Food Healthy Drinks

This Superfood Latte Might Be More Popular Than Matcha in 2018

Tamim Alnuweiri

January 10, 2018

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Photo: Stocksy/Gabrielle Lutze

Whether you're a matcha devotee or an occasional sipper, you've probably noticed the green drink's glow up in the last few years. Though its pop-culture beginnings started as a niche coffee substitute that certain circles and cultures were in on, the antioxidant-rich wellness beverage has quickly spread to coffee-level omnipresence (seriously, you can find tea drink everywhere). But according to data and predictions from Square, a new superfood latte could be usurping that green throne.

In 2017, Square (the maker of those ubiquitous credit-card readers) registered $3 million in matcha latte sales—a 113 percent increase from 2016. And though that triple-digit percentage rise is impressive, sales of inflammation-busting turmeric lattes also increased this past year—by a whopping 260 percent. But while the turmeric latte's statistic rise didn't come close to eclipsing matcha's pervasive popularity, trend data from Square predicts golden milk to reign supreme in the alt-latte department for 2018. Maybe golden-milk yellow will even be Pantone's Color of the Year in 2019.

Another notable alt-latte takeaway? While unicorn lattes may have won Instagram this past year, it seems the buzzy wellness drink—and the most expensive on average of the bunch at nearly $2 more a pop than its alt-latte cohorts—has already seen its heyday: By April of 2017, sales had hit an all-time high, and by June they basically fizzled out.

While turmeric lattes are not nearly as gargantuan as matcha, if they continue showing up at places like Pret A Manger and Starbucks, the golden-milk goodness might wrestle away a good chunk of your matcha—or even coffee!—budget.

Staying in rather than heading to the local coffee shop? Here's how to DIY a turmeric tonic and four ingredient matcha bites.