Spring Into New Ideas!
Reiko Piekarski, Director of Coffee Programs | Fortuna Enterprises, LLC
Katherine Segposyan, Product Specialist | Fortuna Enterprises, LLC
Spring is a time for renewal and growth. With this in mind, some exciting new ideas can blossom and breathe life into many things, including cafe menu offerings. Plenty of opportunities exist to use the various aromas and flavors associated with the season to prepare exciting, satisfying beverages that your customers will love!
Spruce Up the Menu
Take a moment to look over the current menu. Focus on promoting the options which do not get as much attention through education and marketing. The common denominator with drinks that are not as frequently ordered is the unfamiliarity of the option. This may involve rearranging the menu and making some changes in how the drinks are presented. Use the popular favorites to develop a remix of those staples. This is a great time to explore and experiment with floral and fruity flavors to create not just coffee-forward drinks but tea as well.
Spring New Ideas
Building a new signature drink for a seasonal menu should not be a daunting task. Use the basic menu favorites and reference cocktail and bartending resources to draw inspiration for unique concoctions. Keep the ingredients list si mple. Over-complicating with different components makes it a challenge to maintain consistency in preparation and can muddle all the flavors. This is also a good opportunity to bend the rules a little and have room for experimentation. For instance, incorporating floral flavor syrups into milk and steaming can enhance the aromatics in a simple cappuccino or latte. Beware of adding certain fruit syrups for steaming as the acidity may cause the milk to curdle. One can find flavor combination inspiration everywhere. This is the part where creative freedom can reign.
Balance the Ingredients
A very important consideration to keep in mind when building these drink concepts is to understand how the components will interact with each other. Some ingredients work well together creating a synergy with the base ingredient, while others may not be as successful. Just like assessing the quality of a coffee, we want to zero in on the key flavor contributions: brightness, sweetness, bitterness, and texture. This applies to whatever base component is chosen whether that be coffee, espresso, tea, or otherwise. When selecting ingredients to combine with the base, be sure to choose ones that complement and harmonize. The interaction of these elements will determine the success of the creation. If you are unsure about what works, take the time to familiarize yourself with different flavors. Successful application of an ingredient is founded on familiarity with the product. Experiment and record every measurement of ingredients in order to replicate the recipe consistently. Most importantly, taste the final product and receive feedback from friends and staff. Remember to keep the component list short and not have a complicated beverage build, as this will make it easier to train staff and manage inventory.
Flash Chill Pour Over Method
Spring weather can be variable with the cold lingering in the morning air but quickly warming up by midday. With the swinging changes in temperature, it can be a challenge to figure out how many cold beverage offerings to have available. Cold-brew is great, but limited in availability, especially when production is cut back during the winter months. A great transitional and versatile offering to consider is a flash chill pour-over. This is essentially a modified method of the traditional pour-over. The coffee is still being brewed with hot water but then chills as it drips down onto the ice in the carafe. The main difference here is the amount of hot water being used is divided by the ice, which will melt and dilute the concentrated brew. This is great especially if there is already a pour-over coffee program at play in the shop. See below for the full recipe and step-by-step directions.
CONCLUSION
Spring is the perfect time to practice “out with the old, in with the new.” While seasonal drinks may make you think of pumpkin spice lattes and peppermint mochas, there’s truly nothing like a refreshing tea or coffee on a lovely spring day. And if you’re stuck when it comes to ideas on how to achieve that for your customers, no worries! Below are some tried-and-true recipes to get you started, and a member of the Fortuna team is always just a phone call away.
Recipes
Tea Concentrate
1:6 loose tea to water ratio
4 oz (112g) loose tea
24 oz (672g) hot water
Steep for 6 minutes.
Strain and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. This will keep the tea from clouding.
You can use a 1:10 tea concentrate to water for iced tea batches.
Strawberry Rose White Chocolate Mocha
12oz cup
Double shot espresso
1 oz Hollander White Chocolate sauce
8oz cold milk
3/4 oz Monin Strawberry Rose syrup
Add chocolate sauce into cup.
Prep espresso shot and stir into white chocolate.
Add Strawberry Rose syrup into milk and steam together.
Pour steamed milk into the espresso and chocolate mix.
Serve and enjoy!
Ginger Mocha
12oz cup
1 oz Dark Chocolate sauce
¾ oz Ginger syrup
Double shot espresso
Add chocolate sauce and ginger syrup into the cup
Prep espresso shot and stir into the chocolate ginger mixture.
Steam milk and pour into the mix.
Serve and enjoy!
Matcha Ginger and Lemon Latte
12 oz cup
1 teaspoon Matcha Powder
3 oz Hot water
½ oz Ginger syrup
½ oz Lemon syrup
7 oz Milk
Combine syrups into the cup.
Whisk matcha powder with hot water, and syrups till nice and frothy.
Steam milk and pour over matcha mixture.
Serve and enjoy!
Option variation is Lemongrass syrup instead of Lemon.
Lavender London Fog
½ oz Lavender syrup
½ oz Vanilla syrup
2 oz Earl Grey tea concentrate
7 oz milk
Stir tea concentrate with the flavor syrups.
Steam milk, pour over the mixture, and serve.
Other flavor combinations to consider:
Rose syrup mocha
Green tea and orchid syrup
Blackberry and elderflower syrup with white chocolate sauce
Resources
Fortuna Enterprises - 20 Years of Seed to Success!
Established in 2000, Fortuna Enterprises is the consummate leader in providing complete and comprehensive solutions for all of your coffee shop needs. Located in Greensboro, NC, Fortuna excels in unparalleled customer service by offering specialty roasted small-batch coffee, a fully stocked warehouse, imports, design, equipment repair, consulting, barista training, and more!
We are compelled to be the unsurpassed authority for all coffee shop requirements. We use this drive to continue our extensive research in carefully selecting only the highest quality coffees, equipment, syrups and other coffee shop necessities. Our products have a proven record of premium industry performance and unmatched reliability. We buy large quantities from our suppliers so we are in turn able to negotiate extremely competitive pricing for our customers.
We look forward to hearing from you about how we can take you from concept to completion!
