This article was researched and written by Fresh Cup in partnership with our sponsor, Ghirardelli.
Chocolate, caramel, and vanilla are timeliness coffee pairings. But with more cafes engaging with new-to-the-menu flavor pairings—ube lattes, strawberry matchas, espresso tonics—do these menu staples still have energy left? Or have the creative bounds of these classics been fully explored?
This is the question that the Ghirardelli booth at this year’s World of Coffee event was designed to answer.
Each day of the show, the company served tasting flights: three rounds, two drinks each. Each round had a different theme: the first drew from international influences, then narrowed down to California (World of Coffee took place in San Diego, and Ghirardelli was founded in San Francisco), and ending on cross-country.
The drinks, created by Ghirardelli’s internal recipe developer Corey King, pulled from all different flavor profiles. We tried things like a black sesame sea salt caramel frappe to a sparkling cherry vanilla espresso to an iced white mocha with maple protein cold foam, all crafted with beans (and by baristas) from Sacramento-based roaster Chocolate Fish.
King said developing the recipes involved combining tried and true tastes with unexpected surprises. “We’re really looking across the space at both familiar flavors and [less common] flavors that are intriguing.”
Drinks That Surprised, Drinks That Delighted
When Fresh Cup arrived on the show floor on Friday morning, we were surprised to find a small crowd already buzzing about the booth. Samples of the sparkling cherry vanilla espresso and golden mochas disappeared as soon as they were placed out for attendees to grab.
But it was the black sesame sea salt caramel frappe that stole the show, at least judging by the consistent expression of surprise and delight on the faces of attendees after taking their first sip.
“It’s kind of got that blend of umami and sweet,” said a barista from Hawaii’s Akamai Coffee. The barista said they found the complexity of the blend of caramel sauce, vanilla frappe mix, sea salt, and sesame to be impressive. “You’ve got multiple things happening in one drink.”
The barista had a similar reaction to the golden mocha, which was made with a blend of Ghirardelli’s White Chocolate Flavored Sweet Ground powder and spices. “I love the blend of flavors,” he said. “The turmeric wasn’t overused—it’s just the right amount—and I felt like the white chocolate [flavor component] sweetened it without taking center stage.”
Kelsie Carlson, owner of The Pickett Fence in Deer Park, Washington, said she came straight to the booth to try the drinks and draw inspiration to take back home. “We try to keep our drinks creative and innovative,” she said.
She said that her shop uses Ghirardelli’s products. Specifically, she highlighted the brand’s vanilla [frappe] powder, which they carry because nobody else in their market does and they want to stand out. “We’re the only coffee shop in our city that has it.”
Carlson indicated something like the sesame drink might make it to The Pickett Fence’s menu. “I think this is a super new, innovative flavor that I’ve not tried before,” she said.
The Recipe Development Process
King said he looked outward to draw inspiration for the drinks, stemming beyond the coffee world and looking to trends in the culinary world.
He decided to combine unexpected and familiar flavors. “Vanilla and chocolate are two of the top preferred flavors. Anchoring recipes to those already in-demand flavors is a great starting point,” he said. Layering on additional components “like effervescence, or sweet and salty, or familiar functional ingredients is really what brings people to the table.”
For some of the drinks, he looked to the culinary traditions of other countries for inspiration. Namely, he sees beverage trends coming out of South Korea and the Philippines as having an increasingly visible impact on drink menus.
Among the drinks he developed for the show, King’s favorite is the black sesame sea salt caramel frappe. “It’s unexpected,” he said. “The color is striking. But at the same time, the flavor profile is nutty, sweet, salty, buttery—all the things that bring home feelings of comfort and joy, packaged in something new.”
Recipe Development Advice for Operators
For coffee shops that want to be more creative with chocolate, vanilla, and caramel but aren’t sure where to start, King suggested taking it one step (or ingredient) at a time: add one unfamiliar element to a drink customers already enjoy and trust. “With that affinity, chocolate is a beautiful blank canvas that you can build so many flavor profiles, so many experiences, textures off of. It allows for more trust to try newer things,” he said.
King suggested that shops can even start simply by adding things they likely already have, things like “a pinch of cinnamon, a bit of brown butter, a little sea salt,” he said. “Your customers have trusted you with these classic drinks and classic profiles for a long time.”
The World of Coffee tasting flights were, in part, a demonstration that the ingredient can be taken in directions that might not be obvious, and that a company with a reputation for quality premium ingredients still sees new places to go.
“We’re really leaning into doing new things and showing up in new ways,” King said. “And really just showing everything that you can do (with classic flavors).”
Sponsored by GHIRARDELLI
