Cool Ideas for Summer: A Beverage Focus

Looking for new ideas to boost profits, drive footfall and keep customers cool, refreshed and coming back this summer?

Then it could be time to introduce new styles of beverages that will appeal to a wide range of customers including millennials, Gen Y and families. From frozen margaritas and frozen tea to milkshakes and smoothies, there are plenty of options available. State-of-the-art machines can deliver superior quality beverages that can be quickly and easily installed to deliver a fast pay-pack for your restaurant, bar, café, convenience or grocery store.

Beyond Iced Tea & Coffee: The Frozen Opportunity
Of the 80 billion+ servings of tea consumed by Americans every year, approximately 85% is iced tea, and according to the Tea Association of the USA, sales are expected to double in the next five years.

The millennial generation and Generation Y are seeking out healthful beverage solutions that factor in customization, natural flavors and freshness. There are profits to be made, but balancing these consumer demands with your own beverage program and labor requirements can be complex. How do you provide additional choice and contemporary beverages while reducing your overheads?

Consider introducing a beverage program such as Fusion Frozen Beverage that delivers both Frozen Tea and Frozen Cold Brew Coffee through a Taylor model Slush Machine. For Fusion Frozen Tea, simply add freshly brewed tea, with the provided tea base mix, into the Taylor model Slush Machine. For Frozen Cold Brew Coffee, simply add Cold Brew Coffee with milk and provided coffee base mix into the Taylor model Slush Machine.

We have an additional option of flavoring the Fusion Tea and Cold Brew with our Flavorburst system using all natural syrups in Peach, Mango, Lemon and Raspberry flavors for tea and French Vanilla, Mocha, Caramel and Hazelnut for Cold Brew.

A Milkshake Revolution
A national favorite, milkshakes are the wholesome, heat-busting accoutrement to a sweltering summer day loved by kids and adults alike. With the evolution in eating habits, the rise of all-day snacking and the gradual disappearance of the lunch occasion, consumers are seeking out alternative appetite-satisfiers throughout the day. Milkshakes also make the perfect ‘morning commute’ companion (according to Harvard Business School) because they’re not messy or greasy and provide the ingredients normally associated with breakfast or brunch.
For operators, the opportunity exists to make milkshakes available throughout the day and avoid pigeon-holing them to a certain demographic or eating occasion. However, operators often avoid featuring ingredient-heavy milkshakes on a menu because of the amount of manpower required to create them. New technologies and innovations are making the life of the server easier by delivering quality, tasty milkshakes with a traditional flavor profile at the touch of a button.

Taylor produces a wide variety of shake machines based on one flavor, vanilla, and then transformed into limitless flavors through the addition of syrups or sauces. By adding a milkshake spinner, texture and flavor can be recreated perfectly. The electronic viscosity control continuously measures product viscosity and regulates operation of the refrigeration system within the Taylor machine.

With the added benefit of wrap-around branding, a Taylor machine offers operators customization, labor efficiencies, quality products and a fast pay-back on an initial investment.

For operators looking for a more compact but equally technologically advanced solution, then the MagnaBlend Revolutionary Blender integrates an ice dispenser, blender and rinse station for faster service in nine seconds or less! You can upload signature recipes straight from your laptop, and a pre-programmable menu supports servers in high volume scenarios where the touch of a button can deliver a perfect milkshake.

Smoothies Go From Strength to Strength
Smoothies are a $5B/yr profit center. Their rise over the past decade is unrepresented and is evident in the dedicated smoothie chains, bars and stalls that have popped up across the country. The smoothie revolution continues unabated and it’s hard to find a menu that doesn’t feature some smoothie option in restaurants, cafes, chains, colleges, universities and bakeries.

Drive additional profit opportunities this summer with superior smoothie options – think outside the box and offer Millennials customization choices and adventurous flavors. Also consider conducting a cost-benefit analysis on your smoothie production; in light of pressures on operators such as the rise in the minimum wage and the difficulty in recruiting staff, what is the most efficient way of generating margins from smoothies?

Operators are increasingly looking to technology to solve the problem such as a Taylor Frozen Beverage Freezer that features a specially designed viscosity control to automatically maintain superior smoothie product quality. Adjustable controls allows the operator to serve a wide variety of frozen beverages at the desired thickness, so the machine can also be used for shakes or frozen cocktails, fruit juices, coffees, cappuccino and tea slush beverages. An optimized refrigeration system offers efficient operation in an extremely quiet, compact, self-contained freezer. The Taylor Frozen Beverage Freezer offers operators the chance to reduce manpower, and drive preparation and server efficiencies, for smoothie production that can often be time-consuming and result in variations in product quality depending on the server.

Again, the MagnaBlend Revolutionary Blender is the perfect solution for space-limited serving areas and smaller operations.

Frozen Cocktails: with or without alcohol
Frozen cocktails are becoming the norm in restaurants and bars with new innovations such as Frosé (rosé wine slush) and signature drinks take on a cooler personality with the addition of ice such as frozen margaritas. In addition, the millennial generation (18-35 years old) is increasingly swapping alcoholic drinks for non-alcoholic, but they still demand all the taste of a sophisticated cocktail according to recent research.

Operators may tend to avoid cocktails on menus because they eat into server time and require an extensive supply of ingredients that can generate waste and require additional clean-up time. But cocktails offer great margins. Investing in new technologies can generate frozen cocktails, both with or without alcohol, while delivering taste consistency and efficiencies – such as the Taylor Frozen Beverage Freezer and MagnaBlend PRO-Revolutionary Blender.

When it comes to cocktails, the MagnaBlend is in a class of its own with automated mixing from up to 8 refrigerated flavor mixes, integrated touchscreen, ice dispenser, storage & rinse station for quick service. A favorite with high footfall restaurants and bars, the MagnaBlend is taking the hard work out of cocktails and delivering back profits and fast pay-back timelines.

Kids’ Favorites
The joy of a slush drink as a child is an enduring memory; after swimming, baseball practice or a weekend treat, a slush created joyful memories. Slush drinks and carbonated beverages continue to cut across the generations and prove to be one of the most profitable offerings for operators; especially where the customer profile is skewed towards families.

Talk to us about the wide choice that Taylor offers such as the Taylor Frozen Carbonated Beverage freezer that dispenses a choice of slush textures. For example, select to dispense a light, fluffy, high overrun slush product (via a pressurized system) or opt for the nonpressurized system that produces a wetter, lower overrun slush.

Easy-to-use controls and superior cleaning and operating technologies make the Taylor Frozen Carbonated Beverage Freezer an essential for high volume operations looking for reliable, quality equipment.

Add additional and healthful options such as fruit drinks, frozen lemonade and non-alcoholic drinks by installing the Taylor Frozen Uncarbonated Beverage (FUB) Dispenser; the convenient way to generate additional drink options that are automatically dispensed using your existing Taylor machine. The mix is stored in a remote location or walk-in cooler and delivered to the Taylor dispenser automatically. Customized mix delivery systems are available based on volume needs for Bag-in-Box, other post-mix or pre-mix products.

What’s Next?
The aim for any operator is to serve consistently high quality products that keep your customers coming back, but that also present labor savings and efficiency opportunities. However, it can be hard to navigate what is right for your operation from the choice in the sector; and whether to lease or buy new equipment. Talk to the DSL Northwest team about how new technologies and innovations in foodservice equipment, such as the Taylor series of machines, that can help to drive profit margins, but more importantly, equipment that works for your operation and your budget.