Nestlé expands its coffee portfolio with cold formats, premium instant options and café‑style enhancers as Gen Z fuels the growth of fourth‑wave at‑home coffee trends.
Nestlé is sharpening its focus on what it calls the “fourth wave of coffee,” a consumer shift driven largely by Gen Z and Millennials who are looking for at-home café experiences without the space, budget or equipment for coffee appliances.
This new era of at‑home coffee culture is defined by what Daniel Jhung, president of the Nestlé USA coffee and beverage division, calls the “Four C’s”: cold, convenient, customizable and crafted.
Is cold coffee the new default?
Jhung says cold coffee has become the standard across generations.
“Out of home, 70% of the cups are now cold versus hot,” Jhung said.
To keep up with this demand, Nestlé is focusing on multiple cold‑forward coffee products, including hot and cold applications for Starbucks Crema Collection, Starbucks refresher concentrates made with green coffee extract and Nescafé espresso concentrates. The company showcased its products during the House of Nestlé event in New York City earlier this month.
Convenience drives instant coffee’s resurgence
Instant coffee, which was popular among older generations, is seeing significant growth among younger consumers since the pandemic, Jhung noted.
“In 2020, pandemic happens, consumers have to go back to their homes. … A lot of young consumers didn’t have a machine, and so they look to instant coffee,” Jhung explains. “And that habit stuck.”
Nestlé capitalized on the moment by expanding into the premium instant coffee segment with launches like Nescafé Gold and Starbucks Crema Collection Premium Instant. These pre-brewed coffee products dissolve instantly in hot or cold water giving consumers a convenient format for what traditionally needs an espresso machine.
As instant becomes a Gen Z staple, its attributes neatly mirror fourth‑wave behaviors. “Instant is the perfect way to express the four C’s,” Jhung said. “It’s convenient … it allows you to customize … it’s crafted now with our elevate instan t… and we’re seeing a lot of instant need states in cold.”
Another area Nestlé is exploring is in the frozen creamer space.
Launched last month, Coffee Mate’s Cool Crème frozen creamer was born from the Nestlé R&D Accelerator. A dollop of creamer looks and melts like a scoop of ice cream and can be used in both hot and cold coffee drinks. Cool Crème comes in two flavors: Vanilla Caramel Swirl and Cookies & Crème Crumble.
Consumers continue seeking customizable coffee at home
For coffee lovers, personalization has become central to their at-home caffeine routines.
“Consumers are really customizing their cup and personalize it for themselves,” Jhung says. Where consumers would rely on baristas to learn about flavors and brew methods, social media democratized recipes so that they can create new drinks at any time.
“If you look at Tiktok, there’s 8 billion views of coffee talk,” Jhung emphasized.
With younger drinkers viewing coffee “as an ingredient,” layering with espresso concentrate, ice, syrups, foam and creamers creates a creative avenue for consumers to play with taste and texture on their terms, he said.
Crafted experiences without machines
As part of that layered customizable approach, Jhung says consumers want ways to mimic café drinks without the equipment. That’s where enhancers like cold foam come into play for a café-style rich texture – also without any equipment.
“Foaming is another part of the fourth wave of coffee,” with a texture that taps into a “more mainstream audience,” Jhung said. “Sweet cream is now the third version of enhancers that allows you to cream like a café would.”
Sweet cream’s trendy positioning is featured across the creamer segment, with Nestlé incorporating it in Natural Bliss creamers, Coffee Mate cold foam and Starbucks creamers. Across the segment, brands are tapping into flavored creamer trend, including Chobani and Too Good Co.
Nestlé’s coffee innovation also extends into pop culture. The company recently partnered with Warner Brothers to develop a Coffee Mate Butterbeer flavor for Harry Potter’s 25th anniversary.
“Consumers will ask, what does a Harry Potter creamer taste like? And our answer is, it tastes like magic in a bottle,” Jhung said.
‘Multiple expressions of coffee’ is the future of the segment
The layering and textural experimentation defining the fourth wave will only accelerate, Jhung notes.
“More and more coffee is a main ingredient,” he said, “but then consumers are going to want to customize how they drink it with more textures … foam or creaminess or even functional ingredients.”
As younger consumers shape the at-home café-style coffee segment, Nestlé is positioning its new product development to meet them where they are.
“The fourth wave allows so many multiple expressions of coffee,” he added.
