Barista Trends

Discover Global Coffee Trends with iSi

We love the energy coffee creates: it connects people, fuels creativity, and turns every drink into an experience. From nitro cascades to velvety cold foams, coffee continues to evolve into an expressive and emotional ritual. Across continents, baristas, cafés, and coffee chains are setting trends that define how millions of people start their day, share a break, or enjoy a moment of indulgence. For more than 20 years, iSi Culinary has been dedicated to meeting baristas around the world. This close connection to café and coffee chain operators allows us to listen, learn, and understand the trends shaping the global coffee landscape like nothing else. Get a first look at the latest global coffee trends.

You can find all the latest coffee trends for 2026 in the iSi Barista Trend Report.
For more information please contact our Sales Team

Contact Sales

Global Shifts

The global demand for coffee and tea is high: In China alone over 20,000 new branded chain coffee outlets opened within one year (Allegra Project Café Global 2026). How coffee is prepared, presented, and talked about tells us about changing attitudes toward health, sustainability, identity, pleasure, technology, and community. Simply put: It can help understand what motivates and drives consumers.

Change Is The New Constant

Around the world, shifting values, new technologies, and fast-paced lifestyles are reshaping the way people consume and experience coffee and tea. We explore these global shifts that form the foundation of today’s coffee and tea innovation.

Health

Consumers are looking for no-compromise beverages that provide energy without weighing them down. Drinks are thus lighter, less sweet, have less fat, more proteins, more health-promoting ingredients. Coffee is becoming a tool to boost brain performance, gut health, and mental health.

Globalization

Ideas, ingredients, techniques, and aesthetics travel faster than ever across borders. In today’s beverage world, globalization no longer means standardization, it means constant cultural exchange. Coffee cocktails, matcha lattes, and flavored cold brews are examples of this cross-border inspiration.

Eco-Intelligence

Eco-intelligence goes beyond traditional environmental awareness and looks at how people, businesses, technology, and nature are interconnected. Humans themselves, their responsibility, and their ability to find solutions are becoming the focus of ecological issues.

Meet our Barista Experts

“For Siwei, coffee has always been about people: Preparing drinks is inseparable from creating moments of connection and offering guests a new, memorable experience: “My job is to design experiences and turn recipes into stories on the menu.””

Siwei Chen

Co-Founder - O.P.S.

“Calvin’s journey into coffee began after dropping out of university, when a job in a local café sparked his passion. He vividly remembers his first “lightbulb coffee”: “For me, it was a Kenyan coffee. Bubblegum on the tasting notes, and I could actually taste it.””

Calvin Plazzotta

Beverage Experience Developer - Oatly

“Markus takes particular pride in GOTA being a “center of daily life” for many guests, a role that turns quality, hospitality, and innovation into something deeply personal. “What I enjoy most is being a central place in people’s everyday lifes.””

Markus Brun

Head of Coffee, Barista & Entrepreneur – Gota Coffee

“Gianni’s coffee journey began behind the bar in Sardinia and Milan, where hands-on café work sparked a passion that later evolved into a structured, educational approach to coffee mastery.”

Gianni Cocco

Coffee Expert, Consultant & Coffee Master - Accademia Italiana Maestri del Caffe

Barista Trend: Crazy Foam

When texture takes the stage

Crazy Foam captures the rapid rise of cold foam, topping, and texture innovation as a central driver of beverage differentiation. What started as a finishing touch has become a core design and enjoyment element that can shape flavor delivery, mouthfeel, visual impact, and storytelling.

From plant-based espumas and protein foams to nitro cascades and floating “clouds”, foam is no longer decorative. It is engineered indulgence: light, expressive, and made to perform both in the mouth and on camera.

Across all markets, foam has moved from an optional extra to a strategic tool.

“Cold foam adds just enough jazz to feel special.”

Heather Perry

CEO & Co-Owner - Klatch Coffee

about the trend "Crazy Foam"

“Visual impact has become a primary entry point, especially among Gen Z. Drinks are photographed longer than they are consumed, serving as accessories for self-expression.”

Markus Leitner

iSi Culinary Manager R&D

about the trend "Crazy Foam"

Find all the trends in the iSi Barista Trend Report 2026

Here’s how you can request for the report:

In the iSi Barista Trend Report 2026, you’ll find all the details on the 6 global movements, the 4 barista trends, insights from our global barista community, and many more highlights. For more information please contact our Sales Team

Contact Sales

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Discover Global Coffee Trends with iSi

Global Shifts

Change Is The New Constant

Health

Globalization

Eco-Intelligence

Connectivity

Personalization

Demographic Change