matcha (+151%).
Tastewise Menu Data shows coffee menu builds most often use Milk (37% menu share) and Vanilla (37%), followed by Chocolate (33%), Mocha (30%), and Caramel (28%). These ingredients form the base for most scalable coffee LTOs and flavor extensions.
