Coffee is loved by many all around the world, but the ways in which we consume it are constantly evolving with time. We’re experimenting with new flavours, textures and forms of coffee all the time, so it’s only normal that trends in how we drink coffee will come and go. Here’s a list of the coffee trends we think will dominate this year.
Cold brewing
Cold brew is made be steeping coffee beans in cold water for up to 24 hours to reduce their acidity and bitterness. This type of coffee is unique in that it relies on time, and not temperature. It’s also sweeter than normal iced coffee and often doesn’t have a strong caffeine hit, meaning that those who prefer a lower strength coffee will lean towards it.
Cold brew coffee is also an efficient product for businesses. It can last up to 2 weeks, meaning large quantities can be made and stored without the taste changing. This makes it easy to pick up and drink on-the-go for time-poor coffee lovers.
Nitro coffee
Nitro coffee is becoming increasingly popular, in part due to its aesthetic value. There’s a theatrical component to it as it’s stored in a pressurised keg, and so you’ll often find this variety of coffee at trendy Instagram-famous cafés. Made by infusing cold brew coffee with nitrogen gas, the resulting drink is a velvety, rich black coffee. Nitro coffee is also quite strong, and so attracts those who love a caffeine buzz.
Instant coffee
We’re seeing an increase in the quality of store-bought instant coffee blends, and an increase in the people buying them. More people are ditching home coffee machines and opting for the cost and convenience of coffee granules. Buying your own lets you have more control over the strength, flavour and texture of your coffee. Nescafe Gold is a favourite of the Australian supermarket shopper, so try it out if you want to jump on this trend.
Sustainable coffee
Plastic and disposable packaging have come under intense scrutiny in 2018, and rightly so, and businesses are adapting to this changing consumer mindset by finding new ways to be mindful about their waste and impact on the earth. Eco-friendly packaging such as biodegradable cups are more common, and many coffee lovers are choosing to buy Keep Cups that they can wash and reuse. Consumers are also more inclined to pay more money for the drinks themselves if they are more earth-conscious, and so using fair-trade ingredients is becoming more and more common.
Superfoods
Some cafés already offer turmeric and matcha lattes, and if you look hard enough you’ll even find some coffees with activated charcoal in them. Baristas know that packing their beverages with vitamins and supplements can attract more kinds of coffee lovers, and so many cafés are offering weird and wacky flavour combinations, some of which don’t contain any coffee at all. Coffee already has health benefits, so having these superfoods is only a natural extension of that. Traditional coffee lovers can be rest assured though that their favourite classic drinks will never go out of style.
Alternative additions to coffee
We’re already used to the traditional full cream milk and sugar added to coffee (if anything at all!), and soy, lactose-free and almond milk have been on menus for a long time. Now we’re seeing even more types of milk – such as oat milk, rice milk and hazelnut milk – make their way into people’s drinks. Alternatives to sugar, such as stevia, Splenda and agave nectar are also becoming more common. As people are becoming more health conscious, what we add – or don’t add – to our coffee will continue to evolve over time.
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