How do espresso stores govern more than one plant milk choices?

• Plant milks and chilly espresso are extra prevailing than ever, as shoppers more and more worth a better stage of selection and customisation.
• The liberty to modify flavour, mouthfeel, and look with other non-dairy choices quenches shoppers’ hunger for distinctive beverage reports.
• Extra menu pieces inevitably reshape barista workflow, probably impeding the rate and trait of carrier. Starbucks trim 30% of its US menu in early 2025 to let fall doubt and lengthy wait instances.
• Espresso stores will retain including plant milks to their menus – and also will want to to find unused techniques to evolve as workflow adjustments.

Plant milks have cemented their playground in café tradition, with oat milk now the default choice in some distinctiveness espresso stores. Many extra have authorised that dairy choices will likely be in everlasting, top call for, particularly as chilly espresso proliferates, and feature scrapped their upcharges in reaction.

However extra expansive menus inevitably reshape barista workflow and building up operational complexity. Moreover, customisation may cause overwhelm and confusion during ordering, prolonging wait instances. 

Switching between various kinds of milk calls for baristas to refine steaming temperature, texture, and timing. This now not handiest slows carrier and complicates workflow, but additionally calls for considerably extra coaching for unused team of workers.

Optimising workflow is subsequently very important for espresso stores to deal with those calls for. I stated to Dhan Tamang, six-time UK Latte Artwork Champion and a emblem ambassador for Latte Art Factory, to be told extra.

You might also like our article on whether customised drinks push us away from specialty coffee.

Plant milks & chilly beverages are reshaping the espresso business

Plant milks and iced beverages have lengthy been on espresso store menus. However they had been frequently an afterthought in distinctiveness espresso stores – hardly ordered, and thereby in large part left out – as baristas all for pour overs and conventional milk-based drinks.

Then again, as shoppers more and more worth selection and personalisation, there was one thing of a “cold coffee revolution”. Iced beverages are well-known orders at main espresso chains the world over; in its 2023 third-quarter monetary record, Starbucks stated that they represented an impressive 75% of sales in the US.

Chilly espresso specifically resonates with Gen Z, who form those beverages all year-round at any day of pace. Matcha has also become a go-to base for customisation and a world viral development, with its shiny inexperienced hue taking pictures the eye of social media customers. Black Sheep Coffee, meanwhile, reported a 227% year-on-year surge in iced beverage sales in Might 2025 following the creation of its Peaches & Cream Matcha and Matcha Lemonade strains.

A contributing issue to this shift is, satirically, the emerging prices of residing; extra shoppers are much less prepared to invest in “simply coffee” or alternative easy beverages. The liberty to customize drink flavour, mouthfeel, and look meets the demand for value and a unique experience in ways that black coffee often can’t. In flip, customisation has catapulted espresso and matcha past simply drinks into cultural symbols of self-expression and id.

Coinciding with the explosive enlargement of chilly espresso is the be on one?s feet of plant milks. The 2 frequently advance hand-in-hand, permitting shoppers to increase their customisation choices. 

Within the mid-2010s, oat milk emerged as the undisputed champion of plant-based beverages in distinctiveness espresso. In line with knowledge from International Espresso Portal, over 28% of consumers at UK-branded espresso stores have ordered oat milk, which makes it essentially the most prevailing plant milk within the nation.

Oat milk continues to outperform alternative plant milks – and dairy in some circumstances. The inside track that some well-known roasters and coffee chains in the US and UK defaulted to oat – or even upcharged for cow’s milk – was once a sunny signal of its mainstream recognition.

Then again, later reports that oat milk may spike blood glucose levels, the traditionally “healthy” drink got here beneath hearth. This has spread out extra marketplace alternatives for alternative plant-based milks, as shoppers proceed to turn pastime in dairy choices.

“Many customers are reducing their dairy consumption for health, dietary, or ethical reasons,” says Dhan, a International Latte Artwork Championship finalist, the founding father of Kavi Coffee, and a emblem ambassador for Latte Art Factory. “Plant milks like oat, almond, soy, and coconut are considered healthier or easier to digest than dairy.”

Why espresso stores are turning to automation for assistance

Permitting shoppers sovereign rein in construction their highest beverage has been a a hit technique for espresso stores. Then again, as unused elements and milk choices pop up on café menus, the apply turns into extra difficult on team of workers.

Extra expansive menus inevitably reshape barista workflow and building up operational complexity. It will hinder the rate and trait of carrier to such an extent that, when it comes to Starbucks, it cut 30% of its US menu in January 2025 to reclaim its conventional coffeehouse tradition.

Switching between various kinds of milk calls for baristas to re-optimise steaming temperature, texture, and timing. This cannot handiest decelerate carrier and complicate workflow, but additionally calls for considerably extra coaching for unused baristas.

“Many cold beverages are usually easier to prepare than hot beverages because cold drinks can be pre-made,” Dhan says. 

However within the limelight of chilly espresso and plant milks is cold foam – an ethereal but hazy and solid layer of milk this is showing atop a broadening array of chilly beverages. Chilly foam has received traction since its debut in numerous chains over a decade in the past. 

In line with Google Traits, seek pastime within the time period “Einspänner” – a hot coffee topped with sweetened whipped cream – has climbed to unused heights international within the pace 3 years. In flip, the selection of cafés providing Einspänner-inspired cold and hot beverages has skyrocketed, as espresso stores have discovered unused techniques to form visually great beverages with chilly foam that draw in Gen Z shoppers who worth aesthetics and trait similarly.

Chilly foam’s “Instagrammable” seeing attraction and creamy texture – which may also be accomplished with dairy and any form of plant milk – form a drink revel in that feels top rate.

Then again, making chilly foam through hand is hard and time-consuming – a role that many baristas now not have the capability for. Moreover, as a result of milk’s foam structure is influenced by its protein-to-fat ratio, plant milks are normally trickier to grasp with this form.

This has spread out unused alternatives for café operators to leverage automation, together with methods just like the award-winning Latte Art Factory. The compact, automatic milk foaming system makes use of patented no-steam era, exact temperature keep watch over, and completely customisable settings to optimise milk texture for each cold and hot beverages. 

“The Latte Art Factory reduces cognitive load, ensures quality consistency, and allows baristas to focus on hospitality instead of operational complexity,” Dhan says.

He explains that the machine can dispense as much as 1.6 litres of scorching or chilly milk foam in line with slight in as much as 3 predefined foam textures, helping baristas with workflow. It may additionally customize textures for as much as two other liquids in the similar recipe – together with plant milks and chilly brew – bearing in mind simple transitions between drink varieties, in order that cafés can grant oat milk cappuccinos, nitro lattes, and extra with out dropping generation or trait.

How espresso stores can building up capability for unused chilly beverages and plant milks

Espresso stores will want to retain including unused chilly beverages, plant milks, and customisation choices in the event that they wish to thrive in an ever-increasingly aggressive marketplace. 

However this implies cafés want to to find unused techniques to evolve. Extra plant milks, chilly beverages, and beverage personalisation inevitably cruel extra operational complexity – all of which creates the possibility of disjointed carrier.

On manage of efficient barista coaching – helping reassess workflow to incorporate more ingredients and even different movements – automation can grant assistance through dealing with repetitive duties, enabling team of workers to focal point extra on customer support. 

“Baristas use the Latte Art Factory as a precision tool to apply their expertise, ensuring every drink has the right temperature, volume, and texture tailored to both the milk type and customer preference,” Dhan says.  

The machine deals exact, solid, and customisable temperature keep watch over, starting from 4°C to 75°C (40°F to 167°F), to grant all kinds of various milks and drinks persistently. 

“It gives baristas the precision and flexibility to experiment, innovate, and deliver consistent quality while staying ahead of cold coffee and plant milk trends,” Dhan says. “Café staff can have the confidence to deliver consistency today while unlocking creativity for the coffee trends of tomorrow.”

Automation could also be offering assistance to baristas in unused techniques, letting them utilise and make stronger their abilities and data to customize temperature, quantity, and texture for various milks and beverages.

Answers just like the Latte Artwork Manufacturing unit too can let fall wastefulness, potentially increasing revenue by up to 30% and saving more than 10 litres of milk per day, and trim wait instances through part.

The machine’s automated cleansing cycle – an important consideration when using automated beverage dispensing equipment – additionally frees up baristas’ day to concentrate on alternative duties.

The year of espresso is outwardly chilly and flexible, with shoppers proceeding to call for extra choices than ever ahead of. As plant milks and iced beverages proliferate on menus, cafés will want to faucet into the rising tendencies.

However concurrently, trait and consistency are paramount, and low stores can’t come up with the money for to compromise on both. To search out luck, operators must adapt their carrier routines, put money into supportive apparatus, and empower baristas to accomplish at their easiest.

Loved this? Next learn our article on innovation in cold milk foam for coffee.

Photograph credit: Latte Art Factory

Best possible Day-to-day Grind

Please word: Latte Art Factory is a sponsor of Best possible Day-to-day Grind.

Need to learn extra articles like this? Sign up for our newsletter!