Toronto food trends this summer were cute, colourful, bizarre, and tasty. All cheese everything and all black everything dominated foodie Instagram posts. Unexpectedly healthy or wildly indulgent, these are the summer food trends that by turns enraged and delighted the city.

Here's a round-up of the latest food trends in Toronto.

Charcoal

Perhaps the most controversial trend of the season, iHalo Krunch used charred coconut husk to flavour soft serve and cones, Jimmy’s Coffee introduced charcoal coffee like CutiePie Cupcakes who also dip ice cream cones in charcoal, and Death in Venice collabed with Kraken rum for their Summer Skream gelato.

Creamy cheese foam at Icha Tea. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Cheese foam

Tea shops Latea Era and Icha Tea opened up this summer in Scarborough and Chinatown respectively, selling many kinds of Asian tea with options with thick, creamy cheese foam on top. Matcha Tea & Dessert, also in Chinatown, introduced their cheese foam teas earlier in the year.

Cookie dough in an ice cream cone at Junked Food Co. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Cookie dough

Junked opened a new Queen St. location in the spring, just in time to hit the peak of this summer’s cookie dough trend, selling scoops in flavours like Golden Oreo and birthday cake garnished with Sweet Tarts. Cookie dough pop-up Dough T.O. sold their girly and Instagrammable vegan chocolate scoops with shots of milk.

Thirsty yet? This is a butterfly pea flower cocktail at Shanee. Photo by Jesse Milns.

Butterfly pea flower

This vibrant ingredient has been sneaking its way into a ton of Thai dishes in new restaurants around Toronto, easily identified by its bright purple colour. Kiin, Si Lom and Shanee all incorporate it into drinks, the latter also using it to uniquely colour crispy rice balls.

Beet juice cocktails at Planta — healthy and fun. Photo by Jesse Milns.

Beet juice cocktails

Also known for its radiant colour, beet juice not only tastes great but is also good for you. For this reason it’s become a choice mix in cocktails at plant-based restaurants like Planta and District Eatery that are bending the rules about what eating vegetarian means.

A giant slushie at Si Lom. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Super sized drinks

Why order one drink when you could have six at once? Si Lom is serving boozy slushie buckets garnished with gummy bears or upside down beers and District Eatery has a 94-ounce Moscow Mule that will keep you from waving the bartender down all night.

Almost as indulgent as the real thing, Planta Burger's vegan offering. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Vegan cheat eats

Forget veggie juice cocktails, go all the way with your vegan indulgences and have a plant-based burger or donut. Planta Burger just opened up on Temperance St., serving remarkably convincing burgers and fish sandwiches, and Sweet Hart Kitchen does hazelnut vegan donuts and indulgent treats like Snickers cake and truffles.

Okonomoyaki at NextDoor. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Japanese fusion brunch

Isabella’s Boutique Restaurant in the Beaches and NextDoor in Markham are both doing brunch influenced by Japanese cuisine. The former serves fluffy mochi mochi pancakes in flavours like mixed berry or Nutella, and the latter does pancakes topped with bonito, nori, kewpie mayo, and poached eggs.

Camp fire ice cream at the Fix. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Burnt marshmallow

Nothing says summer more than roasted marshmallows, and Toronto’s ice cream purveyors latched onto that. The Fix does a campfire burnt marshmallow ice cream combo also rimmed and garnished with burnt marshmallow, and Baked on Brock filled Hong Kong waffles with marshmallow ice cream.

A cheese tart worth lining up for. Pablo arrived in Toronto this summer. Photo by Hector Vasquez.

Cheese pastries

Guschlbauer opened its first Toronto location on Yonge this summer selling their insanely puffy quarter cream cheese buns in mango, strawberry, ube and chocolate. Pablo did the same, retailing their famous super-gelid cheese tarts in classic matcha, chocolate and original flavours, stamped with their crisp logo Uncle Tetsu-style.