Just a few days ago, hand-pounded lemon tea was still a hot trend that made young people line up to buy it because of its new flavor and unique way of processing. However, when many people have not yet had time to enjoy this dish, other trends have emerged to “take over” such as grilled milk tea or dragon fruit instant noodles.
That is the “vortex” of trends in 2023: Hot and sought after for a short time, then quickly out of fashion to make room for new hobbies and entertainment.
Many shops that sell trendy dishes are also in a difficult situation, “blooming early in the morning, fading in the evening”.
Trend: Hand-pounded lemon tea
Hand-pounded lemon tea is made from lemons imported from abroad, called perfume lemons. When processing, the lemon is peeled, crushed with ice, added with tea and shaken well. What makes this dish special is the unique hand-pounding image.
Recently, sidewalk shops have competed to serve hand-pounded lemon tea. Many beverage stores also add this dish to their menu.
Hand-pounded lemon tea is a drink sought after by many young people recently (Photo: Hong Anh).
Because it is so hot, many people have to line up for an hour to wait to buy the new lemon tea. Pictures and reviews about this drink also flooded social networks.
After about a month of “making waves”, shops selling hand-pounded lemon tea still appear quite a lot on the streets, student areas or entertainment areas… in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. However, the scene of long lines of people waiting to buy is no longer there.
Instead, grilled milk tea or dragon fruit instant noodles are the more talked about trends.
Trend: Cheese coin cake
Around mid-September, 10 won coin cake – a popular Korean street food – suddenly “caused a fever” in many culinary associations and groups because the cheese filling can be stretched meters long.
On the streets or shopping centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, you can see young people standing in long lines waiting to buy a greasy, milk-scented cake priced at only a few tens of thousands of dong. Many stores “make money” every day by embracing this trend.
Korean cheese coin cake was sought after by young people in mid-September (Photo: Nguyen Vy).
However, like many other trends, the coin cake phenomenon only became popular for a short time. Currently, some stores still sell this snack, but buying it is very easy, no longer having to stand around and wait for hours like before.
Even on many online forums, many people posted about liquidating coin cake machines for only a few million dong after the trend cooled down.
Trend: Soursop tea
In May, the most mentioned keyword on online forums was “custard apple tea”. The drink has a bitter, sour, and sweet taste that makes many young people enjoy it. Above all, this type of tea is also good for health, suitable for cooling off during the hot summer season.
This trend comes from the unique tea cart of Vy Anh (25 years old, living in Duc Hoa district, Long An province). She said, at a time when it was “feverish”, one day she made 100kg of custard apple to meet the needs of customers from near and far.
Soursop tea is a “fever” drink this summer (Photo: BK).
Very soon, custard-apple tea “covered” many places when restaurants put it on the menu, attracting young people to enjoy it. This dish used to be so hot that the main ingredient, custard apple, was “sold out”, the price was inflated many times and still could not be bought.
However, when other trends replaced it, custard-apple tea almost disappeared from the featured menu, with only a few shops still in business.
Salt coffee
Salted coffee suddenly became a hot trend in the first months of this year. The sweet, bitter taste mixed with a little salty taste conquers coffee lovers.
In fact, salt coffee originated in Hue for several years but has been blooming since early 2023.
Salt coffee is loved by many people because of its strange flavor (Photo: Nghi Phuong).
Not only is it present on every street in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City on compact street vendors, salted coffee is also included in the menus of large restaurants and cafes. The selling price also has a big difference, some places are only 20,000 VND, others are up to 50,000-60,000 VND/cup.
However, after only 1-2 months, this trend gradually receded. Currently, salt coffee carts are no longer attractive and appear as densely as before. However, this drink is still loved by a group of young people who really love it, not enjoying it out of curiosity or “trend swing”.
