A new trend is brewing in the beverage world: dessert-inspired flavors. Brands like HEYTEA and Guming are finding success by translating the classic Italian dessert, Tiramisu, into popular drinks. The ingredients and techniques behind such trends are often showcased at leading Baking Ingredient Exhibition.

Why Tiramisu Works So Well

Tiramisu has become a safe and successful choice for major brands. It offers several key advantages for product development:

• Instant Recognition: The name Tiramisu is widely known. Consumers immediately associate it with familiar flavors like coffee, cocoa, and creamy richness, making new products easier to market.

• Easy to Adapt: Its flavor is a layered combination of coffee, cocoa, dairy, and a hint of liqueur. Brands can easily extract one or two of these elements—like a cocoa milk cap or mascarpone cheese—to create new drink concepts that are also easy to standardize for chains.

• Supply Chain Friendly: Unlike fruit-based flavors, Tiramisu ingredients are not seasonal or perishable. This stability minimizes waste and simplifies operations for large-scale brands.

• Premium Appeal: Tiramisu carries a sense of indulgence and quality. Using it allows brands to elevate their products, offering customers the satisfying feeling of drinking a dessert.

Beyond Tiramisu: Other Dessert Ideas

The trend points to a broader opportunity: turning dessert sensations into drinks. Other promising directions include:

• Classic Western Desserts: Flavors from cheesecakes, crème brûlée, or panna cotta can be adapted into creamy toppings or bases.

• Traditional Chinese Desserts: Nostalgic items like double-skin milk, almond tofu, or sweet fermented rice offer unique local flavors.

• The Dessert Feeling: Sometimes, suggesting the experience is enough. Using descriptive words like roasted or caramelized on a menu can create the desired sweet, indulgent impression.

The success of Tiramisu-flavored drinks is more than a passing fad. It highlights a major product development strategy: translating the beloved flavors and comforting feelings of desserts into innovative beverages. For brands, the ongoing task is to creatively deconstruct these dessert emotions into their next hit product.

Bakery China 2026 will continue to share more industry professional content with you, so please stay tuned!

Bakery China 2026, organized by China Association of Bakery and Confectionery Industry (CABCI) and Bakery China Exhibitions Co., Ltd. was launched since 1997. Bakery China 2026 is the Asia Pacific’s leading event serving the entire value chain for the bakery and confectionery market. The event presents all range of ingredient, equipment, packaging and services, and enables global leading professionals and buyer delegates to meet and share the latest innovations and thinking on manufacturing & distribution, R&D, applications and related services for bakery industry. It is the first-choice trade fair to enter China’s bakery market.

The 2026 ASEAN International Bakery Exhibition (Bakery ASEAN), will be held on August 27-29 at JIExpo (Jakarta, Indonesia), co-located with renowned WEPACK Indonesia, Cafe Show Indonesia held by Reed Exhibitions Group, is a premier trade event focusing on the bakery and related industries in ASEAN and global markets. the shows will be covering 20,000 square meters, expecting more than 500 exhibitors and 50,000 professional buyers including distributors, imports and exports, manufacturers, chain stores, supermarkets, convenient stores, hotels and cafes, etc. from not only the ASEAN but also the rest of the world.

(Source: Yin Li Lab)