Today’s Dessert and Cafe Menu Trends — 2026-04-22

Today’s New Menu Highlights

1 sources

zdnet.co.kr

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Compose Coffee — All Day Com Series (including Vanilla Cream Latte)

• Category: Beverage
• Launch/Availability: Released early April 2026, currently available.
• Key Features: The "All Day Com" series, featuring the Vanilla Cream Latte, surpassed 350,000 sales in just one week. Riding this success, the brand is expanding the customer experience by introducing bundle sets that include character merchandise.
• Why it’s noteworthy: This demonstrates how budget coffee franchises are evolving beyond simple price competition into "fandom-driven menu strategies" that combine merchandise and emotional marketing.

2 sources

foodtoday.or.kr

foodtoday.or.kr

foodtoday.or.kr

foodtoday.or.kr

A Twosome Place, Starbucks, and Knotted — Ube Dessert Series

• Category: Dessert
• Launch/Availability: Released around April 19, 2026 (simultaneous industry-wide rollout).
• Key Features: Desserts utilizing "Ube," a purple yam from the Philippines, are spreading across major cafe and dessert brands. A Twosome Place, Starbucks, and Knotted have all released related products, emphasizing both visual appeal and exotic flavors.
• Why it’s noteworthy: With its vibrant purple color, Ube is perfectly optimized for social media marketing, driving the "photo-worthy dessert" trend. It appears to be establishing itself in Korea as the next global dessert trend following the Dubai chocolate craze.

Paris Baguette — 'Cafe de Dessert' Specialized Store Open

• Category: Bakery/Dessert (Offline store)
• Launch/Availability: Opened mid-April 2026.
• Key Features: Paris Baguette has launched "Cafe de Dessert," a store concept specializing in desserts with a Parisian aesthetic. It operates as a premium dessert-focused brand, distinct from standard Paris Baguette locations.
• Why it’s noteworthy: This reflects a move by large bakery franchises to target the premium dessert market through sub-brands or specialized store strategies, a response to the competition from convenience stores and budget coffee brands.

Franchise Trends

• Compose Coffee: Building on the success of the "All Day Com" series, the brand is releasing character merchandise sets, attempting to expand from a simple beverage seller into a lifestyle brand.

• Mega MGC Coffee: Two new items launched last week, "Butter Chewy Tteok" and "Low-Sugar Honey Pear XO Yakult," sold over 660,000 units in less than two weeks, leading to sold-out shortages. The combination of health-conscious, low-sugar trends with traditional ingredients (Yakult and pear) has resonated well with consumers.

• A Twosome Place: By launching Ube-based new products, the brand is aiming to capture the visual dessert trend. Having reached a record-high revenue of 582.4 billion KRW in 2025 for the third consecutive year, A Twosome Place is known for its fast adoption of trends.

• Starbucks: Along with local community efforts, such as refurbishing old street signs in traditional markets, Starbucks is focusing on brand image management by adding the Ube lineup.

Convenience Store & Bakery New Arrivals

• Paris Baguette — Cafe de Dessert (Specialized Store): A concept store concept highlighting premium desserts with Parisian vibes. It moves away from the traditional bakery-first model to a dessert-cafe operational style.

• Haitai Confectionery — Ace Thin 'Salty Caramel': Following the success of Ace Thin (which surpassed 10 billion KRW in cumulative sales), they have released a second variety: Salty Caramel crackers. This shows that the "sweet-and-salty" snack trend is extending into the bakery and confectionery sectors.

Today’s Trend Keywords

1. Ube: A purple yam native to the Philippines that satisfies the demand for social media visuals and exotic flavors. With brands like Knotted, A Twosome Place, and Starbucks jumping on board, it has emerged as the biggest topic in the cafe/dessert industry for the first half of 2026. Ube is picking up where Dubai chocolate left off in terms of demand for "unique ingredients and visual desserts."

2. Low-Sugar & Wellness Beverages: As seen with the success of Mega MGC Coffee's "Low-Sugar Honey Pear XO Yakult" (660,000 units sold), the trend of health-conscious yet delicious "low-sugar and functional" drinks has spread to budget coffee brands. Combining reduced sugar with traditional ingredients (pear, Yakult) has become a winning formula.

3. Merchandise & Menu Bundling: Just as Compose Coffee used its menu success to launch character merchandise, beverage + MD packages have become a core strategy to increase customer loyalty. By adding "collectible value," even budget brands are providing premium experiences.

Global Comparison

In the global market, Starbucks officially embraced the Dubai chocolate trend by launching the Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha and Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha as part of its January 2026 winter menu. Drinks combining pistachio sauce, matcha, and chocolate cream foam are currently very popular. In Korea, the Dubai chocolate frenzy has already peaked, with "Ube" taking the baton as the new visual star. Unlike the U.S., where Dubai chocolate is still ongoing, Korea’s rapid trend cycle means Ube is being mainstreamed much faster.

Events to Watch Next Week

• KIBA 2026 (Korea International Bakery Industry Exhibition): This expo covers the entire spectrum of the K-bakery scene, from frozen dough to smart equipment and premium ingredients. It is scheduled to wrap up around this week, offering insight into the direction of new technologies and trends in the domestic bakery and dessert industry.

• 2026 Seoul Coffee Expo & Korea International Bakery Fair Results: The first-half exhibition, the largest of its kind held at COEX, concluded with a record-breaking 74,000 visitors. Reports on new products and trends derived from the exhibition are expected to be released this week.

• Compose Coffee Character Merchandise Sets Official Sale: Nationwide sales of the merchandise sets linked to the "All Day Com" series are expected to begin in earnest this week.

Action Items for Readers

• Menu Planners: Securing a domestic supply chain for Ube (sourcing Philippine yam raw materials/pastes) is crucial. As Knotted and A Twosome Place have already made their move, you need to quickly develop unique ways to utilize Ube (varying textures in lattes, cakes, creams, etc.). Simultaneously, planning a wellness line incorporating low-sugar/functional ingredients (pear, Yakult, dietary fiber, etc.) can help capture both consumer segments.

• Cafe Operators: Like Compose Coffee's "merchandise bundle" strategy, small-scale cafes can also attempt content marketing by packaging seasonal limited merchandise (tumblers, stickers, eco-bags, etc.) with drinks to encourage social media sharing. Testing specialty menu items using trending ingredients like Ube or Salty Caramel with a "small-batch pilot launch" can also be an effective way to gauge customer reaction.