How to meet surging signature drink demand – BeanScene

Riverina Fresh is broadening its product portfolio as signature drinks, fuelled by social media and customer curiosity, reshape the modern beverage menu.

Ten years ago, Australia’s café menus were anchored by a familiar rhythm: espresso, flat white, cappuccino. Today, the board often reads like a flavour map. Matcha sits beside cold foam, iced coffees arrive layered in precise bands, and “signature” builds promise of something you can’t get anywhere else. Often it’s a drink designed to be photographed, shared, and ordered again.

The surge in signature drinks isn’t just about aesthetics either. Café owners are discovering these beverages have become a practical commercial tool: capturing attention at the point-of-sale, lifting average spend through premium ingredients, and giving customers a reason to return for the next limited flavour or seasonal release.

Suppliers are feeling the shift too, as cafés look for ingredients that perform consistently in milk based classics while also standing up in more experimental builds.

For Riverina Fresh, long known as a quality-focused milk supplier to cafés, the response has been to broaden its food service range and partnerships so venues can create signature offerings with confidence. Milk still forms the foundation of many of the drinks customers want on the menu, but the company says the add-ons matter more than ever.

Luke Hobbs, Head of Sales at Riverina Fresh, sees the change playing out daily. Whether visiting venues with his team or simply walking into a café as a customer, menus are increasingly split between a creamy hero, a non-milk option, and a rotating cast of specialty drinks.

“Biscoff creations are standing out across the market, pistachio is on the rise, and I recently tried a chai based syrup elixir mixed with blueberry syrup and Riverina Fresh – it was sensational,” Luke says. “For matcha, strawberry was the go to flavour; now we’re seeing blueberry gaining popularity, and new flavour pairings are emerging all the time.”

In the last three years Luke and the Riverina Fresh sales team have seen the business continue to grow. They now supply several thousand cafés across metro and regional markets on the east coast of Australia.

“Our Food Service Business has expanded from being primarily a supplier of the Riverina Fresh range of milks to so much more than that,” Luke says.

There has been a steady expansion of the company’s portfolio to provide a full suite of products for  cafés. Beyond core items such as milk, cream, butter, cheeses and plant based alternatives, Riverina Fresh has seen rising demand for syrups, pastes, spreads and other products that help cafés create genuine points of difference.

“We’re constantly looking at our range and how we can optimise it,” Luke says. “My role is to lead the sales team and guide them in having conversations with our customers that are focussed on adding value and helping to grow their business.”

Riverina Fresh manufactures all its dairy products in Wagga Wagga, NSW, where it has been located for more than 100 years. In addition to its own products, Riverina Fresh Food Services now offers around 300 other products to its customer base in New South Wales and Victoria.

“Our range continues to evolve as consumer demand changes. It has evolved significantly over the past three years and has accelerated even in the past six months,” Luke says. “Tea syrups and similar categories, for example, are growing exponentially month on month in both customer numbers and volume.”

Keeping pace with modern cafés without chasing every passing fad comes down to continual face-to-face contact with its customer base. Luke says Riverina Fresh’s sales team are always looking for insights and current trends to ensure the entire food service range reflects what’s actually in demand out in the market.

“We learn the most from cafés themselves; the baristas and frontline staff,” he says. “They’re always ideating and trying new things, and the regions we operate in; Sydney, Melbourne and the Riverina region are key markets influencing trends across the country.”

Underpinning all of this is Riverina Fresh’s milk quality. As a 100 per cent Australian owned, independent dairy manufacturer, it has been working with speciality roasters and baristas for more than 15 years. It’s this long standing brand presence in cafés that continues to open the door to broader conversations about innovation.

“We’re always challenging ourselves, particularly with how milk interacts not only with coffee but also other beverage ingredients,” Luke says.

One example is the company’s Lactose Free Milk, which was named Grand Champion Dairy Product at the Australian Grand Dairy Awards in late 2025. Lactose is a sugar that is broken down into simpler sugars by adding a natural enzyme called lactase. These sugars are not only more digestible, they also give the milk a sweeter profile which creates exciting opportunities for flavour led signature drinks.

Riverina Fresh says it only manufactures fresh dairy milk and cream products with a constant focus on the highest quality. The other products in its range come from partners considered leaders in their category and also with a focus on quality.

“The supply partners we prioritise are the ones who help us add commercial value to customers, have high quality products and are constantly innovating and keeping up with the latest market tends” Luke says. “The food service industry knows Riverina Fresh is more than just a milk supplier, and brands are keen for their products to be available through our vast distribution network.”

The evolving consumer demand is creating new ways for suppliers and cafés to collaborate.

“As an example, we’re talking with juice suppliers not just about selling packaged juice, but how juice can be incorporated into signature drinks,” Luke says. “These are the supply partnerships and innovations we’re starting to focus on to drive real value for customers.”

Social stand-out

Once upon a time, café creativity stayed local, spreading slowly through word-of-mouth, competitions and trade shows. Now, a single video can turn a niche flavour combination into tomorrow’s must try order.

But platforms like Instagram and TikTok have turned colourful lattes, layered cold foams, and indulgent milk-based creations into shareable content that is driving foot traffic – and seeing signature drinks explode on to the scene.

Rohan Cooke, whose Melbourne coffee brand Golden Brown exclusively uses Riverina Fresh products and has amassed around 1.7 million followers globally, says it’s been incredible to witness how quickly trends can emerge and, in several cases, gain a foothold.

“Not long ago, ideas could take years to travel internationally, maybe appearing at trade shows first. Now, trends spread instantly. Every day we see what’s happening all over the world,” he says.

“Social media acts as real-time, free market research – you can see what people like, what engages them, and what excites them. As a cafe owner, it’s important to be aware of, even if you’re not going to implement those exact ideas. But I don’t think you should just blindly follow trends. I still think you should stay true to who you are and use these platforms to help tell that story.”

Rohan believes the visual nature of signature drinks – converging with the popularity of and image-based social media platforms – has driven this new and exciting era.

“A picture or video of a standard espresso is no longer very exciting,” he says.

“Signature drinks are different – they’re big, beautiful and intriguing. It uses fascinating ingredients. That’s just so much more enticing in the world of social media, and it’s so much more shareable.

“It’s also approachable because we’re often using flavours that are nostalgic, that are inspiring, and weird. Drinks like tiramisu lattes are instantly shareable to your friend that loves those indulgent desserts, and it creates a reason to share.”

The Coconut Cloud is an “amazing” drink he recently tried. It’s 50 per cent coconut water, 50 per cent lightly whipped cream, and espresso.

“It’s both refreshing and indulgent,” he says.

“But if you start with the basics, the Mont Blanc with Riverina Fresh cream was really one of the catalysts. Somehow the cream top has almost become the standard for what people think of as a signature drink.”

Another trend Rohan has noticed is that layered drinks tend to go viral.

“When people see a layered drink – especially with a cream top – they lose their minds,” he says.

“The other thing is that the best-performing drinks are usually approachable and a bit nostalgic or comforting. There’s something familiar about them – like a Mont Blanc giving you Terry’s Chocolate Orange dessert vibes, or the Biscoff flavours people already know and love.” 

For more information, visit riverinafresh.com.au