Create Enticing Beverage Alternatives to Soda
Light and refreshing alternatives to soda are becoming a requested item
Bring culinary talent to your beverage program. Few operators make the effort to innovate on this part of the menu, so you can distinguish your operation with drinks beyond soda. Focus on reducing refined sugars without sacrificing taste or eye appeal. A few ideas:
- Bring some fun to the table with fruit garnishes, straws, and eye-catching glassware.
- Explore Mexico's aguas frescas, lightly sweetened blends of fresh fruit and water. Made of cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, or the brilliant red jamaica (dried hibiscus flower), these fresh-fruit waters have vivid colors and look enticing displayed in big glass jars.
- Teas and tisanes are taking off. Offer an iced mint tea or peach tea with sprigs of fresh mint. A tisane (tee-ZAHN) is an infusion of fresh or dried herbs in hot water. Experiment with lemon grass, mint, and chamomile. Or create a signature spiced tea with fresh ginger, orange peel, cinnamon, cardamom, and clove. Tisanes look especially inviting in glass teapots.
- Low-fat yogurt drinks and smoothies offer lots of creative potential. Frozen fruit whipped with buttermilk makes a low-fat, high-fiber beverage with eye appeal. Add a few drops of vanilla or almond extract and a fresh fruit garnish. Take a look at Indian lassi, a yogurt drink made in both sweet and salty styles.
- Use club soda as a base for refreshing spritzers made with citrus juice or other fruit juices.
- Invest in a vegetable juicer and develop a signature fresh-squeezed vegetable-juice cocktail. Promote it with a sandwich or half-sandwich as a nutritious quick lunch.