Coffee trends in 2022

A few years ago the coffee market was mainly aimed at millennials (born from 1981 to 1996), but now there are more and more coffee-derived drink lovers among Generation Z (born from 1997 to 2012). Despite they are not fans of traditional coffee, they are still making their way into coffee shops to order special drinks almost every day. To keep up with them coffee houses use cold brew, different additives, syrups, and creamers to make coffee that will attract new customers.

High quality instant coffee. It was considered that instant coffee had a stale and bitter taste that couldn’t be compared to the traditional one. But now a growing number of companies use better coffee beans and new methods to make instant coffee with full-bodied and rich flavor. Talking about instant coffee, it is worth mentioning Dalgona coffee that went viral on TikTok two years ago. Dalgona, or whipped coffee, is made the following way: equal parts of instant coffee, sugar, and hot water are whipped together to create a thick foam. Its popularity is steadily growing, which shows that instant coffee gains more attention and appreciation.

Healthy coffee. For those who are conscious about their health, there are a lot of coffee additives and health-boosted coffee alternatives, like mushroom coffee, or matcha lattes. We can also see that numerous coffee shops have a wide range of plant-based milk, including almond, soy, oat, and other non-dairy kinds of milk. These products are supposed to improve the immune system and metabolism.

At-home coffee. The pandemic changed a lot in people’s lives, as well as coffee consumers’ habits. Although there are few restrictive measures nowadays people still prefer making coffee at home.

Single-Origin Coffee. Single-origin coffee is harvested from a single crop, country, or region. Modern coffee consumers care a lot about the coffee origin, unique flavor experiences, and the company’s ethical principles. According to the surveys, coffee drinkers are ready to pay 200% more for roasts from a particular origin country as it helps to engage with the region, which produced the beverage, and its culture. They also like the idea of supporting local manufacturers by purchasing their products.