Chilled Coffee Getting Hotter

Coffee beverage LTOs in the first half of this year shattered the previous record, driven in large part by the cold and frozen formats that now make up the bulk of consumers’ away-from-home consumption. 

Datassential’s Launches & Ratings platform captured 261 non-alcoholic coffee drinks in the first six months of 2026, nearly double the prior record of 136 set over the same period in 2025. The second quarter alone accounted for 107 of those launches. 

Much of that activity was driven by chilled variations: iced, cold brew, nitro, and frozen/blended coffee together accounted for 61.3% of coffee offerings during the first half.

The launch activity tracks a shift already underway on the consumption side. Cold and frozen formats combined made up 51.7% of away-from-home coffee occasions in June, up 8 percentage points from the prior-year period’s 43.7%, according to Datassential’s most recent BUZZ Monthly Update. Hot brewed coffee consumption, meanwhile, fell nearly 10 points, to 31.4% of away-from-home occasions. 

Younger generations still drive most of both iced and frozen coffee’s AFH consumption. Gen Z and Millennials index far higher than Gen X and Boomers on both iced and frozen coffee, according to the BUZZ Q1 report. Older cohorts, meanwhile, still lean heavily toward brewed coffee. 

However, that same report also showed that Boomers’ consumption of such beverages has actually risen since 2021, while younger generations’ consumption has eased slightly. 

To be sure, cold and frozen coffee formats aren’t moving in lockstep. Datassential’s 2026 BUZZ Annual Report found frozen coffee’s daily incidence has slipped two points over the past six years, with declines across every daypart. Iced coffee, meanwhile, has been gaining ground, with its biggest lift coming in the morning daypart. And cold brew has been a particular bright spot at convenience stores, where its share of away-from-home occasions more than doubled to 32% in 2025 from 15% in 2019, Datassential noted in its October Cold Brew report.