Is Gen Z Getting Bored of Regular Coffee? What Café Brands Are Discovering

A familiar order, an experimental flavour or a conversation worth lingering over, customer-facing and guests operation professionals explain how the experience around a cup influences what guests choose.

An order for chai or coffee can appear simple. Behind it may lie a search for comfort, a desire to try something different or the need for a place to spend time with someone. The drink is the purchase; the occasion gives it meaning. This is what makes the conversation about Gen Z and Millennial customers interesting for beverage and hospitality businesses. Age can offer a starting point for understanding preferences, but the experience a guest wants on a particular visit deserves closer attention. The same customer can return for a favourite drink one day and explore a new flavour the next.

For cafés and beverage brands, the opportunity is to understand how these choices co-exist. A menu must give regulars confidence in what they already enjoy while offering curious customers a reason to explore. The setting, the food alongside the drink and the interaction with the team can all influence whether that experience feels worth repeating.

Insights from Tokyo Matcha Bar, The Orchid Hotel Mumbai, Silk Road Coffee Company and Levista Coffee suggest a more nuanced story than a straightforward contest between generations. Their observations bring together familiarity, experimentation, personal choice and the social value of a shared cup.

Familiarity and discovery can belong to the same customer

A classic order provides reassurance: The customer knows what to expect. An unfamiliar flavour provides an invitation to discover. For a brand, serving both well requires understanding the different roles they play. Meher Kohli, Co-Founder, Tokyo Matcha Bar, highlighted, “Gen Z approach chai and coffee with more curiosity than previous generations. They’re drawn to new formats, flavours and visual experiences that feel different from their everyday order. For them, the experience around it is almost as important as the drink itself. They may have a go-to coffee or chai, but they’re also willing to explore when there’s a quality story or authenticity in something new/niche. What we’ve learnt at Tokyo Matcha Bar is that Gen Z don’t necessarily choose between familiar or new; they are willing to spend money on both. For example, a classic matcha latte one day and something completely experimental the next. This has taught us to keep innovating with new flavours like ube or trends like flavoured cold foams to stay on top, while still respecting the classics like cold coffee that people already love.”

A guest’s willingness to experiment does not remove the value of a dependable favourite. That distinction matters for menu strategy. A new launch can provide a reason to visit, while a consistently delivered classic can give the customer confidence in returning. Innovation works best when the brand understands what its regulars want it to preserve.

Her reference to quality and authenticity also adds depth to the role of novelty. A new drink needs a reason to be interesting beyond being different. An ingredient, a preparation style or an explanation of what makes the flavour distinctive can help the customer make an informed choice.

For customer-facing teams, this creates an opportunity to make discovery approachable. A guest may be curious about an unfamiliar drink but still want to understand its taste, sweetness or texture before ordering. A clear recommendation can turn uncertainty into a satisfying first experience.

The experience includes what arrives beside the cup

Preferences also reveal themselves through pairings. The beverage may anchor the visit, but the food alongside it helps define the overall occasion.

Reshma Bhosale, Pastry Chef, The Orchid Hotel Mumbai,who also interacts with guests, said, “From what I observe at The Gourmet Shop, Millennials often gravitate towards familiar favorites - classic cappuccino, masala chai or filter coffee paired with a croissant or cookie. Gen Z, on the other hand, is much more experimental, with iced coffee, cold brews, flavored lattes and customizable, less-sweet beverages becoming increasingly popular. They are also more conscious of ingredients and enjoy pairing their coffee with lighter options such as our multi-grain cookies. As chefs, these preferences push us to experiment with flavors, textures and healthier ingredients while still keeping taste and indulgence at the heart of what we create.”

Reshma’s observations describe preferences among guests she encounters at The Gourmet Shop. They offer a view of how generational differences can appear in a hospitality setting, while leaving room for individual tastes within each group. The customer experience insight lies in the combination of choices. A cappuccino and croissant can serve a different occasion from an iced drink and a lighter accompaniment. Looking at the order as a whole helps a business understand what the guest is seeking from the visit.

Customisation adds another dimension. The ability to choose a less-sweet drink gives the customer a way to shape the experience around a preference. For the business, the challenge is to make those choices clear and deliver them consistently. Bhosale’s emphasis on taste and indulgence is equally important. Ingredient awareness does not, in her account, eliminate the desire for enjoyment. The creative task is to offer combinations that respond to customer preferences while remaining appealing in their own right.

This makes collaboration between beverage teams, chefs and service staff particularly useful. A thoughtfully developed pairing only becomes a customer benefit when the menu and the team can explain why it works.

A café visit also has a social dimension. Customers may choose a drink for its taste and return to a place because of how they feel while spending time there. Parth Suri, from Silk Road Coffee Company, highlighted that their observation is that people who are coming for coffee & food in our cafe are getting aware that conversations over a cup of freshly roasted coffees are more tasteful plus the energy of likeminded people who are loving coffee is creating a synergy of forward looking and energising communication. So whether they are having pour-overs, cappuccino or a Vietnamese iced coffee, we always say that It’s the coffee and the company that makes all the difference.

Suri’s perspective introduces a shared motivation that can cut across age groups: enjoying coffee in good company. His account focuses on the atmosphere created around the product and the conversations it supports.

For a hospitality business, this broadens the meaning of customer experience. The drink has to meet expectations, but the place must also work for the occasion. Seating, service, ambience and the ease of spending time together can influence how a guest remembers the visit. It also suggests a limit to interpreting customers through menu choices alone. A pour-over, cappuccino or iced coffee reveals something about the order. It does not fully explain why the customer chose that café or what made the visit enjoyable.

Understanding the occasion can therefore be as valuable as understanding the beverage preference. A business that knows whether its guests come to catch up, explore coffee or enjoy a quiet break can make better decisions about the experience surrounding the cup.

Evolving with customers while keeping a recognisable identity

For an established beverage brand, responding to different preferences raises a strategic question: how can it offer new ways to enjoy the product while preserving what customers recognise? Kumar Gaurav, Deputy General Manager, Operations, Levista Coffee, says, “Coffee is no longer just a ritual, it’s a reflection of lifestyle and self-expression. At Levista, we’re bridging heritage with innovation, evolving from a household staple to a multi-format coffee companion for every generation.”

Gaurav frames the opportunity as continuity across different formats and customer needs. The underlying brand remains recognisable while the ways of consuming it can evolve.

For leadership teams, that is a useful distinction. A new format should have a clear role in the customer’s life: making the product easier to enjoy on a different occasion, opening up a new preference or offering greater convenience. Its value depends on whether it extends the relationship in a meaningful way.

Heritage can provide a basis for confidence, while innovation can create additional reasons to choose the brand. Keeping those connected requires clarity about which qualities customers expect to remain dependable as the offering changes.

What is the customer really ordering? Taken together, these accounts suggest that the most useful question goes beyond whether Gen Z prefers experimentation and Millennials favour familiarity.

What does the customer want from this cup, on this visit? The answer may be a reliable taste, an opportunity to discover, greater control over sweetness, a satisfying pairing or a setting for conversation. Several of those needs can belong to the same person at different times. These observations can inform menu development and service decisions without reducing every guest to an age-based profile.

The perspectives shared here are drawn from individual businesses rather than a universal account of either generation. Their value lies in the detail: how curiosity appears in an order, how ingredient preferences shape a pairing and how company contributes to the experience.

A compelling new drink may attract the first visit. The experience around it helps determine whether the customer wants another. For chai, coffee and café businesses, the lasting opportunity is to make room for both discovery and dependability and to understand the occasion that brings the customer to the cup.

Disclaimer: All data points and statistics are attributed to published research studies and verified market research. All quotes are either sourced directly or attributed to public statements.