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Asian Flavours Inspiring the UK Drink Market
Global flavours continue to shape UK menus, driven by travel, social media, and growing cultural curiosity. These internationally inspired favourites bring excitement and novelty. Flavour discovery is booming, with 23% of Gen Z and 22% of Millennials actively seeking new flavour experiences.
In the UK drinks market, globally inspired flavours are emerging primarily from Asia, showing up in iced lattes, matcha drinks, coolers, and more. Asian‑inspired beverages typically appear first in UK independents, which act as incubators for flavour trends. Now, chains such as Black Sheep Coffee and Blank Street are embracing ingredients like pandan, cherry blossom, yuzu, and ube.
What Asian flavours are we seeing on UK menus?
1. Yuzu
Lime & Yuzu Spritz
Yuzu is an aromatic East Asian citrus fruit that’s increasingly gaining traction across global beverage menus. Seen in beverages, cocktails, ice cream and even desserts, Yuzu is a flavour to watch.
- Perfect Ted Pineapple Yuzu RTD Matcha
- Tenzing Raspberry and Yuzu Natural Energy Drink
- Fentimans Yuzu Tonic Water
Menu Suggestions
- Lime and Yuzu Espresso Tonic
- Lime and Yuzu Margarita
- Lime and Yuzu Spritz
2. Ube
Ube & Vanilla Iced Matcha
Ube is a purple yam with a subtly sweet, nutty flavour and distinctive violet colour. Rapidly growing in popularity across global coffee and dessert markets. 64% of Gen Z and 65% of millennials are motivated by curiosity to try ube (GlobalData), pushing the trend’s engagement growth up over 105% in social conversations.
- Black Sheep Ube Iced Matcha
- Starbucks Ube range
- Costa Ube range
- Pret Ube Iced Latte
Menu Suggestions
- Ube Iced Matcha
- Ube Iced Latte
- Ube White Hot Chocolate
3. Pandan
Pandan & Coconut Iced Latte
Pandan is a tropical plant native to southeast Asia and is becoming increasingly popular in iced lattes and cold brews (+20% pandan lattes growth in consumer interest). Known for its signature green colour, Pandan has seen a +9% increase in product launches (CAGR 2020-24). +25% growth in interest for Filipino coffee trends (2022 – 2024), like pandan.
- Black Sheep’s Pandan range
- Starbucks (South Korea) Pandan Iced Latte
- Avala Coffee Pandan Latte
Menu Suggestions
- Pandan and Coconut Iced Latte
- Pandan and Coconut Iced Matcha
- Pandan and Coconut Lemonade
4. Matcha
Matcha is now a coffee shop staple, with Blank Street selling a matcha drink every 4 seconds (across the US and UK).* On TikTok, #Matcha has 15B+ views, driven by Gen Z and millennials. Matcha is being seen in mainstream cafes, independents, supermarket cafes and even fast food chains!
What chains offer matcha?
- Starbucks
- Blank Street
- Black Sheep
- Costa
- Caffe Nero
- Greggs
- Pret
- M&S cafe
- Tesco cafe
- + many more!
Menu Suggestions
5. Dragon Fruit
Dragon Fruit and Mango Cooler
The younger generation are seeking bold tropical flavour combinations with 75% of consumers citing they are interested in trying tropical flavours. Dragon fruit as a flavour has grown by a huge 26% in the last 5 years with it being of interest to nearly 60% of consumers**.
- Costa Dragon Fruit & Guava Refresher
- Starbucks Mango Dragon Fruit Refresher
- M&S Strawberry & Dragon Fruit Juice
- J2O Dragonberry (blackberry and dragon fruit)
- Folkington’s Guava and Dragon Fruit Juice
Menu Suggestions
- Dragon Fruit and Mango Spritz
- Dragon Fruit and Mango Slushie
- Dragon Fruit and Mango Margarita
We have so many more fun and trendy drink ideas in our latest Spring/Summer Magazine – download here!
Product Spotlight:
Check out the SIMPLY range, packed with off the shelf solutions to help you add these trending flavours to your menu!
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