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Over the past decade, coffee quality has been transformed.
Technology once focused on speed and convenience now delivers consistency, precision and increasingly premium experiences. Automated and bean-to-cup systems have become far more sophisticated, allowing hospitality businesses to serve high-quality coffee at scale without relying solely on specialist barista skills.
As a result, customer expectations have risen. Guests are no longer comparing today’s coffee offering with what was available five years ago. They’re comparing it with specialty coffee shops, premium coffee at home and the higher standards they encounter across hospitality.
Yet while coffee technology has advanced rapidly, one part of the experience has often lagged behind: plant-based milk.
Plant-based has gone mainstream
When plant-based milk first entered the mainstream, many operators viewed it as an accommodation. Today, that mindset is outdated.
31% of the population choose plant-based milk as their first choice in coffee and 88% of those do not identify as vegan or vegetarian. For many, it’s simply a preferred choice driven by taste, lifestyle or environmental considerations.
As the category has matured, so too have expectations. Customers no longer just want a dairy-free option on the menu. They expect the same quality, texture and appearance they would receive from dairy.
Automation is raising the bar
The rise of automation has accelerated this shift. Modern coffee systems help operators navigate labour challenges while maintaining consistency across locations and service occasions.
The challenge is that many alternative milk products were never developed with automated equipment in mind. Separation, sedimentation and inconsistent foam performance can create operational issues, requiring intervention and potentially affecting the final cup.
As coffee equipment has improved, those issues have become more noticeable. When a machine can consistently deliver a great coffee, every ingredient needs to perform just as reliably.
Building for the modern coffee environment
This shift in expectations is what led us to develop Oatly Baristamatic. Rather than asking operators to adapt their processes around oat drinks, we asked a different question: what if the oat drink was designed specifically for the machine?
The result is the first Oatly oat drink developed for automated coffee systems. Using the same core ingredients as Oatly Barista Edition, the UK’s number one-selling oat drink and a leading choice in specialty coffee, Baristamatic was designed to minimise sedimentation, reduce separation and deliver consistent performance throughout service.
The benefit is simple: fewer interventions, greater consistency and more confidence during busy trading periods. Importantly, those operational benefits do not come at the expense of quality. Customers still receive the creamy texture, glossy microfoam and balanced flavour profile they expect, while operators benefit from a solution engineered for automated environments.
The proof is in the cup
What’s particularly interesting is how customers respond when high-quality oat drinks are integrated seamlessly into automated coffee programmes.
Scott Martin, founder of Unity Coffee and previously founder of Coffee Nation, the pioneering self-serve coffee business in the UK that eventually became Costa Express, says:
Since introducing Oatly Baristamatic, we’ve seen a clear shift in what customers are choosing. Oat milk now accounts for around 40% of milk-based coffee sales across our locations, reaching as high as 45% in some sites. For us, it’s an interesting indicator of where the market is heading. How people buy coffee is changing and with that, oat milk has moved beyond being an alternative to dairy – for a growing number of people, it’s their preferred choice.”
Those results highlight how far the category has evolved. Where oat milk was once viewed as a specialist request, customers are now actively choosing it on its own merits. For hospitality operators, that’s an important distinction. The opportunity is no longer simply about accommodation. It’s about delivering genuine choice.
Quality and efficiency shouldn't compete
Historically, operators often felt forced to choose between quality and efficiency. Premium coffee experiences required specialist skills and hands-on preparation, while automation prioritised speed and consistency.
Today’s technology is increasingly removing that trade-off. The same principle should apply to plant-based beverages. Customers should not have to lower their expectations because they choose oat over dairy, and operators should not have to add complexity to deliver a quality plant-based offer.
The most successful hospitality businesses will recognise that quality, consistency, convenience and choice now need to coexist.
Plant-based beverages are no longer an optional extra. They are a core part of the modern coffee experience. The operators that thrive will be those that look beyond simply offering an alternative and focus on delivering the same high standard across every drink on the menu. Because in today’s hospitality landscape, meeting expectations is no longer enough. The real opportunity lies in getting ahead of them.
Learn more here
