Rutab is having a moment this summer — and it’s showing up in your coffee, matcha and desserts

There are some flavours that simply taste like summer in the UAE.

Rutab (aka fresh, half-ripe dates) is one of them.

For many, the arrival of rutab season is less about discovering something new and more about returning to something familiar. The soft, golden fruit of the date palm appears on tables, gets shared between family and friends, and becomes one of those small seasonal rituals that signals that summer has well and truly arrived.

But this year, rutab is moving beyond the fruit bowl.

It is making its way into iced drinks, matcha, coffee and desserts, as UAE cafés and restaurants find new ways to turn one of the country’s most recognizable ingredients into something that feels distinctly modern.

The appeal is easy to understand. Rutab has a natural sweetness and a soft, caramel-like flavour that works surprisingly well with the things we already order on a café run. And unlike some food trends that seem to appear overnight, this one comes with a sense of familiarity.

It is nostalgia, just served in a different glass.

At Como Lounge, that idea is at the centre of its seasonal rutab menu. The café says it was inspired by “the excitement that comes with rutab season across the UAE,” with the aim of creating “a modern café experience that highlights this iconic local ingredient for both locals and international guests.”

The café also sees rutab as a natural extension of its focus on local ingredients, explaining that it places “a strong focus on incorporating Emirati ingredients into our seasonal creations.”

At Como Lounge, the menu takes drinks that have already become café favourites and gives them an unmistakably local twist.

Their seasonal creations include a Rutab Matcha, Rutab Cloudy Coconut Water and Rutab Latte, each designed to let the fruit remain the main character rather than simply becoming another flavor added to the mix.

“Our concept was to take the drinks people already love to order at cafés and reimagine them using one of the UAE’s most iconic seasonal ingredients, rutab,” Como Lounge said.

The Rutab Matcha has emerged as a particular favourite, combining the earthy bitterness of matcha with the natural sweetness of fresh rutab. The café describes it as bringing together “the earthy taste of premium matcha with the natural sweetness of fresh rutab, creating a well-balanced flavor.”

For something lighter, the Rutab Cloudy Coconut Water offers a more refreshing option, while the Rutab Latte is aimed at those who prefer a richer coffee experience.

“We focused on achieving the perfect balance, making sure the natural flavor of the rutab remained the highlight while complementing the other ingredients,” the café said.

The goal was simple: “We wanted guests to enjoy familiar drinks with a unique seasonal twist that celebrates Emirati culture in a fresh and modern way.”

And perhaps that is what makes the rutab trend more interesting than your average seasonal menu.

There is a growing appetite for food and drinks that feel connected to where we live. In the UAE, that can mean taking ingredients that have long been part of everyday life and looking at them through a completely different lens.

Rutab is particularly suited to this. Its seasonal nature makes it feel fleeting, giving people another reason to seek it out while it is around. At the same time, it carries a cultural familiarity that makes its appearance on a modern menu feel less like a gimmick and more like a continuation of something that has always existed.

For Humaid Almasaood Almhairbi, owner of Archive Eatery, that local connection was the natural starting point.

“Being based in Al Ain was the natural starting point for us,” Almhairbi said. “Rutab is deeply rooted in the identity of Al Ain, growing in the local farms and marking a season that holds a special place in the culture of the city.”

Rather than simply following a seasonal trend, Archive Eatery wanted to celebrate something already deeply familiar to its community, presenting it in “a way that feels fresh, contemporary, and true to Archive.”

That sense of place is part of what makes rutab so compelling.

“There is something very special about enjoying an ingredient that comes from your own land,” Almhairbi said. “Rutab is locally grown and closely connected to the farms and heritage of Al Ain, so there is already an emotional and cultural connection to it.”

Its short season adds another layer to the appeal. “Its season is also relatively short, which makes people look forward to it and enjoy it while it lasts.”

For Como Lounge, that same seasonal familiarity connects rutab to the wider Emirati lifestyle.

“Rutab has always been part of the Emirati lifestyle,” the café said. “Every summer, people look forward to the season because it brings families together and reflects a tradition that has been passed down for generations.”

Como Lounge also points to the date palm’s place in the UAE’s heritage and identity, noting that its significance was “strongly championed by the late Sheikh Zayed, whose vision helped preserve and celebrate the country’s agricultural and cultural traditions.”

For Como Lounge, rutab is therefore more than simply another seasonal ingredient. “As a local café, we felt it was important to celebrate this ingredient in a way that respects its roots while introducing it to a wider audience through a modern experience.”

Both Como Lounge and Archive Eatery are exploring rutab through a mix of modern drinks and desserts, giving the familiar ingredient a fresh twist.

“Our idea was to bring together the past and the present,” Almhairbi said. “We wanted to take something traditional and deeply familiar, like rutab, and introduce it through formats that feel modern and unexpected.”

One of its standout creations is Rutab Ice Cream, a pairing that Almhairbi says Archive Eatery “hadn’t really seen done before.” From there, the eatery explored rutab through some of today’s most popular café trends, creating Rutab Matcha and Rutab Dirty Espresso.

The result is a menu that Almhairbi describes as “nostalgic at its core, but contemporary in the way it is experienced.”

And that contrast is perhaps the most interesting part of the rutab revival.

A rutab latte can be just as much a celebration of summer as a box of fresh rutab shared at home. A scoop of rutab ice cream can introduce someone to a flavour they may have grown up with in an entirely new way.

At Archive Eatery, the three creations each offer a different interpretation of the ingredient. “The ice cream brings out its natural sweetness in a playful dessert format, while the matcha and dirty espresso pair its distinctive flavour with two modern coffee and beverage trends,” Almhairbi said.

“Together, they offer three completely different ways to experience a familiar local ingredient.”

Perhaps the growing popularity of rutab is part of a bigger shift in the UAE’s food scene.

There is an increasing appetite for flavours that feel rooted in the country, but presented in ways that fit how people eat and drink today. Local ingredients are no longer confined to traditional dishes; they are becoming part of the café culture, dessert menus and social media moments that shape what people want to try next.

And rutab has all the ingredients of a modern food trend: it is seasonal, local, visually distinctive and culturally meaningful.

Archive Eatery sees that curiosity as something that can extend beyond one ingredient or one season.

“We believe seasonal ingredients give people a reason to be curious and come back to experience something new,” Almhairbi said. “There is also a growing appreciation for local ingredients and the stories behind them.”

For the Al Ain eatery, the idea is not to change what people already know, but to give them another reason to appreciate it.

“For us, it’s about taking something people already know and love, and giving them a new reason to experience it.”

And, naturally, there is the social side of it too. “When something is both culturally meaningful and visually exciting, it becomes an experience people want to share.”

That balance between old and new is perhaps where the trend gets its staying power.

“What makes all three drinks unique is that the flavor of the rutab remains the hero, while every other ingredient complements it rather than overpowers it,” Como Lounge said.

And the café sees the idea extending beyond one summer.

“Local and seasonal ingredients have always been part of our identity, not just something we introduce for a limited time,” they said.

The menu already features Emirati-inspired desserts such as Aseeda and Saffron Cake, with the café saying it will continue exploring seasonal Emirati ingredients and presenting them “in a modern way through specialty coffee and desserts, while staying true to our roots.”

Archive Eatery shares that same interest in keeping local ingredients part of the conversation, particularly by giving familiar flavours new formats and experiences.

Together, Como Lounge and Archive Eatery reflect two different takes on the same idea: that local ingredients do not have to stay in the past to remain meaningful. They can evolve with the way people eat, drink and discover food today, while still carrying the stories and memories that made them special in the first place.

It is a sign of a broader shift in the way local flavors are being presented: not necessarily reinvented beyond recognition, but given enough of a twist to make people look at them again.

Because sometimes, the most interesting food trends aren’t the ones we’ve never tasted before.

They’re the ones we’ve grown up with, suddenly showing up somewhere we never expected.

And this summer, that place might just be at the bottom of your iced matcha, in a scoop of ice cream, or swirling into a dirty espresso.