After centuries of being taken for granted, the everyday banana is having its moment. This tropical fruit, long prized for its rugged built-in packaging, has emerged on the foodie front as the viral It Flavor, surfacing in some unexpected food and drink, and acquiring the sacred ranking of "buzzy."
In the past two years, banana has risen from lunchbox staple to starring role in upscale desserts, cocktails, and even coffee drinks. That ascent just officially peaked with its debut as a Starbucks flavor for fall '26, appearing in two beverages inspired by freshly baked banana bread: Iced Banana Bread Latte and Iced Banana Bread Chai, available through the fall season and beyond.
When you've scored a flavor designation from Starbucks, you have arrived — and will be embraced by every other coffee chain, from banana bread cold brew at 7 Brew to banana cold foam at PJ's Coffee of New Orleans to banana cold foam at Dunkin'.
According to menu research company Technomic, banana-flavored specials have surged by 70 percent in 2026. Banana bread is being hailed as an “extra hot” trend; after steadily rising since 2024, the flavor has surpassed pumpkin spice over the last two years in online searches.
Old school banana
Banana is hardly new to the dessert world, ruling in classics like bananas Foster, banana bread, banana pancakes, and banana pudding — a dessert that's been championed by Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, whose passion for the pudding has helped get it on the menu of pretty much every barbecue restaurant across Texas.
"I love banana pudding because of the payoff it provides for such a simple recipe," Vaughn says. "Banana pudding requires just three basic elements: The pudding, fresh banana slices, and some sort of cookie, most popularly Nilla wafers. Layer them in the right order, and you'll get layers of textural variation and different intensities of sweetness from each layer."
Vaughn acknowledges that most barbecue joints have added banana pudding.
"Yes, the popularity of banana pudding has grown a bit, but more importantly the banana pudding gets greater attention from barbecue fans and the pitmasters who make it," he says. "The artificial flavors of boxed banana-flavored pudding are nearly extinct, thankfully, so the flavor comes from real bananas."
Using "better" banana is a big factor in its newfound popularity, says chef Casey La Rue, co-founder of La Rue Doughnuts in Dallas and Frisco. La Rue, who worked in top fine-dining restaurants for years, has witnessed the evolution of banana from not hot to ultra hot first-hand.
“Banana used to be a difficult flavor because people associated it with artificial candy, overly sweet syrups, and that fake-banana taste," La Rue says. "Now chefs and coffee shops are using real banana, roasted banana, and more balanced combinations with coffee, caramel, chocolate, and spice."
"It still feels nostalgic and familiar, but the flavor is finally being treated with more restraint and sophistication," he says. "People didn’t suddenly start liking banana — they started getting better versions of it.”
Terrible Love's Trrble Latte adds banana and chocolate syrups, whipped cream, and crumbled Nilla Wafers. Photo courtesy of Terrible Love
Banana in coffee
Another major influence behind the boffo banana comes from the growing popularity in the U.S. of Asian cuisine — tied specifically to banana-flavored milk, an iconic drink introduced by Korean food & beverage company Binggrae in 1974. Sold in a cute little bottle, it's a childhood staple for generations of Koreans, who were the first to add banana as a flavor to coffee drinks — inspiring Starbucks as well as Coffee Mate and Califa Farms, who both just came out with banana-flavored coffee creamers.
Banana in coffee is now everywhere. Every coffee shop across Texas has a banana latte of some kind: Cafe Duro in Dallas, Smoking Tiger Korean bakery in Carrollton, Bruvana Coffee House in Flower Mound. Cafe Carola, new in Houston, serves a banana bread latte with their own house-made banana purée. Bright Coffee in San Antonio does a popular banana milk latte with espresso and banana sauce they make in house. Terrible Love in Austin features banana in its signature Trrbl Latte, with banana & chocolate syrups, whipped cream, and Nilla wafer crumbles. Matcha shops like Kissa Matcha in Grand Prairie are on the bandwagon, adding banana to their matcha lattes.
Banana sundae from Uchi and Uchiko. Photo by Hai Hospitality
Banana manana
The banana latte trend has spawned a banana rebound in other food groups, like the new banana bread pudding M&Ms and the banana-Nutella bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Sonic is all in with a banana pudding shake, banana-pudding soft-serve (blended with vanilla wafer crumbles), and banana pudding cream slush, combining vanilla soft serve with banana flavor and ice.
Habaneros Fresh Mex Cantina in Fort Worth just added banana pudding soft serve; owner Lawrence Caldwell says it's already a smash hit. Austin plant-based restaurant Fabrik recently featured banana creatively in its summer menu with a banana miso mousse with roasted banana compote. Hai Hospitality — whose restaurants Uchi and Uchiko have always been "fruit-forward" — recently whipped up a banana sundae for a charity event in Houston combining banana sorbet with coconut, caramel, plantains, and brûléed banana.
La Rue Doughnuts has had banana on the menu for three months in a row; their September menu features a chocolate-banana-almond croissant, and in August, they did a banana cream pie doughnut.
"My whole life, guests have said they hated banana desserts," La Rue says. "If guests saw a menu prior to dinner and it had banana, they'd request a different dessert. Now, the No. 1 selling items at our shops are all banana."
