Key takeaways
- Pandan’s sweet, earthy, vanilla-like flavour profile complements coffee.
- Growing Southeast Asian diaspora and Gen Z demand drive the mainstream rise of pandan.
- Fresh pandan is scarce in Western markets, so powder works best for Western cafés.
- Coffee shops must recognise the Southeast Asian cultural roots and heritage of pandan.
Pandan, a tropical plant long part of South and Southeast Asian cuisine, is appearing on coffee shop menus globally for its visual appeal and unique flavour.
Its long, blade-like leaves are used extensively in cooking – from fragrant rice dishes and curries to puddings, cakes, and traditional beverages. Many draw flavour comparisons with vanilla: warm, sweet, and deeply aromatic.
“Imagine if matcha and vanilla had a baby. There is the same sweetness and creaminess as vanilla, but mixed with the botanical greenness of matcha,” says Mavis Pangantihon, manager at Panther Coffee Wynwood in Miami, Florida. “It’s very herbaceous. Unlike matcha, though, it is not grassy or oceanic.
“Pandan has a different ‘greenness’ to it; it’s more floral,” she adds. “It’s a ‘savoury-sweet’ experience. It tells your brain you are eating something toasted, while your tongue tells you that you are drinking something floral.”
Beyond its unique flavour, pandan produces a vivid, naturally derived green colour, which is striking enough to rival matcha in visual appeal.
You may also likeour article on whether ube is a lasting trend in coffee shops.
Why is pandan trending?
With its photogenic colour, complex flavour profile, and deep cultural roots, pandan is gaining popularity in coffee and beyond. It has been featured alongside hojicha, ube, and taro as one of the ingredients most likely to follow matcha’s meteoric success, even earning a mention in the New York Times’ “12 Predictions for Life in 2025.”
Pandan’s rise is part of a broader wave of Southeast Asian flavours permeating Western culture. Ube went from a niche Filipino ingredient to a supermarket staple within just a few years. Taro followed a similar arc, supported by the booming bubble tea market. Pandan appears to be next in line, carried by a growing Southeast Asian diaspora and more interest in trying new flavours.
A key driver of this momentum is pandan’s appeal to health-conscious consumers. The plant has traditionally been used to aid digestion, relieve joint pain, and help regulate blood sugar. It also contains antioxidants, positioning it alongside matcha and turmeric in the functional beverage space – a category that continues to grow as consumers seek more intentional choices.
Social media is amplifying the trend. Gen Z, in particular, is gravitating toward visually arresting, coffee-adjacent drinks, and pandan delivers on both counts.
“It has this very vibrant green colour, making it very camera-ready,” Mavis says. “I also think that more coffee purists are embracing these flavour profiles because these ingredients complement and balance out the taste of coffee.”
Across the world, coffee shops are offering creative hot and iced drinks featuring pandan as a key ingredient. “Coffee professionals have started to use different, more unique ingredients and flavour profiles to elevate modern menus,” Mavis adds. “It’s exciting to see these flavours being experimented with more.”
Incorporating pandan into coffee shop menus
The question any café owner will ask before committing to a new menu item is whether it will sell. Unlike purely novelty-driven ingredients, pandan has a centuries-long culinary history. It’s also incredibly versatile, suitable for lattes, lemonades, iced teas, cold brew infusions, and baked goods.
“It acts like vanilla. It pairs with the coffee instead of contrasting it, highlighting the nuttiness of espresso,” Mavis explains. “There is a familiarity with pandan even if you have never tried it before.”
In Panther Coffee’s Buko pandan latte, Mavis describes the flavour dynamics at play: “Pandan acts as the ‘aromatic glue.’ Espresso has these deep, earthy notes. The coconut milk is sweet, tropical, and creamy. Pandan sits right in the middle. It has this botanical, almost ‘toasted rice’ quality that connects the earthiness of the coffee to the sweetness and creaminess of the coconut milk.”
For coffee shops, pandan offers meaningful menu differentiation and appeals to multiple consumer segments simultaneously – health-focused, culturally curious, and aesthetically driven. Southeast Asian cafés have also demonstrated that leaning into innovative, culturally rooted offerings builds strong customer loyalty and engagement, a model transferable to Western specialty coffee markets.
Recognising pandan’s cultural roots
That said, sourcing pandan is not without challenges. Fresh pandan leaves are difficult to find outside Asian grocery stores in most Western cities, which creates supply chain challenges for high-volume coffee shops. Consumer education is also a factor; most Western coffee drinkers are still discovering what pandan is, let alone how it tastes.
“Living in Miami, fresh pandan leaves are not a very common find. I experimented with different extracts and powders made from dried pandan leaves and found that the extract didn’t taste right and gave a very unnatural colour,” says Mavis. “Ultimately, I decided the powder was the best choice. Not only was it the best option for flavour, but also a quick and efficient way to make the syrup.”
Perhaps the most important consideration for Western cafés adding pandan to their menus is how they frame it. Mavis, who drew her inspiration from the Filipino dessert buko pandan salad, is direct about the risks of cultural flattening: “It’s important to highlight cultural reference when adding ingredients like pandan to a menu.
“The biggest mistake Western cafés can make is acting like they have discovered a new miracle ingredient. Pandan has played a role in Southeast Asian heritage for centuries and deserves more than being just another ‘superfood’ trend.”
Pandan is a flavourful, functional, and culturally rich ingredient that has earned its place in coffee shops.
As Southeast Asian flavours continue to reshape global food and beverage culture, pandan’s combination of visual appeal, culinary versatility, and authentic heritage positions it as a long-lasting menu item in coffee shops.
Enjoyed this? Then readour article on whether matcha is losing its cultural identity.
Photo credits: Panther Coffee
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