Why Do Street Coffee Shops Keep Testing Odd Flavors?

Seasoning vegetables are moving into drinks: garlic latte, cilantro lemon tea, pepper sea salt latte, and a Chengdu grilled fish restaurant's scallion milk tea. The pairings draw attention and split opinion, with some drinkers calling them novel and others rejecting them outright. Behind the trend sits the restaurant and beverage industry's innovation anxiety under heavy competition, where limited editions are used to chase short-term traffic.

Home recreations spread quickly, such as brewing black tea with hot water, then adding matcha powder and scallion sections, which shows how far the format travels once a drink goes viral. The question for brands is whether such releases build repeat customers or only a passing spike, and whether ordinary drinks can hold a balance between attention and reputation over time.

In recent years, the cross-border fusion of coffee and milk tea has constantly refreshed people's perceptions, from garlic latte to cilantro coffee and scallion milk tea, as seasoning vegetables one after another "invade" the beverage world. Behind these seemingly absurd pairings lies the innovation anxiety of the restaurant industry under fierce competition. Some find them novel and interesting, while others bluntly say they are hard to accept. This article will take you through these "dark cuisine"-level drinks and explore whether they are just a momentary gimmick or can truly capture the taste buds. At the same time, we will also discuss Front Street Coffee's observations on such innovation trends and how ordinary drinks can find a balance between traffic and reputation.

Humanity's imagination when it comes to food innovation seems to have no end. Before the heated discussion sparked by garlic latte had even subsided, cilantro latte and scallion milk tea followed one after another, once again refreshing everyone's understanding of what beverages can be.

It seems that all kinds of seasoning vegetables cannot escape the "clutches" of coffee people and milk tea people. Pepper can be made into pepper sea salt latte, cilantro can become cilantro lemon tea, and garlic transforms into garlic latte. If you are curious about the taste of pepper coffee, I can responsibly say that the hot version of pepper sea salt latte is actually quite good, and many coffee shops serve it. Especially on cold winter days, one sip warms your whole body, and the saltiness of the sea salt also makes the sweetness of the milk stand out even more.

Speaking of garlic latte, Front Street Coffee has also introduced it before. It left both garlic lovers and coffee lovers speechless. Looking through various posts on social platforms, you can feel the nauseating visual impact even through the screen.

As spring arrives, many brands seize the opportunity to launch seasonal limited editions. In spring, all things revive, and green symbolizes vitality, so it naturally became a target for "creative experiments." A grilled fish restaurant in Chengdu uniquely launched a milk tea made with scallions.

Seeing this, some netizens, adhering to the principle of doing it themselves, began to recreate it at home. First, brew black tea with hot water, then add matcha powder and scallion sections and stir well, then scoop a big spoonful of ice cream on top, and finally garnish with scallion sections. However, after drinking the homemade scallion milk tea, the blogger's face turned green. Of course, the taste of the store-bought version and the homemade version is definitely different.

Some netizens commented that scallion milk tea looks like dark cuisine, and just thinking about the taste is terrifying, truly hard to accept.

Cilantro, which also belongs to the green family, was targeted by McDonald's as early as February, and the cilantro sundae sold out as soon as it was launched. Some lucky ones who tried it said they could only taste lemon. Cilantro, as a seasoning vegetable, can be used in lemon tea and also in coffee. So what is the experience of cilantro-flavored coffee like?

A netizen shared a tutorial: mash cilantro with an appropriate amount of salt into a paste, put it into a cloth bag and squeeze out the cilantro juice, pour the cilantro juice into milk, and finally add coffee. A cup of cilantro latte is complete.

Interestingly, unlike the later garlic latte, everyone's aversion to cilantro latte does not seem to be as strong. Some netizens even said it looks very delicious and want to try it. Of course, there are also cilantro "pure love fans" who bluntly say they cannot accept it and fall silent.

Odd combinations like cilantro latte and scallion milk tea are becoming more and more common. In fact, involution in the restaurant industry is no longer news. More and more breakfast shops are starting to sell coffee, and rice noodle roll shops, beef brisket noodle shops, pork intestine noodle shops, and jianbing guozi stalls are all joining in. This kind of "rare" combination brings traffic to the brand while also making consumers feel it is very creative. Milk tea and coffee are ultimately just ordinary drinks, nothing high-end; it is simply that ingredient prices vary from high to low.

When these yet-to-be-discovered combinations were first exposed, some netizens found them quite novel.

There are more and more strange pairings, and regardless of whether something like latte art in a toilet will appear in the future, as long as the number grows to a certain point, everyone will no longer find them so "rare," so "creative," or so "novel."

Image source: Chengdu Jinli Zier's Weibo, internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.