Banana is coffee's new favorite flavor
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Lattes and matchas are going bananas.
The big picture: Already the most-eaten fresh fruit in America, bananas are ripe for the beverage market beyond smoothies.
By the numbers: Banana is the fastest-growing beverage ingredient flavor over the past year at restaurants, per Circana market data.
- Top chains introduced 100 banana items from July 2025 through July 2026 — already more than in any previous full year — and most of them were nonalcoholic beverages, according to Datassential. (See: Starbucks' Iced Banana Bread Matcha, Wawa's Banana Bread Coffee.)
Search interest is surging, too. "Banana coffee" and "banana matcha" hit all-time highs in search in 2026, per Google trends.
- TikTok has plenty of videos for the banana curious, including a tutorial for making banana iced coffee at home, by Eva Longoria.
What they're saying: Banana-flavored coffee is "easily the most popular drink this summer," says Kristi Grimley — a barista at Bay Buzz in Margate City, N.J. — as she sprinkles cinnamon onto a cold brew with banana syrup and oat milk.
- The flavor is not of the artificial Runts variety, but more like banana bread.
- "It's the oat milk that makes it taste nutty," she tells Axios.
Zoom out: Beyond coffee, bananas also have appeal in new cocktails, "water," soda and even beer.
My thought bubble: As a banana nut, I remember when Starbucks sold a drink made with whole bananas. And now I'm realizing that was almost 20 years ago.
- Any other Vivanno heads out there?
