Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/58144
Selling a tall, cool drink could be a tall order in a diet-conscious crowd. But a barista can make an iced mocha with skim milk and whole, low-calorie syrup with no whipped cream to cut one-third the calories. Or the customer might prefer a smaller size with all the frills. "People will make tradeoff s," says Joseph Pawlak at Technomic. "If they have an indulgent latt e they'll pull back on other meals— maybe have a salad." Coff ee shops without the "skinny" menu choice risk being on the losing end of that tradeoff decision, or at least losing the upsell potential of a middle ground between unsweetened tea and butt erfat indulgence. "It's always good to have options, and iced tea and lemonades with alternative sweeteners provide a great opportunity to off er great-tasting and lower-calorie drinks," says Michael Szyliowicz at Mont Blanc Gourmet. "A blended iced tea or lemonade seems like an even bigger treat, but is still relatively easy on the waistline." Th e range of artifi cial and natural fl avors make it tough to alight on the perfect sweet drink recipe. "You need to address the sweetness and determine whether you want to go sugar-free, or if you want to keep it natural and go with a high fructose corn syrup-free sugar," Szyliowicz says. As always, your audience will lead you to the most att ractive Lemonades and iced teas can cut calories with artificial sweeteners. choices. Low-calorie and low-fat options att ract the mature kaff eeklatch crowd, while real fruit or organic syrup might draw more active lifestyles. When it comes to diet drinks, there's defi nitely a fat-generation gap. "Th e younger market looks for bett er-for-you options: no preservatives or additives and using natural ingredients," Pawlak says. "Th ey don't think much of calories. Th ey may fi gure they have more time to lose weight." And if you're down the street from the gym, customers might look for nutrition facts at the counter. "Smoothie shops, health bars in gyms, etc. are much more apt to have the nutritional breakdown, as those consumers are the ones who tend to ask for it," says Tim Pisarski of Big Train Inc. "I think many at the coff ee shop probably don't want to see the nutritionals on the goodies they buy," Pisarski says. "If consumers start asking for this information at coff ee shops, we may start to see it." Pawlak, who directs and conducts foodservice consulting and research as a vice president at Chicago-based Technomic. Geography can serve as inspiration as well. "Where are the newest fl avors coming from? You can see the trends on restaurant menus," Pawlak says. "Indian and Korean are two current hot segments: Th ink bubble tea, Chai spiced teas or fl avors like ginger." Lourdes Link looks to her suburban Chicago surroundings when naming summer drinks at Link's Sweet Bean. Th e Wilmette, Ill. roaster, coff ee bar and bakery pays tribute to 24 | March 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com local landmarks with Lighthouse Delight (pomegranate, cranberry juice and lemonade), Ravinia Razz Jazz (raspberry cream soda) and Old Orchard Italian soda (apple and sparkling water). Th ere's a healthy use of sports references in the natural smoothies lineup—Wildcats Wild Berry and Trevians Mango Mania draw from the mascots of Northwestern University and New Trier High School. Drinks also name-check the string of 1980s teen movies shot on Chicago's North Shore: Pretty in Pink (raspberry lemonade), Th e Breakfast Club (strawberry puree, mango