For most coffee lovers, the day starts with the creamy comfort of a latte or the straightforward hit of a black drip. But there’s a new contender bubbling up in the cups of caffeine devotees: the espresso tonic. Imagine your morning pick-me-up transformed into something bright, fizzy, and surprisingly refreshing.
The drink itself isn’t new. It first appeared in Norway around 2007, yet it’s only in recent years that espresso tonic has begun trickling into cafés across the US and UK. Starbucks hasn’t embraced it yet – but given how cold drinks make up more than three-quarters of their sales, don’t be shocked if it lands on their menus soon.
For writer and Magasin founder Laura Reilly, the discovery felt almost revelatory. At a New York City popup for LA-based Maru Coffee, she finally found the sparkling coffee drink she’d long craved. “Adding plain soda water to espresso never worked – the flavours clashed,” she explains. “But with tonic? It just clicked.” She loved it so much that she started carrying tonic cans in her bag, ordering solo espresso shots, and mixing her own on the fly.
That ingenuity captures exactly why the espresso tonic is suddenly poised to break big. Today’s younger drinkers are trading alcohol for mocktails and adaptogen-fueled beverages, craving drinks that feel social and refreshing without the buzz. Enter the espresso tonic: part pick-me-up, part aperitif, a hybrid that works just as well at 10 a.m. as it does at 5 p.m.
Zach Coffey saw the shift firsthand. After years working in coffee sales, he noticed espresso tonics popping up in independent cafés nationwide. Spotting an opportunity, he and his co-founder Bianca Smith launched Spritzi, a canned cold-brew tonic in flavours like orange, strawberry dragonfruit, and classic coffee. Sampling the drinks in Chicago grocery stores, Coffey watched first-timers react with surprise – and delight. “People would ask if they could add milk or chocolate syrup,” Smith recalls with a laugh. “But once they tasted it, they got it.” Today, Spritzi is expanding into hip outlets like Pop-Up Grocer in New York.
On social media, creators are fanning the flames of the trend. William Conrad, who has hundreds of thousands of followers, calls the espresso tonic “the sweet spot between a coffee kick and the crisp fizz of soda.” His videos, showing how easy it is to make at home, often spark a flood of comments from fans trying the drink for the first time.
And really, that’s the beauty of it: making an espresso tonic couldn’t be simpler. Fill a glass with ice, pour over tonic water, add a fresh shot of espresso. For extra flair, finish with a squeeze of lemon or an orange twist. In one sip, you’ve got something energising, light, and just unexpected enough to feel special.
It may have taken nearly two decades to reach the spotlight, but the espresso tonic looks set to become coffee’s next big crossover star – one refreshing bubble at a time.
