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Creating the Perfect Cocktail Menu: Inspiration and Recipes

Juice business
6 agosto 2024

Ever drank a delicious freshly squeezed juice and thought how good it would taste with vodka, gin, or other liquor? You aren’t alone, and your customers are thinking the same thing! The tips below help bars differentiate their cocktail menu and health food restaurants curate an elevated range of brunch or all-day cocktails.

How to make your own cocktail menu?

The first thing you want to determine is if you’ll have a separate menu for your alcoholic beverages, or if they’ll be a category on your main menu. You may highlight your cocktails on a variety of menus. Each of the menus below must be captivating, easy to read, and designed to boost drink sales.

  • Standard menu: Consider listing best-sellers, time-of-day alcoholic beverages, and signature drinks on your printed menu.
  • Cocktail menu: Even if you include your best-sellers on your main menu, you may want to create a separate alcoholic beverage menu. This might be just a wine list or a combined list.
  • Happy hour menu: If you host happy hour drink specials, you might create a small tabletop or handheld menu for your appetizers and happy hour beverages.
  • Tabletop menu: Encourage the upsell of everything from cocktails to appetizers and desserts on a smaller tabletop menu.
  • Wall-mounted menu: If your bar or restaurant has wall-mounted digital or static signage, post your seasonal drinks and best sellers.

What should be included in a cocktail menu?

Like your food menu, your cocktail or bar menu must be categorized. If you’re a bar, you may also add your appetizers or small dishes to the categories below.

Your categories may include:

  • Aperitifs: This includes before-meal liquors and spirits such as Aperol, sherry, and vermouth.
  • Beer: Beer can be segmented by regional, international, IPA, and craft brews.
    Wine: Wine should be separated by red, white, blush, sparkling, and dessert wines. You may also want to separate by wine region.
  • Classic: List the classic cocktails you serve. From rum and coke to gin and tonic, Manhattan, and more.
  • Mixology: This is where your master mixologist lists their signature creations.
  • Martinis: If you offer more than 2 or 3 martinis, create a martini section. If you only offer classic martinis, list them in the classics section.
  • Margaritas: If you serve several flavors or variations of margaritas you may want to list them separately.
  • Coffee and after-meal: This includes liquor-infused coffee, digestifs, dessert wines, and drinks that double as dessert.
  • Morning cocktails: You may only serve a range of brunch cocktails including champagne, mimosas, and bellinis.
  • Specialty: You may want to list your individual spirits and liquors. For example, your options in rum, whisky, and tequila.
  • Non-Alcoholic: Create a separate section for your NA wines, beers, and elevated mocktails. Include a few options with freshly squeezed juice with ginger ale or sparkling water.

Do I really need to include NA options?

Non-alcoholic beer and wine options have never been more impressive, more popular, or more lucrative. According to Yahoo Finance, the market is expected to grow from 2.1 billion to 4.9 billion between 2023 and 2032. NA options don’t just meet the needs of those in recovery but of health-conscious consumers cutting back on their alcohol intake.

How do I create a signature cocktail menu?

  • Select your ingredients: Determine what wines, spirits, liquors, and ingredients you will use to differentiate your alcoholic beverage menu. Ingredients include herbs, spices, bitters, and freshly squeezed juice.
  • Experiment: Experiment with a variety of cocktail recipes, testing each variation on staff and select clients. Use feedback to perfect your signature creations. Sampling potential additions to your signature cocktail menu can build brand loyalty.
  • Price: Mixology is an art form that customers are willing to pay for. Beyond the cost of the ingredients, determine the prep time for each drink and the ingredients that need to be prepped ahead of time. Price with ample profit margins.
  • Educate: Once the finished version is complete, let all servers and staff taste your custom creation. Explain the inspiration behind the recipe and the unique aspects of the ingredients. For example, your pomegranate juice is freshly squeezed, bitters are made in-house, and where your herbs are imported from.
  • Market: Determine how to market your new creations. Beyond adding them to your menu, post them to social media. If your menu has images or you use a digital menu board, add your signature recipes to the mix. When relevant, add your creations to your menu as a suggested pairing.

How many cocktails should be on a cocktail menu?

Aim to have 3 to 5 cocktails in each menu category. This should include 1 or 2 mocktails and seasonal cocktails.

How to add freshly squeezed juice to your cocktail menu?

Freshly squeezed juice is a secret ingredient for master mixologists. From creating signature cocktails to elevating classic drinks.

Here are a few ways to add freshly squeezed juice to your custom mixology menu:

  • Bloody Mary with freshly squeezed tomato juice. Experiment with different tomato varieties.
  • Fresh cranberry for Cosmopolitan martinis, cranberry and vodka, and custom cocktails.
  • Fresh OJ, grapefruit juice, watermelon, or pomegranate juice for mimosas.
  • Fresh peach, mango, melon, and berry juice for bellinis and daiquiris.
  • Create sangria-inspired alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages with freshly squeezed juice.
  • Add vodka, rum, tequila, or whisky to your preexisting cold press juice recipes.
  • Pre-juice lemon and lime juice to infuse with ginger, turmeric, and other spices.
  • Draw inspiration from online cocktail recipes that utilize freshly squeezed juice.

Find the perfect juicer for your cocktails

Zumex offers a range of commercial juicing machines perfect for pre-juicing your cocktail juice or juicing to order. This includes our sleek and quiet multi-fruit countertop juicer. It’s one of our many options for creating a unique food experience that includes freshly squeezed juice.

For further information on how Zumex can drive your business success, we encourage you to use our ROI calculator. Experience firsthand how adding a juicer can elevate your annual profits.

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