The New Coffee Culture: Beverage Trends in Bars and Cafés

Coffee hasn't lost its throne. But it has stopped being the only option worthy of attention. All over the world — from Tokyo to London, from Melbourne to Milan — the new café culture has introduced a new generation of beverages to bars that share the creaminess, ritual, and care in preparation with cappuccino, but tell completely different stories. Data confirms the trend: in 2024, each consumer drank on average more than two different variants among coffee, cappuccino, and substitute beverages, with a 14% growth compared to 2022. The market has shifted, and industry professionals know it.

Plant powders, spices, foamable teas, functional ingredients from traditional Asian medicine or the Amazon rainforest: these are the coffee alternatives that are reshaping the menus of the most innovative specialty coffee bars and cocktail bars. Butterfly pea latte, matcha cappuccino, mushroom coffee, spiced chai, smoky houjicha: each brings with it a visual, aromatic, and narrative universe that the classic espresso — however irreplaceable — cannot offer.

This category was created precisely to meet that demand. Each product has been selected for its professional versatility: it works at the counter, lends itself to latte art, interacts with plant-based milks, withstands steam temperatures, can become the base of an iced drink or the star of a non-alcoholic cocktail.

Colorful Beverages: The Visual Trend that Transformed the Bar

One of the most significant phenomena in the beverage world in recent years is the rise of colorful beverages. Born as social media content, the blue cappuccino, pink cappuccino, blue latte, pink latte, and the famous unicorn coffee have become real products, ordered at the counter, included in seasonal menus, photographed, and shared. The visual component has become an integral part of the bar experience, and the most attentive baristas understood this before others.

Behind every colorful beverage is a powder: natural, plant-based, capable of transforming a simple frothed milk into something visually immediate and narratively rich.

Blue Spirulina provides an intense electric blue, stable in hot milk and spectacular in cold preparations — it is the perfect base for blue cappuccino and all blue latte variants.

The Butterfly Pea Flower — dried and ground butterfly pea flower — produces a deep turquoise that turns purple in the presence of acidic ingredients like lemon juice or passion fruit: a chromatic spectacle that becomes a conversation piece at the counter, and the key ingredient in many unicorn coffees and galaxy lattes.

Acai powder brings a warm purple-pink with the aromatic depth of the Amazonian fruit, ideal for pink cappuccino, smoothies, iced lattes, and cold drinks with an immediate visual identity.

All three lend themselves to layered preparations, color gradients, and non-alcoholic cocktails, with versatility that goes well beyond breakfast.

Matcha Latte and Japanese Tea Powders: Tradition Behind the Counter

The matcha latte is probably the beverage that more than any other has paved the way for the new café culture in the West. Made with Japanese green tea powder emulsified in hot water and topped with frothed milk, it is the most requested cappuccino alternative in specialty coffee bars: same ritual, same warmth, neon green color that turns latte art into a visual as well as technical performance.

In the Terzaluna selection, you will find various expressions of this family. The Matcha Green Tea Japan in its classic and versatile form, the Matcha Power for those seeking a more intense profile. The Chai Matcha combines the herbal notes of green tea with Indian spices in a blend that brings two traditions into dialogue in a cup. The Houjicha Powder is Japanese roasted green tea: amber color, warm and smoky aromatic profile, perfect for those who want to offer something unusual and immediately evocative — a sophisticated response for customers who are already familiar with matcha and are looking for the next step.

Chai Latte and Spices: Alternative Hot Drinks to Coffee for Every Season

The chai latte is the quintessential spiced drink of the new bar culture. Indian origins, global spread, and the ability to adapt to the seasons like few other preparations. With hot milk and a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cloves, it is a spiced cappuccino that warms, envelops, and tells a story — and works just as well in a neighborhood café as in a fine dining restaurant.

The Chai Latte from Terzaluna is a ready-to-use professional blend: rich, balanced, and immediately recognizable.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte Blend brings the most beloved aromatic profile of the American fall to the cup — pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg — in a sober and elegant version, far from the overly sweet excess of the original franchise version.

The Kokoro and Kokoro Iced complete the family with exclusive blends designed to be served hot or cold, intended to remain on the menu all year round without seeming out of season.

Adaptogenic Mushroom Powders: Mushroom Coffee Has Arrived in Italy

The mushroom coffee — a hot drink enriched with adaptogenic mushroom powders — is one of the most solid trends in recent years in the international beverage scene. Reishi, Lion's Mane, Chaga, Maitake: each brings a different aromatic and functional profile, and their powdered form makes them compatible with any hot or cold preparation, from cappuccino to iced latte.

The Funghi Boost from Terzaluna is a mix of adaptogenic mushroom powders formulated for use in beverages: it integrates with milk, does not significantly alter the base flavor, and adds a narrative dimension to the final product that today's customer knows how to recognize and appreciate. The Mind — matcha, Bacopa, and mushrooms — takes this logic even further, combining three ingredients with different stories but a common thread: attention to sustained energy and the quality of the experience in the cup.

How to Use These Powders at the Bar: Technical Notes for Baristas and Bartenders

All the powders in the Latte & Beyond category are designed for professional use but are also accessible to those approaching these preparations for the first time.

The basic rule is always the same: dissolve the powder first in a little hot water — or cold for iced versions — before adding the milk. This prevents lumps, ensures even color dispersion, and allows precise control over the final concentration. For frothy versions — matcha latte, houjicha latte, chai latte — the milk should be frothed separately and poured over the base, just as you would for a classic cappuccino.

Chromatic powders — spirulina, acai, butterfly pea flower — are suitable for layered preparations, color gradients, and non-alcoholic cocktails: in this case, the serving temperature is cold, ice is key, and the visual effect becomes an integral part of the offering. With plant-based milks — oat, soy, almond, coconut — many of these powders express new aromatic profiles compared to cow's milk: it's worth experimenting before finalizing the recipe on the menu.

Alternative drinks to coffee do not replace espresso — they complement it, expand the offering, attract new customers, and retain those already won over by quality. Including one or more products from this category on the menu means telling a different, broader, more contemporary story.