Sharing ideas and inspiration for next year’s trending summer drinks, including fresh fruits, nostalgic sweet flavours, and global, spicy or sustainable ingredients:
Sweet & fresh
There’s little more synonymous with summertime food and drinks than sweet treats using seasonal fruits and ingredients. Sweet flavours don’t need to be obvious or old-hat, though. They can be refreshed by the latest drinks industry trends – like creating nostalgic sweet drinks or decadent dessert-style drinks.
For retro or nostalgic sweet drink flavours, we predict cherry, marshmallow, S’mores and popcorn will all be popular through summer 2025. S’mores blend of chocolate and marshmallow is already being recreated in drinks syrups for cocktails and coffees while retro cherry is being added to twists on Negronis or elevated milkshakes and sundaes.
For decadent sweet drinks, try adding the flavours of meringue, milk chocolate or white chocolate. Sweet chocolate drinks are already enjoying something of a renaissance with mocha coffees, milkshakes and iced dairy drinks all adopting the flavour. Hardware Coffee + Kitchen in Liverpool serves a tropical flavoured white chocolate iced drink, for example, while Gail’s Bakery flavours its iced chocolate drink with a syrup made in-house. Pairings could be key to elevating chocolate too, such as with banana, strawberry or coconut.
Earthy but sweet flavours like floral honey or vanilla and more subtle matcha are another way to create new summer drinks. These delicate flavour combinations suit drink formats like sodas or adult soft drinks, as well as toppings like foams. Expect to see plenty more cold foams topping teas and coffees in 2025’s trending summer drinks too, like Southsea Coffee’s earthy coconut matcha topped with a sweet dragonfruit and strawberry cold foam.
Sweet & fruity
For fruity seasonal flavours, there are endless possibilities to inspire summer drink ideas.
Orchard fruits and berries like apple, pear, peach, raspberry or blackberry, and fruits that lend colour as well as flavour, like watermelon and peach, are all ideal for carbonated soft drinks, cocktails and mocktails.
Tropical fruits like mango, passionfruit and pineapple are increasingly popular as additions to coffees, teas or matchas. Iced matchas or kombuchas ensure they have broad appeal by including tropical fruit flavours, for example, as seen in Blank Street’s summer special matchas in 2024.
For extra special slushies or tonics, sweet internationally grown fruits like kiwi, cantaloupe and lychee are ideal. Expect to see ‘spiked’ slushies in these flavours, giving a nostalgic treat a grown-up edge. Similarly, these popular fruit flavours could make classic ‘Marmite’ cocktails more appealing, like lychee Martinis or pineapple Negronis.
Tart & Sour
Despite everyone’s natural tendencies towards sweet summer flavours, new summer drinks in tart and sour flavours are a key beverage trend expected in 2025.
Sour Sgroppinos and bitter Aperol Spritzes are a summer staple, of course. And cocktails like the Whiskey Sour or Mojito and soft drinks like lemonade show the broad popularity of naturally tart or sour drinks. From this, we think twists that give sweet ingredients extra edge will appeal to drinkers in 2025. This could be done by elevating the sour pineapple in Pina Coladas with extra lemon, or by adding zingy citrus to elevate the mild tartness of guava or add extra profile to sweet peach.
Tart and sour flavours tend to be derived from common citruses like lemon, lime blood orange and tangerine, as well as tropical fruits like pineapple, yuzu and grapefruit. There’s also rhubarb, which gets extra credentials for its earthy flavour and seasonality. Each of these suit adult soft drinks and tonics, whether to be enjoyed alone or as mixers to complement spirits, as well as refreshing slushies and sodas for all ages.
Finally, after flavour house McCormick named tamarind as 2024’s Flavour of the Year, we’re anticipating this sweet-sour fruit will be used beyond just spirits and sodas by summer 2025.
Spiced up
Expect to see twists on established trends influencing summer drink ideas in 2025. The spicy drinks trend – which has suited ‘more is more’ attitudes since 2020 – has evolved into the ‘swicy’ drinks trend, for example.
We think flavours like hot honey or hot mango will increasingly be added to coffees, spirits or liqueurs as creative use of spices like chilli, ginger or jalapeno with contrasting, crowd-pleaser flavours is now commonplace – think spicy Margaritas or chilli chocolates.
Coffees and cocktails can be injected with these flavours using syrups – like influencer @drinksbyevie’s hot honey syrup cocktail, shared on Instagram. Spicy flavours could also be infused into mixers like tonics or sodas to elevate a range of spirits.
Down to earth
As sustainability further influences buying habits through 2025, earthy flavours are expected to trend in new summer drinks.
For adventurous drinkers these could come from tropical ingredients or twists on these – such as smoked pineapple for tonics or sodas – or from unusual, global ingredients – such as ube, a sweet nutty-flavoured purple yam native to Southeast Asia.
For a familiar ingredient with earthy notes, we predict pistachio could set this summer 2025 drink trend. The nut has buttery, toasty notes which can be paired with fruits ranging from tart cherry or blackcurrant to softer mango or peach, to create flavoured spirits or rich syrups.
Beetroot is another familiar earthy ingredient expected to suit 2025 beverage trends, thanks to its on-trend red-purple hue. Its sweet, earthy flavour can cut through richer tastes in dairy or dessert-style drinks to make flavourful cocktails, coffees or milkshakes. Wax On bar in Berlin has already created a roasted beetroot, bubbles, raspberry and mezcal cocktail, for example.
Go global
Global flavours can be evocative of far-flung holiday destinations or compensate for budget-conscious drinkers taking staycations at home during the summer months. So we anticipate ingredients from around the world will make their way into 2025 summer beverage trends, from familiar Mexican agua fresca’s to unusual Korean punches.
Interest in less common cuisines is seeing dishes like sheer yakh (Afghan ice cream, typically flavoured with cardamom) and bingsu (a Korean shaved ice dessert served with fruit and syrup toppings) make their way onto menus. We think this will see drinks like hwachae – a Korean watermelon punch made with fruits and edible flower petals – influence new summer drinks. Korean culture and cuisine are increasingly popular with consumers, being sought out by 1-in-6 shoppers according to OnePoll. Bars and QSRs worldwide are already across this particular global drink trend, serving cocktails with gochujang syrup or soju, the rice spirit, for example.
Middle Eastern cuisine is another fast-growing food trend, so expect to see flavours from aromatic spices and dried fruits used in drinks like shakes, spirits and cocktails.
For familiar global flavours, take inspiration from French or Italian inspired cocktails – like the Tarte Tatin cocktail (which blends Cognac and amontillado with cooked apple, butter, crème fraiche and cinnamon) or the Amalfi cocktail (made with Diet Coke, limoncello, Absolut Citron and fresh lemon).
Get ahead of 2025 drink trends
At Simpsons, we keep up with the latest drinks industry trends to ensure our customers are the first movers in their categories. Read our other blogs for extra insights and new flavour or product ideas.
Image source: Trendhub The Food People 2024
