In a disused shopping mall in Berlin-Neukölln, Oatly turned concrete and glass into a playground for the senses. Oatly On the Rocks—their largest event to date—saw the world’s most influential oat drink brand bring the future of taste to center stage. The Swedish giant gathered baristas, mixologists, chefs, and culture-makers from across Europe to celebrate the launch of its Matcha oat drink and debut its AW25 Look Book: 18 new seasonal recipes designed to challenge how we think about flavor, texture, and what the very nature of a “drink” can be.
The day opened with a keynote from food futurologist Dr. Morgaine Gaye, who distilled tomorrow’s taste language into six evocative words—puffy, fluffy, thick, creamy, smoky, and foamed—setting the tone for an event that blurred the line between lab and café. A panel of experts, including Michelin-starred chef René Frank, trend voice Riccardo Simonetti, mixologist Linh Nguyen, and Oatly’s own Head of Food & Drinks Experience, Rowena Roos, explored how sustainability, culture, and creativity collide in the next era of food innovation.
For Roos, the Look Book presented an opportunity not just to bring the exciting creations Oatly has been working on as of late, but to also offer an important window into Oatly’s evolving vision of taste. At the event, she sat down with us to talk about oat drink’s rise from “alternative” to essential, and why sparkling tea could be the next big thing to hit your local café.
Henry Levinson: Can you tell me who you are and what you do?
Rowena Roos: I’m Ro, Head of Food & Drinks Experience at Oatly. My job is to take insights from our global team of coffee professionals—about 60 of them—along with market data, partners, and my own travels, and distill all that into tastable drinks. I predict trends for the next six months and turn them into recipes we launch through our seasonal look books.
HL: What was your role in today’s event and the look book?
RR: The look book is the culmination of months of work. I developed all the drinks for it and supported the team by choosing what to serve and ensuring we had all ingredients. I also created two master classes—one recreating some of the most beautiful drinks and another on why tea is set to explode—and joined a panel with other experts to walk guests through the look book.
HL: How did you get into oat drink?
RR: My background is product development and culinary innovation. I’ve always loved tasting everything, but I wanted to work for a company with real values. Oatly aligned with my belief in making the world better—and I think oat drink tastes fantastic. It lets me be creative while staying true to my moral compass.
HL: Why do you think oat drink has become the most popular alternative?
RR: Taste always wins. Oatly succeeded because it tastes great with coffee—and with matcha too. Dairy can make matcha taste odd, but oat drink complements it beautifully. It keeps the creamy texture while letting the earthy, bright matcha notes shine through. That’s why it’s endured.
HL: Do you see oat drink as an alternative or its own ingredient?
RR: It’s a base ingredient now. In many cafés, more than 60% of customers choose oat drink, so it’s not an alternative anymore—it’s the default. People order oat drink lattes without thinking twice. It works across drinks—coffee, matcha, teas—and is accessible for everyone, regardless of allergies or nutritional preferences. It’s simply a versatile, universal base.
HL: How do you approach developing drinks for the look book?
RR: I start by mapping all the trends from our global teams and data. Then I group them—things like conscious indulgence, fiber, or tea—and choose ingredients that fit. For example, with the fiber trend, I wanted to use chia seeds. From there, I build flavor combinations—chia, raspberry, freshness—with oat drink as the base. Sometimes I‘ll adapt an already created drink format to include oat drink. For example, the South Korean “Ashotchu,” an iced tea with espresso, inspired me to add a peach oat foam, which made it even better.
HL: What are your favorites from this look book, and which are more experimental?
RR: My favorites are the Cinnamon Roll Smoothie—indulgent but healthy, with all the flavors of a Swedish cinnamon roll—and the Pear & Cardamom Thai Tea, which combines rich black tea, jasmine, pear, and warm spice.
The more unusual ones are the Ye Olde Oatly—hot filter coffee with stout syrup and salted vanilla foam that looks like a pint of stout—and Pumpkin 2.0, a clarified, transparent pumpkin spice latte made with oat drink, citrus, and coffee, topped with pumpkin seed oil.
HL: What space would you love Oatly to explore next?
RR: Mixology. There’s huge potential for both cocktails and alcohol-free drinks. With more people drinking less, there’s room to create complex, crafted beverages where oat drink adds texture and depth.
HL: If you had unlimited resources, what would your dream drink be?
RR: Something fermented and fizzy—maybe sparkling oat drink with botanicals, woods, and florals for bitterness, paired with something cozy like apple. It would be weird, textural, and a little sparkly—definitely a drink that surprises people.
Want to learn more about what Oatly is bringing to the table? Hit the link here.
