If you’ve spent any time on social video recently, you’ve probably seen it: someone carefully layering milk, matcha, and syrup into a glass, or reciting a long, highly specific coffee shop order built from menu hacks. Customized, build-your-own drinks have become one of the most consistent trends across both home and cafe culture.

The Appeal of Total Control

Part of what’s driving the trend is a desire for control and personalization. Rather than ordering a standard drink off a menu, people are treating both coffee and matcha as a kind of build-a-base project, choosing their own milk, sweetener, ratios, and mix-ins to create something that feels uniquely theirs.

Matcha’s Aesthetic Moment

Matcha in particular has become a favorite for this kind of content because of how visual the preparation process is. The vivid green powder, the whisking, the slow pour over ice or milk, all of it lends itself naturally to satisfying, slow-paced video. Home matcha setups, complete with dedicated whisks and bowls, have become their own kind of aspirational purchase.

Coffee Shop Hacks

On the coffee side, customers have turned ordering into a creative act, combining existing menu items in unofficial ways to create entirely new drinks. These hacks spread quickly because they’re easy to replicate, anyone can walk into a cafe and repeat the same order, which has made them a reliable source of recurring content.

What It Means for Cafes

Some coffee and tea chains have leaned into the trend by officially adding popular customer-created combinations to their menus, or by promoting build-your-own formats directly. As customization becomes more expected, expect more brands to design menus and packaging specifically with this kind of personalization in mind.