Has the flat white had its day?
During lockdown, coffee was one of the few treats to be had, with pop-up cafs appearing in converted shipping containers and tricked- out horse trailers across the country. But if youve fallen into a coffee rut and youre fed up with your flat white, it might be time to try some of the new caffeinated crazes filtering through to a coffee cart near you. Well, cool coffee! Tom Noonan, head of marketing at Bewleys, explains that coffee trends often originate in Australia (the flat white is said to have been invented there) and Asia, which is particularly progressive with cold coffees. This chilled trend has already percolated through to mainland Europe, and is now bubbling up in Ireland. Consumers may already be familiar with iced coffees, but cold brew  made by steeping ground coffee in water for 12 to 16 hours so it picks up a much sweeter flavour  is becoming an increasingly popular option. Guji Boutique Coffee which operates in Nenagh and Cork. Alan Andrews, owner of the Old Barracks Coffee Roastery in Birdhill, Co Tipperary and Guji Boutique Coffee in Cork and Nenagh, describes these drinks as delicious and super-refreshing and recommends trying an elderflower coffee lemonade, made by adding elderflower syrup to an espresso or overnight cold brew. Alternatively, coffee afficionados can inject a little tropical taste into their daily cup of joe with an exotic new offering from Bewleys - the Pina Colatte, which is an espresso with coconut milk and pineapple flavouring. Its a Bewleys twist on the traditional latte for this summer, says Noonan. For those missing pub culture and the sight of a gently settling pint of Guinness, never fear  the coffee boffins have invented just the beverage for you: the nitro. Nitro coffee, which is a niche but growing part of the Irish market, is made by nitrogenating cold brew, and this, Noonan explains, gives it the Guinness effect. The nitrogen gas makes the coffee settle like a pint of stout and gives it a creamy, frothy head. Nitro coffee can be bought canned, but some cafs have even installed nitro taps, similar to beer taps, so they can pull the drink through the tap like stout. Noonan notes that one of the biggest shifts in the market since the onset of the pandemic, is that people are consuming much more coffee at home. People needed new hobbies and this translated into a huge increase in the sale of home espresso machines. He says people have been hungry for education, and have explored different origins and flavours. Bewleys has seen a big uplift in sales of single-origin coffee from places like Kenya and Ethiopia. People are looking for new ways to make better coffee at home, he says. The pia colatte from Bewleys. Connoisseurs  And with the possibility of home entertaining now on the horizon, coffee connoisseurs may want to show off their newfound brewing skills. Enter: the Zero Martini, Andrewss alcohol-free spin on the espresso martini. He predicts it will be a really popular drink this summer, and its one that people can easily make at home using espresso, cold brew (or a refrigerated americano), some date syrup, sugar syrup, a pinch of fancy salt flakes and a dash of rose water. Follow the demo video posted on The Old Barracks Instagram page to nail this frothy mocktail thats guaranteed to get your guests buzzing. Meanwhile, Alin Giriada, chief executive of the Dublin training and consultancy firm Coffee Laboratory, says the domestic coffee market experienced exponential growth in the last year. He says bottled and canned coffees are becoming more popular, especially those containing plant-based milk like oat lattes or almond mochas. The iced coconut matcha. Matcha, which is a type of green tea that grows in Japanese forests, might prove a good choice for those of us who have comfort-caffeinated our way through the pandemic and need to cut down on the jitter juice. It has less caffeine and more importantly it is slow-release caffeine, says Giriada. So it doesnt give you a boost of energy but rather keeps you alert.  Demand  Also, there is always a demand for healthier options, so we expect to see variations of drinks containing turmeric, ginger or beetroot, ingredients that have proved to work really well with coffee, Giriada adds. Andrews too has observed this overall move towards greater health-consciousness, noting that there has been a massive cultural shift towards a cleaner social life. This shift, he says, is about having somewhere to go thats not your home, not the pub and not work. He points out that the great advantage of coffee compared to alcohol is that once youve had two drinks, youve had enough. So whether or not people decide to give their flat whites the flick in favour of cooler caffeinated choices, it looks like Irelands booming coffee culture is here to stay. The Top 1000 magazine and listings is published on Friday, 11th June, with The Irish Times.