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Enhance your restaurant menu with functional beverages

Juice business
7 abril 2025

Personalizing health and wellness by prioritizing intentional nutrition is a growing consumer trend. Adding functional beverages to your menu helps you capitalize on this trend without making major changes to your restaurant or café menu. Beverages with functional ingredients double as snacks, driving upsells and individual purchases. Consumers are willing to pay more for functional foods, so the profit margin is higher than average.  

What are functional nutrition drinks?

A beverage is considered “functional” if it contains natural ingredients that support wellness objectives. We’re not referring to caffeinated shots, but ingredients that support internal harmony. This beverage category targets consumers who drink 8 or more glasses of water per day. They understand the importance of hydration and swap a few of their glasses of water per day to beverages infused with vitamins and other nutrients.

Wellness objectives span the range of:

  • Anti-aging
  • Caffeine-free energy
  • Cognitive performance
  • Cardiovascular health
  • Immune support
  • Improved gut health
  • Improved mood
  • Physical endurance
  • Reduced stress
  • Rest and relaxation
  • Workout recovery

 

Is juice a functional beverage?

Yes. Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice is hydrating and antioxidant rich. To capitalize on the functional trend, you can create recipes that promote specific wellness objectives. For example, beets contain antioxidants that support the liver’s natural detoxification process. And citrus-based recipes support immunity.

Boost the functional value of your juices by adding goal-oriented ingredients or offering add-ins as an upsell. The ingredients below can add another $0.25 to $2.00 per juice.

Functional ingredients include:

  • Adaptogens
  • Aloe
  • Anti-inflammatory spices
  • Bee pollen
  • CBD
  • Collagen
  • Essential oils
  • Fiber
  • Flower essence
  • Fruit and veggie powder
  • Dried or fresh herbs
  • Minerals
  • Nuts
  • Prebiotics
  • Probiotics
  • Protein
  • Seeds
  • Spirulina/chlorella
  • Vitamins
  • Electrolytes
  • Enzymes
  • Extracts
  • Wheatgrass

What is the demand for functional beverages?

According to Precedence Research, the global functional food market is expected to grow from $373 billion in 2025 to $671 billion by 2034. This intersects with the forecasted $913 million out-of-home juice market in the United States as reported by ReportLinker.

Sports beverages, energy drinks, unsweetened herbal tea, and alkaline water are part of the functional category. There’s also a rise in functional food and beverage brands that add vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to everyday beverages. For example, fiber-infused soda or sparkling water. Cold pressed juice remains a top pick for consumers, as they can drink their daily fruit and vegetables.

How do you make a functional beverage menu?

  • Don’t compromise flavor profile for function. Consumers want to enjoy their beverages.
  • Sell a curated selection of ready-to-serve functional beverages. This includes brand-name infused sparkling water, coconut water, soda, and tea.
  • Incorporate ready-to-serve beverages into your in-house selection. For example, infusing cold pressed juice with sparkling water or coconut water.
  • Create a range of juice-based shots, smoothies, and infused juice recipes. This can include 3 to 5 day detox and cleanse programs.
  • Create a core juice menu with produce and add-ins that are easy to access year-round.
  • Keep things fun by creating limited-time juice recipes made with seasonal produce and ingredients.
  • Determine if you want your juice menu to be pre-bottled or made-to-order.
  • Allow customers to substitute juice ingredients and make their own fruit and veggie combinations.

 

What type of juicer is required for functional juices?

Zumex offers an advanced range of juicing technology to meet your unique needs. From self-serve to low-and-mid volume countertop models, and high-volume floor standing models. To infuse vitamins and other non-juice add-ins, add the freshly squeezed juice to a blender. Then add the functional vitamin or ingredient and pulse a few times to mix it together. Only pulse a few times. If you blend juice, it adds air creating foam and separation.

Our juicers fall into 4 primary categories: citrus, pomegranate, centrifugal, and cold press.

Pomegranate juicer

Pomegranate juice is anti-inflammatory, gut-healthy, brain-healthy, and heart healthy. Our pomegranate juicer enables hands-free de-seeding for smooth, sweet-tart pomegranate juice. Just feed the whole pomegranate into the feed bin, no cutting required. 

Use for: Solo pomegranate juice, pomegranate-infused cocktails and mocktails, and food recipes that require pomegranate juice.

Citrus juicers

These juicers only juice oranges, lemons, limes, and other citrus fruits. Citrus is high in vitamin C, one of the most powerful antioxidants. Zumex citrus juicers are hands-free. Just feed the whole citrus fruit into the feed bin and turn the machine on. 

Use for: OJ, lemonade, juice-infused tea, juice-infused sparkling water, cocktails, mocktails, or mixed citrus juice blends.

Centrifugal juicers

Centrifugal extraction enables multi-produce juicing. Create any combination of fruits, veggies, and fresh herbs. Prep is minimal, as produce must be cut to fit the feed tube. Produce is filtered through a high-speed metal basket to ensure no peel, seeds, or pulp flows in.

Use for: Core juice and detox menu, seasonal juice menu, shots, juice-based smoothies, and food recipes that require juice.

Cold press

A cold press is the gold standard of juicing technology. Our floor-standing cold press meets your high-volume needs. With less heat generated than a centrifugal machine, heat-related oxidation is minimized. This preserves enzymes and nutrients and minimizes foam and separation. Prep is even less. Pineapple tops must be cut off and large melons must be cut in half.

Use for: Pre-bottled juice, core juice menu, detox menu, seasonal juice menu, shots, juice-based smoothies, and any recipes that require juice.

Make your menu standout with functional juice recipes

Cater to health-conscious consumers by incorporating vitamin-infused juice. Functional beverages have higher profit margins than standard juice and beverages. They also distinguish your brand, building customer loyalty.

Reach out to Zumex today to discuss how to enhance your functional menu with juice!

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