June 2022
Flavor to Savor
Coffee
Cold beverages with coffee foundations gain popularity on restaurant menus, grocery store shelves - Part 1
Flavors and frills are defining the next generation of coffee beverages. Video courtesy of: Getty Images / InnaDodor
No matter how one likes their coffee beverage, the time is ripe with opportunity for dressing it up with extracts, toppings, and flavors. Whipped, infused, boozed, and other indulgent categories are ready to be developed to appeal to consumers of every demographic.
With more consumers choosing to prepare their daily ritual beverages at home, the usage of coffee in single serve cups, specialty coffee bean delivery services, and beverage “kits” for flavored cold coffee beverages has grown. In addition, there also has been a resurgence in the consumption of instant coffee, with more premium brews and more exotic flavors.
By ERIC NAKATA, Contributing Culinary Editor
After having slowly fallen in esteem to a seemingly low-grade coffee product, instant coffee recently was supercharged via social media and the spread of viral videos. One premier example is the dalgona coffee craze.
Dalgona is a Korean-style drink in which powdered coffee is beaten with confectioners’ sugar and hot water until it becomes creamy, then is spooned onto milk (hot or cold) and garnished with toppings. Typical toppings range from extra coffee powder or cocoa to cookie crumbles or drizzled honey.
Transferring the popular product to mass production, companies such as Java Nova Co. have launched whipped coffee in a pressurized canister (à la whipped cream) to provide consumers all of the hipness and none of the preparation.
You can do it
Speaking of foams, cold foams are in greater demand than ever as coffee toppers. They allow both consumers and foodservice operators to add fun, flavor, and color to coffee drinks. Even more in tune with consumers’ demands, such foams are acting as vehicles for functional ingredients. Canisters of these specialty beverage differentiators also are prized for their space-saving capacity and ease of use.
Flash brewed coffee (with filtered water), Blend of Lemon juice and Grapefruit juice (from concentrates), Pure cane sugar, Natural flavor, Extractives of Lavender and nitrogen 22s. Photo courtesy of: Orens Coffee Co.
A Taste for Coffee
No matter the weather, time of year, or day part, growth in coffee consumption by both younger consumers and older consumers continues to increase the demand for cold coffee products. Luckily for beverage developers, such products provide an innovation playground. With their ease of use and reduced bitterness, cold coffee concentrates and green coffee bean extract are finding their way into yogurts, ice creams, and confections while lending approachability to confections, wellness crossovers, savory items, and even more exotic trend-forward flavor combinations.
One company taking successful advantage of this is Over the Top Foods, Inc.’s WhipNotics brand. The company makes whipped toppings with fruit and confection flavors that can be natural companions to coffee beverages. “The dessert category should influence seasonal cold brew beverages boasting flavor profiles such as Bananas Foster or peach cobbler,” notes Michael Bongiornio, Sr., corporate executive chef for Golden State Foods, Inc.
Bongiornio notes that dessert frappé and latte drinks topped with whipped cream cheese, matcha, turmeric-ginger cream, and even salted cheese are signaling appeal to today’s more engaged coffee consumer. He also recommends inclusions of brown sugar, flavor- and texture-popping boba (tapioca balls), or green tea jelly. Such next-generation drinkable dessert coffees are at once enticing and eye-catching. End of Part 1
Today’s consumers have more sophisticated palates and seek variety in their coffee beverages, focusing on origin, fair/direct trade concerns, and healthfulness. Photo courtesy of: Orens Coffee Co.
Fruits and flowers
With summer under way, the season’s fruit flavors are in play. Watermelon is promising to be a popular summer flavor, already showing up in sparkling green coffee extract beverages. Coffee beverages also are finding themselves paired with other fruits, ranging from the tropical—banana, mango, and pineapple—to the red and purple superfruits, especially blueberries, strawberries, cherries, blackberries, and pomegranate. Citrus, too, is pairing with other flavors to add brightness and fruity astringency to balance the earthiness of the roasted bean foundation. These complimentary partners find their sweet spot as they supply color, flavor, and comfort that brings consumers something new yet familiar. For the more daring palate, coffee beverages also are ready to dance with jalapeño and Tajin-inspired flavors this year. Floral flavors, too, are finding their way into coffee, with such additions as hibiscus, elderflower, and lavender.
June 2022
