Sustainable Coffee Trends 2024 – Tips from the Barista

Glow coffee and px coffee – these are supposed to be the new coffee trends 2023. However, according to our internal survey of sustainable hotels and resorts, this has not been confirmed! Instead, the classics (with milk alternatives) are in demand. Barista Moritz Unterlechner from the Biohotel Grafenast in Tyrol, Austria, reveals how to enjoy your coffee as sustainably as possible, how to create the best foam, and which coffee the Viennese serve “in layers”.

Espresso with orange juice

First, let’s take a look back at the coffee trends of 2023. These were:

• Greek frappé of instant coffee with ice
• Coffee-Matcha combination
• Espresso with orange juice

That’s what barista Moritz Unterlechner tells us. He currently lives in the coffeehouse-city of Vienna. He also works in his parents’ family business, the Biohotel Grafenast, and in the winter at Café Rodel Toni (named after Moritz’s great-great-grandfather Toni Unterlechner).

According to Moritz, the coffee selection changes not only according to new trends, but also according to the season and time of day!

Most people like to wake up with a classic in the morning. That means an espresso, a cappuccino or a filter coffee. ALICE & BOB is his recommendation for “super coffee beans”. This is a German organic coffee roaster. They offer a very limited selection of exactly two coffees (an organic espresso and an organic filter coffee).

Turmeric latte with pistachio sauce

Customers are more receptive to specialty coffee in the period after lunch and into the evening. In the summer, for example, this would be the iced coffee and then, from the fall, the turmeric latte with Sonnentor’s organic turmeric latte spice blend, the milk of your choice and pistachio sauce.

In the fall and winter of 2024/25, these coffee trends are coming

Winter is high season at Biohotel Grafenast. The sustainably run hotel sits 1330 meters above the Tyrolean Inn Valley. Guests come for skiing, tobogganing, snowshoeing, and ski tours that start right outside the hotel.

This winter, Moritz wants to serve sweet specialties like the “Rodel Toni coffee” in the Café Rotel Toni, right next to the toboggan run and the children’s ski school. The “Rodel Toni coffee” consists of three layers: Egg liqueur, espresso and whipped cream. Then there is the “Skier’s latte”: espresso, hot chocolate, chocolate sauce, milk foam.

The secret of good foam

A good milk foam is firm and has fine pores. According to the barista, “the secret of a good foam” is a combination of three things:

1. the right milk (organic H-milk is among the best, and for plant-based alternatives, oat milk barista)
2. the milk should not be too hot (an ideal temperature is 60°C/ 140 °F)
3. work with two milk jugs (the point here is that the foam is lighter than the milk – this is where dexterity comes in, getting the ratio right – as well as a pattern)

How sustainable is coffee?

You may have heard: 140 liters of water are used to make one cup of coffee. However, it should be noted that the coffee plant only grows in wetlands such as the tropics, where it is irrigated by rain.

Carbon footprint of our daily coffee

According to calculations by the German Federal Environment Agency (2020), the CO2 footprint of coffee is 5.6, i.e. 5.6 kg of CO2 per 1 kg of coffee. Mineral water from a reusable glass bottle has a factor of 0.2 and soda from a plastic bottle has a factor of 0.4. Now that sounds like coffee is a climate-damaging beverage. But wait. One cup of coffee uses between 6 and 12 grams of coffee! (Roughly speaking, 10 grams equals 0.056 kg of CO2, while a small 0.2 glass of lemonade consumes 0.08 kg of CO2).

Of course, this calculation is only a rough comparison because there are too many factors on the world market that cannot be compared with each other. However, if coffee is consumed by the cup (and not by the liter like juices or beer), the hot beverage has probably less impact on your personal consumption pattern as it is often portrayed.

Nevertheless, coffee has a higher ecological footprint than tea. This is largely because the tea plant requires less land and is more productive. Even more sustainable, of course, is tea made from herbs, flowers or fruits from your own garden. Our partner Gut Sonnenhausen near Munich is a specialist in this field. All the ingredients for their teas are “picked and dried by us in our own medicinal herb garden,” they tell us. The coffee selection, however, is limited to the “good old classics”.

Buy fair trade organic coffee

Coffee comes from countries like Brazil, Colombia and Peru and is grown mainly in tropical areas. Coffee is a labor-intensive crop. However, international traders determine how much the small farmers earn for their work, and it is often far too little! With Fair Trade coffee, you can be sure that the workers are not exploited and can organize themselves into cooperatives.

Another problem is that coffee is often grown in monocultures. This depletes the soil. It is also treated with pesticides. Organic coffee avoids both.

Coffee tastes wonderful as an accompaniment to the vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free desserts of the Paradiso kitchen and the panoramic view of the Dolomites.

Barista Moritz Unterlechner also recommends buying coffee from a local roaster. This avoids even longer transportation routes and strengthens trade in your region.

This is also the belief at the sustainable Paradiso Pure.Living on the Seiser Alm in South Tyrol.

“We use 100% organic and fair trade coffee. It comes from a local roaster. As a vegetarian-vegan hotel, we serve this coffee with alpine milk from local organic producers, or with a selection of vegan organic plant-based drinks.” – Paradiso Pure.Living

Organic coffee from Thailand

Coffee grows where it is warm and humid year-round.

Our partner Keemala on the island of Phuket in Thailand does not have to import coffee from overseas. In the highlands of Chiang Mai, in the north of the country, you find organic coffee plantations. The Suan Lahu Arabica grows according to the principles of organic farming and supports the indigenous Lahu population. Keemala Resort did not participate in fancy coffee trends. “Our guests prefer the classic style,” they say.

Coffee Trend 2024: Filter Coffee Ranks First in Germany

Other partners in Germany, including the Naturresort Schindelbruch in the southern Harz Mountains and the Lifestylehotel SAND on the Baltic Sea, have also found that their guests enjoy drinking classic coffees the most.

According to the German Federal Statistical Office, filter coffee is still the most popular choice of coffee in Germany. In second place are cappuccino and latte macchiato.

An analysis of 97 global coffee statistics revealed that around 2.25 billion cups of coffee will be consumed worldwide every day in 2024!

Coffee classics in Italy

In Italy, however, drip coffee is a no-go! Here, you sip espresso. This also applies to the Relais del Maro, which is located in Liguria. In addition to pure espresso (“caffè”), there are its variants:

• Espresso lungo: The long (“lungo” = “long”) espresso contains twice the amount of water. Its taste is slightly less intense
• Cappuccino: a mixture of one third espresso and two thirds hot milk with milk froth
• Latte macchiato: hot milk, espresso, milk foam

Lupinscoffee – sustainable and local coffee option

Lupins taste similar to coffee when roasted and are a sustainable alternative. 

If you’re looking for a regional alternative to coffee, the HUBERTUS Bergrefugio Allgau also offers lupins coffee.

Lupins coffee comes from roasted lupia beans. It’s one of the best alternatives to coffee. It has the following advantages

• Very close to the taste of coffee
• Does not contain caffeine
• Cultivated in Germany (Bavaria) and South Tyrol (guarantee of fair working conditions)
• Lupins improve the quality of the soil. The strong main root can loosen the soil, and the “nodule bacteria” on the deep roots store nitrogen, which serves as fertilizer for future plants.
• Lupins are healthy. They contain plant protein, fiber and minerals (although it is unclear how much is in a cup of lupine coffee).

In addition, all the service staff at the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio Allg?u complete a barista training course at the local Seeberger coffee roastery. Here they learn all about the popular hot beverage and its preparation.

Coffee infusion in the sauna

It is well known that drinking coffee stimulates the senses – but using coffee as a sauna infusion? That really is a new idea. (Or have you heard that before?!) You can experience this at My Arbor on the Plose in South Tyrol.

Sustainable Coffee Trend: Coffee with a plant-based milk alternative

Most recently, we’ve looked at plant-based drinks and how they’re sustainable. While drinks made from soy, oats or almonds were a rarity on menus ten years ago, almost all of our partners now offer these vegan alternatives.