In interesting ways, beverages forge ahead as the recently discovered golden egg of the foodservice industry. Perhaps it’s because of their ability to cross over from beverage to dessert to snack, and the snacking daypart is where it’s at right now. Add to that the easy opportunity to go seasonal with beverages and thus use them as profitable limited-time offers.
No chain is milking beverages more than Sonic, which is kicking off summer with 25 flavors of slush drinks and 25 shake flavors. The chain has made monsters out of all of us, and as expected, is bringing back its half-price shakes after 8 p.m. Its slushes are half price during Sonic’s daily Happy Hour from 2-4 p.m. No guessing is needed to determine what that strategy is all about. What’s most intriguing are some of the drink flavors, like the Blue Raspberry Slush made with Nerds and the Chocolate Covered Jalapeno Shake.
Tea might be the most untapped beverage in foodservice. Dunkin’ Donuts is on that with its new partnership with Arizona Beverages and Arnold Palmer Enterprises to launch a new Frozen Arnold Palmer Coolatta. I personally expect to see more tea and lemonade pairing at fast-food and fast-casual restaurants. It’s a great combination with many flavor opportunities.
Starbucks, ever up to something innovative, has partnered with Oprah and developed Teavana Oprah Chai tea, which, according to an article in The Chicago Tribune, is a tea blend infused with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and cloves sold in tins or prepared in-store as a tea latte. Cause marketing is involved. For each Oprah Chai item sold, Starbucks plans to make a donation to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation. This is just the beginning of Starbucks’ tea news. The chain plans to use tea to expand its business. And we know… as Starbucks goes, so goes everyone else.
Big beverage brands have their own foodservice innovation going on. Just when you thought you’d seen everything with Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machine that offers 100 drink flavors, now the beverage giant is testing a Freestyle mobile app in which consumers can log in to the app using Facebook Connect, choose three flavors at any percentage combination, then scan the QR code connected with a Freestyle machine at a participating restaurant to get that exact flavor. Some of the participating outlets are Firehouse Subs, Moe’s Southwest Grill and Wingstop.
Finally, Mtn. Dew’s partnership with Taco Bell (think Baja Blast sold exclusively at Taco Bell) has reached the 10-year mark, which must be the limit of some sort of legal non-compete, because at 10 years, Mtn. Dew is set to sell Baja Blast at retail in 20-oz. bottles, 24-oz. cans and 12-packs of 12-oz. cans. Taco Bell has been quietly moving onto grocery store shelves itself, but that’s a topic for another blog.
Beverages are an exciting category right now. It will be interesting to see what great new guzzle is next to be announced.
Tell me what you think.
Jody Shee
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