Why Americans Are Choosing Lattes Over Drip: The Premium Coffee Shift
Something shifted in American coffee habits last year, and new data from restaurant software company Toast helps explain it. Looking at same-store sales from roughly 164,000 U.S. locations between January 2024 and December 2025, the numbers paint a clear picture: customers are moving away from straightforward coffee and toward drinks that feel more premium.
Lattes grew 4% year-over-year in 2025. Espresso shots rose 3.3%. Americanos climbed 1.4%, and macchiatos edged up 0.6%.
Meanwhile, hot drip coffee dropped 3.3%. Cold brew fell 2.2%. Cappuccinos slipped 0.4%. Frappés declined 0.6%.
The Treat-Yourself Economics
What’s behind the shift? When coffee costs more---and it does, with the median price of a regular drip now sitting at $3.65---people change how they think about buying it.
The logic goes like this: if you’re going to pay café prices anyway, you might as well get something you can’t easily make at home. Pulling espresso shots and steaming milk properly requires equipment and technique that most people don’t have in their kitchens. A drip coffee, on the other hand, takes a $20 machine and five minutes.
Toast characterized the trend as movement toward beverages that “feel more premium, more specialized, and less easily made at home.”
What This Means for Specialty Coffee
For the specialty coffee world, this consumer shift cuts both ways.
On one hand, it validates what quality-focused roasters and cafés have long argued: that people will pay more for drinks that offer genuine craft and complexity. A well-made latte showcases both the espresso and the barista’s skill with milk. It’s a different product than batch-brewed coffee, and customers are voting with their wallets.
On the other hand, the decline in drip coffee sales raises questions. Drip brewing is how many people first experience specialty coffee. A carefully sourced, light-roasted single-origin can sing in a pour-over or batch brew. If fewer customers are ordering filter coffee, they might be missing the nuance that makes specialty beans worth seeking out.
Cold brew’s decline is particularly striking. Just a few years ago, it was the fastest-growing segment in café menus. Now it’s retreating. Some of this might be saturation---every gas station and grocery store sells cold brew now. When something becomes ubiquitous, it stops feeling special.
The Bigger Picture
The Toast data also showed energy drinks surging 8.7% and diet sodas climbing 7.4%. Herbal teas jumped 8.6%. Green tea dropped 4.9%, and black tea fell 3.4%.
What ties these trends together is a shift in how people think about café purchases. They’re not looking for baseline caffeine delivery---they can get that cheaper elsewhere. They’re looking for experiences, flavors, or products they can’t easily replicate.
This puts pressure on cafés to deliver on that promise. A $7 latte that tastes like any other latte isn’t worth the premium. But a latte made with exceptional espresso, textured milk, and real skill? That’s a different story.
For specialty coffee, the opportunity is clear: double down on what makes café visits worthwhile. Use better beans. Train baristas thoroughly. Offer drinks that justify their prices not through size or syrup pumps, but through genuine quality.
The customers who are choosing lattes over drip aren’t abandoning coffee. They’re asking for coffee to meet a higher standard.