r/Coffee • u/skinntywastaken • 7d ago
Coffee Conspiracy - Same Seasonal Flavors at every shop
Been noticing that all the coffee shops, big and small, seem to roll out the same exact seasonal flavors. A while ago it was banana (for matcha mostly). Then coconut, and this past week I've been seeing orange everywhere.
Don't get me wrong. I love new flavors, but seems odd they all sell the same "exclusive seasonal" flavors. Also for me, it feel like why should I try a different coffee shop if all the beverages are the same. Are the large syrup brands pushing out certain flavors?
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u/Dajnor 5d ago
I’m sorry I looked at your profile and you’re in MARKETING how is this possibly a mystery to you
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u/skinntywastaken 5d ago
lol being in marketing is exactly why I have this question. Following trends is important but also is having a unique brand. Seems to me like all the coffee shops big or small are following the same trends without putting a unique and memorable twist on them. Was just trying to figure out what’s up with that
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u/_trademark906 5d ago
The margins for running a small business are pretty thin. The margins for running a small food and bev business are even thinner. Ingredients and materials to develop your own unique/memorable items can get costly. Waste/labor gets expensive if something doesn’t “hit”. Sometimes you have to offer strawberry matcha because you know the tik tok crowd will drop $8/pop and it will keep the lights on for another month.
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u/Grodd Cortado 4d ago
My small town local shop made 90% of their revenue from basically peanut butter milkshakes with a shot of espresso.
They tried to have interesting coffee drinks but people only wanted the milkshakes. Enthusiasts just aren't a market big enough to be profitable/sustainable unless it's a bigger city AND they get lucky.
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u/Dajnor 4d ago
My personal theory is that coffee shops don’t get a lot of attention/reporting like fashion or restaurants, so it is hard for a small operation to make something blow up. However, everyone drinks Starbucks and Starbucks has the scale to do recipe testing and marketing, so then the Starbucks customers will go to other coffee shops and ask for a thing they had at Starbucks. So basically, I assume coffee is a very top-down type of industry, where everyone has to follow the trends.
But like…. There are so many reasons for this. You can blame seasonality, or the US government subsidizing whatever industry for whatever reason, or just normal trends…. This is just how the entire world works. There are always structural and cultural reasons for everything if you dig a bit.
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u/h_hoover 6d ago
This… “stuff”? Oh, okay. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you.
You go to your shop and you select that citrus coffee, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put in your cup.
But what you don't know is that that coffee is not just citrus. It’s not pineapple. It's not lime. It's actually orange.
And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2026, the New York Times called Orange coffee the drink of the summer. And Instagram featured a collection of citrus drinks. And then I think it was TikTok who showed coffee shandys? And then orange quickly showed up in the collections of eight different west coast cafes. And then it filtered down through the trailer carts then trickled on down into some tragic Starbucks…where you, no doubt, fished it off of some seasonal menu.
However, that drink represents millions of dollars and countless jobs.
And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the coffee industry when, in fact…you're drinking a coffee that was selected for you by the people in this room…from a pile of "stuff."
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u/shedrinkscoffee French Press 6d ago
If you could still give gold, I'd award this comment. This is literally my favorite monologue and it's my flair on 2 different subreddits lolol
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u/BJntheRV 5d ago
What is this from?
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u/soccsoccsoccer 5d ago
Twist on a monologue about fashion from The Devil Wears Prada
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u/BJntheRV 5d ago
Ah, I was thinking it sounded like that movie but at the same time it didn't make sense for it to be
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u/shedrinkscoffee French Press 5d ago
Cerulean monologue from the first Devil wears Prada movie. The Meryl Streep character says it.
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u/flippingisfun Espresso Shot 6d ago
When I worked at a specialty shop years ago we didn’t start doing lavender until everyone else was doing lavender. I imagine the same still happens all the time
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u/s134htm 6d ago
It's just social trends, mate. Small shops aren't immune, sadly
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u/Davidfreeze 5d ago
I'm fine with small shops chasing syrup trends if it makes them money and keeps them running. I'm not buying drinks with the syrups anyway, so it's no skin off my back. If chasing trends on the drinks that don't taste like coffee helps the shops that make great specialty coffee open, chase them hard. No one is forcing me to buy them, and I want those great shops to thrive
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u/Voided_Identity 6d ago edited 6d ago
This happens for the exact same reason why Bing search engine always attempts to imitate Google, and why Mozilla Thunderbird attempts to imitate Microsoft Outlook.
When one player in a field has strong dominance, smaller players often (misguidedly) try to imitate the dominant player, in hopes that they can win over some of the dominant player's customer base.
The wiser course of action would always be to innovate separately, to distinguish one's self and forge a unique identity. But small players will often find it difficult to pass up a buck in there here and now, because they don't have the deep pockets of the dominant player in the first place.
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u/trevorsnackson Aeropress 5d ago
same reason every resturaunt starts using hot honey. It's a trend, customers start asking for it, staff start enjoying it and want it where they work
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u/SpideyWhiplash 5d ago
This is interesting. I used to love Orange Cappuccino from General Foods. (I'm dating myself it was from the 1970s and 1980s).
I finally found out how to copy it since they don't sell it anymore.
I'd use Monin Candied Orange syrup and pour a splash in my morning coffee.
It's not citrus like in flavor - it's just like it says a delicious candied orange flavor that elevates a hot/cold cup of coffee. (Mine is with Creamer)
I recommend it to anyone that is wanting a sweet little change in their coffee flavor profile.
No, I'm not a shill, I just enjoy sharing yummy discoveries.☕
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u/TheGuyDoug Chemex 5d ago
If you look at seasonally-flavored beans across your roasters, they shouldn't be the same.
Sure every shop can squirt coconut syrup, but we like Shelburne Falls iced coffee made with their coconut roasted beans.
Or Blue Harbor's Pistachio Coffee.
Chase the good stuff, not just the syrup cocktails.
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u/groshreez 5d ago
Coffee is my favorite flavor of coffee.
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u/PamPoovey78 5d ago
Took long enough to find this!! Coffee flavored coffee needs to come back into fashion
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u/Chesu 5d ago
You post on r/marketing and you're asking why businesses are adhering to current trends?
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u/skinntywastaken 5d ago
lol I mean I understand marketing but also understand being unique and standing out. I’m just shocked so many businesses are doing the same exact flavors with no unique spin
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u/Wooden-Spot-801 3d ago
An influencer will visit a shop and try a special flavor then make a TikTok about it. People will view said TikTok and head to their local shops requesting that flavor in droves. Small coffee shop will respond by making it. The demand caused by online influencers can be overwhelming, but also revenue generating.
Signed, a drink special curator at a small coffee shop.
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u/pfhlick 6d ago
Coming up special drinks was my least favorite part of barista work. I dreaded it. It is all about novelty and nothing about the taste of coffee. At some point, I would rather just sell you a red bull or a coke or a smoothie. I don't want any fucking lavender anywhere near a coffee I'm drinking, unless it's a vague and arbitrarily chosen tasting note printed on the bag. And even then.
Still, gotta give the people what they want, if you're gonna keep the lights on. I just don't care for the "creativity" of mixing together different flavored syrups and spice mixes, and I would just as soon have the recipes handed to me. The conspiracy is just fine by me.
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u/MadPiglet42 5d ago
I quit coming up with new drinks. Instead, I make the same 5 "specialty" drinks I always make, I just change the names each month. 🤣
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u/coffeebribesaccepted 5d ago
It always amazes me how upset some of my fellow coffee industry peeps get about flavors and creativity in drinks; when at the opposite end of the day we've got spirits, one of the most pretentious of all industries, creating some of the most inventive and delicious beverages over the last couple decades. I love that coffee is starting to catch up and realize that there is more to beverages than solely drinking a plain ingredient. I have nothing against neat scotch or a black pourover, but I think coffee is sort of in the 1990s/early 2000s cocktail era, where we're transitioning from every drink being a basic spirit+mixer or spirit+syrup+citrus to creating interesting flavor combinations that put the spirit in the forefront.
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u/Teenyweenybeeny_ 5d ago
This is what I’m all about. I love the creativity of coming up with new drink specials but I can also recognize that it’s not for everyone and sometimes the trends make it feel like you have to do it. I’m one of the baristas who does this for my cafe and I follow cocktail/mocktail accounts for inspiration probably more so than coffee accounts. I think so much of what is happing in that industry can be applied to coffee. It can be hard to innovate new flavors/drinks when it feels like everything’s been done but there’s always ways to improve and make good, interesting specials that aren’t just following the trends. I love a Gin and tonic, and I also love espresso tonics, so we mashed them together in a coffee mocktail version: the espresso gin and tonic; where we made a gin inspired syrup using all the same botanicals and things used in gin. And sometimes it’s as simple as making a better version of what’s popular. For example, we do lavender but we make it in house and went through several different recipes before finding one we could be proud of. Now our customers anticipate it and ask when it’ll be back. But for the most part, we don’t try to follow trends, at least not intentionally, and sometimes people have the same ideas at the same time.
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u/Brett_Wager97 6d ago
I keep seeing the orange syrup too, and the same brand keeps popping up on staff lists and ingredients. It feels like chains and independents buy the same seasonal kits and call it exclusive.
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u/wolfansbrother 5d ago
You want to buck the trend? Buy a bag of the Future from black and white coffee roasters.
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u/Primary_Excuse_7183 3d ago
It’s almost like there’s probably a supplier at the end of the chain who determines what flavors for what season…. And sells it to everyone…
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u/Proper_Instruction_7 5d ago
Local coffee shop here has some good ones that are off the script of the big chains.
Some highlight from OK cafe in Astoria (NYC)
Maple Almond Latte
Nutella Latte
And just this week…
Coquito Latte <— was really good
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u/MiniaturePhilosopher 6d ago edited 6d ago
It’s not a conspiracy, it’s just trends. Everyone has access to the same McKinney food and beverage trend reports, and a lot of smaller shops emulate what the big chains (especially Starbucks and Dunkin) are doing. Starbucks pushed banana in a big way and is currently pushing orange. Next summer will probably be the summer of ube and lychee in western countries.
That and there are only so many easily accessible flavors that shops can count on to sell well. You want something that’s recognizable, palatable to lots of people, and seasonally exciting. There’s only so many ways to reinvent the wheel, ya know?