Heating Up Foodservice Operations with Refreshing Summer Beverages

It’s that time of year – the weather is warm and trending toward hot, and diners everywhere are looking for cool, refreshing drinks to keep that summer heat at bay.

By serving on-trend beverages, restaurant operations can push back against the recent spike in diners preparing beverages at home, offering them a unique summer flavor they can’t replicate elsewhere. In fact, Datassential pegs the number of consumers who choose to make drinks at home at 46 percent — it’s time to recapture those incremental sales.

Meeting Increased To-Go Orders with Premium Water Treatment

These drinks can also ensure your operation takes advantage of the recent spike in to-go orders brought about by social distancing efforts, which will likely continue well into our collective return to business as usual.

Antunes’ VZN Ultrafiltration solutions can help you do just that, giving you a way to ensure your summer menu additions hit the mark every time with premium filtered water. Scale Reduction Systems like Antunes’ SI-XL reduce the amount of scale buildup on cold-serve beverage equipment, prolonging equipment life and preventing costly repairs.

Let’s take a look at some summer beverages that could have diners flocking to your dining rooms, filling drive-thru lanes, and grabbing these items to-go.

Choosing the Right Summer Beverages

It’s not as simple as crafting a mainstay and pouring it over ice – these days, competing at-home capabilities are more diverse than ever before.

Here are a few options to go above and beyond in providing the quintessential summer experience:

• Cold Brew
  Cold brew coffee is the perfect way to offer a cool, refreshing coffee beverage without having to brew traditional hot coffee, cool it in other ways, and serve it over ice. By steeping ground coffee in cool, filtered water, you can create some ready-made magic.
• Kombucha
  Customers are getting more health-conscious than ever, and kombucha is playing a key role for many. This slightly fizzy, fermented tea beverage is packed with health benefits, such as antioxidants, and customers are eager to add it to their daily diets.
• Boba
  Essentially, boba are cassava starch balls, but the term has come to represent a variety of drinks that incorporate these aesthetically pleasing pearls. From slushies to milk-based drinks, this Taiwanese-trend is wowing consumers across the globe.
• Carbonated Drinks and Spritzers
  A cool, refreshing drink with a little fizz can be perfect to beat the summer heat – and Antunes’ very own Chef Joe Arvin’s Very Berry Spritzer is a perfect example.
• Traditional Summer Teas and Lemonades
  While consumers can certainly craft these at home to an extent, foodservice operations have a chance to diversify their offering and create some stunning results. Go beyond sweet tea and lemonade and experiment with summertime flavors like watermelon and raspberry.

Starting a Summer Drink Program with Filtration

No summer drink program can succeed without truly great-tasting filtered water – which is where Antunes comes in.

Antunes’ VZN Ultrafiltration solutions provide all the benefits of premium water filtration with a two-phase process that produces incredible results while consistently adding to savings on the bottom line. Designed to extend the lifespan of ultrafilters and carbon cartridges, VZN solutions cut the costs associated with constant maintenance and cartridge replacements.

Available in 10 unique models, there’s a VZN Ultrafiltration solution for your operation.

To learn more about how ultrafiltration can boost customer satisfaction and while expanding your beverage portfolio, contact Antunes today.