Superfood Lattes A hype that's here to stay

|  Date: October 11th 2019  | Theme: Trends & Developments  |  Espressionals: Loeki 

It was just a hype, right? Well not so much. This trend has truly cracked open the hot-drinks market, providing plenty of opportunity to the creative café holder to make a difference. Superfood Lattes are here to stay, gaining popularity quickly due to taste, health benefits and style. In this post we are exploring what the deal is with these colourful beauties.

What is a superfood latte?

First of all, let’s define the superfood latte trend for they are often confused with regular lattes containing, you guessed right. Coffee. Superfood lattes are based on superfood extracts and/or herbs and spices. Superfoods are foods that have a very high nutritional density. This means that they provide a substantial amount of nutrients and very few calories, containing a high volume of minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. Mixing your extracts, herbs or spices with hot steamed milk will result in a superfood latte. In most cases they are free of coffee, although there are variations with a shot of espresso usually being referred to as ‘dirty’.

 Most common nowadays are the turmeric latte and beetroot latte for their vibrant yet natural colors and health benefits (and taste). Other latte variations are charcoal, spirulina, matcha and rose, although possibilities seem endless!

You can base your superfood latte on a single ingredient like turmeric or matcha, but cafés are getting more creative every time. Think of Matcha/Mesquite combinations, Turmeric/Baobab/Black Pepper or Cacao/Cayenne/Cinnamon. It involves a bit of food prep but it fills the void of the afternoon drinks-menu gap… When designing and planning a drinks menu, usually the morning and lunch time are easily provided for. We often see a gap in exciting drinks after lunch time though! Creative and tasty lattes could be your solution; surprise your customers with interesting flavor combinations that are also appealing to the keen eye. ⁠

Plant-based milks

Although superfoods are low in calories and high in nutritional value, when served with full cream dairy-milk many of these benefits are lost. It’s worth to consider serving superfood lattes with selected plant-based milks to maintain health benefits and complement the taste. Besides, using plant-based milks is a good opportunity to create a drink offer for everyone to enjoy!

Instagrammability

 Apart from offering a good range of exciting drinks to your customer, superfood lattes can play a part in generating traffic to your venue, due to their high instagrammability! A recent study has revealed the importance of Instagram in the hospitality industry. According to research by Zizzi, 18-35-year-olds spend five full days a year browsing food images on Instagram, and 30 per cent of them would skip a venue when their Instagram presence is weak.

How to appeal to new customers? By creating beautiful content. Or better yet by having your customers creating the content for you! How to do that? Serve highly instagrammable food and drinks. My first encounter with this phenomenon was when I was working at Black Star Pastry, Sydney serving ‘the world most instagrammable cake’ and later at Folk Byron Bay (just see for yourself).