The Preferred, Healthful Component Guiding Nekter Juice Bar’s Ideal-Marketing LTOs
Mid-way via winter season, numerous dining establishments are looking in advance toward their spring and summer menus. Even though culinary leaders contemplate which flavorful dishes will ideal enchantment to attendees in warmer months, drinks participate in an equally important part in attracting people, notably as buyers go on shifting their concentrate toward well being and nourishment.
“Beverages supply dining places a refreshing way to connect with consumers,” states Tony Pereyra, bar and beverage expert at The Spirits in Motion, a consultancy that helps cafe operators acquire their beverage packages. “Juices and smoothies in certain provide a wholesome halo and enable guests to target on nourishment.”
Though customers have gravitated toward much healthier having for the previous numerous many years, this emphasis has intensified during the pandemic. Final 12 months, Datassential documented that 78 % of shoppers considered food plan experienced a important impact on how very well the physique fights versus sicknesses. In the meantime, 44 p.c stated that much healthier ingesting was an critical way of living transform they manufactured through the pandemic. On the other hand, getting the correct combine of nutrients can be challenging with a active agenda.
“Before Nekter, I was operating all around the location and was not able to get enough fruits and veggies into my diet,” suggests Alexis Schulze, co-founder and chief visionary officer of Nekter Juice Bar. “We started Nekter because we’re all so occupied, and juices and smoothies give a effortless way to consume fruits and vegetables in a way that preferences much better than just consuming a plate of kale, parsley, and spinach.”
As Schulze notes, just because People want to try to eat more healthy doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to sacrifice taste. As an alternative, they switch towards choices featuring ingredients that simultaneously offer you the wellness rewards they want with common flavors they crave. A person these types of ingredient, she suggests, is watermelon.
“Not only does watermelon have many amazing health and fitness added benefits, but it also preferences excellent and reminds folks of summers in their childhoods when they’d take in a wedge of watermelon,” Schulze suggests. “All this will make it an easy market for eating places.”
Watermelon is American Coronary heart Association Heart-Test Certified, and the fruit is normally cholesterol-absolutely free, extra fat-no cost, sodium-totally free, and has only 80 calories for each serving. Also, mainly because a watermelon is 92 per cent h2o, it allows diners keep hydrated. Watermelon also is made up of vitamins and minerals that guidance hearth well being, this sort of as 6 per cent of the proposed DV (each day worth) of magnesium, as effectively as other essential vitamins and minerals, these as 8 percent of the advisable DV of Vitamin A, 6 percent of the advisable DV of Vitamin B6, 25 per cent of the recommended DV of Vitamin C, and 6 % of the advised DV of potassium. The USDA also notes that every 2 cup serving of watermelon consists of 12.7 grams of lycopene for every 2 cup serving, which is higher than any other fresh fruit or vegetable.
Even so, Pereyra says restaurants also see operational advantages from watermelon.
“The dazzling purple shade is appealing to the eye and pops when operators use interesting to-go cups or vessels that highlight the color,” Pereyra says. “It can also be served in numerous apps from non-alcoholic juices, smoothies, and seltzers all the way to mocktails and cocktails. Moreover, it pairs very well with a wide range of flavors, irrespective of whether a brand is searching for a sweet summer months beverage or one particular with a spicy kick that pairs nicely with South American or Mexican flavors.”
Schulze notes that with the suitable coaching, watermelon is an straightforward ingredient for kitchen area staff members to get the job done with. Pereyra agrees, noting that although watermelon can be made use of throughout the menu, it’s significant to educate staff members on how to securely and successfully minimize a watermelon to get the maximum produce.
“Before you begin to break down a watermelon to puree, believe about how you want to garnish your consume and start out with all those cuts, these types of as wedges, diced, planks, balls, or other formats so that any scraps can go proper into the blender,” Pereyra states. “If you make pickles in-residence, have a program for conserving the rind.”
On the other hand, watermelon isn’t just a functional component that tends to make for refreshing beverages—it can also serve as a potent income driver when it is menued and promoted proficiently, Schulze says.
“We characteristic watermelon on our menu in summertime, like our Watermelon Mint Juice and Strawberry Watermelon Smoothie,” she states. “Whenever we do social media posts about our watermelon beverages, they generally get extra opinions than our other LTOs, and our prospects go nuts.”
In simple fact, Nekter described that watermelon juice produced up a whopping 8 per cent of the brand’s full juice profits during the 2020 promotional period, which was an enhance of 4 per cent above the prior year. Likewise, the watermelon smoothie created up 9 percent of the brand’s smoothie product sales all through the identical time period of time, which was up 3 p.c when compared to 2019.
Nekter isn’t alone in offering the well-liked fruit in drinks. In 2019, Datassential revealed a MenuTrends Research report established in partnership with The Watermelon Marketing Board that said watermelon is currently showcased on 3.4 per cent of non-alcoholic beverage menus and has seasoned triple digit advancement above the earlier ten years. Also, a lot more than a third of non-alcoholic watermelon beverages are blended drinks, including smoothies, slushies, and milkshakes.
With a 5.4 per cent penetration charge, watermelon is also the swiftest developing fruit in smoothies. In the meantime, Datassential notes that watermelon is in the 98th percentile for long term menu expansion and expects the fruit to access 16 p.c menu penetration by 2022.
Though watermelon will see even wider use across the marketplace in years to come, it is apparent the well known fruit provides a significant prospect for dining places now.
“Watermelon beverages are hands down our very best-advertising LTOs,” Schulze suggests, “and the fruit is genuinely such a good base for any sort of beverage, irrespective of whether it’s a cocktail or juice or smoothie. You can definitely get innovative with it and make a little something company will like.”
To discover a lot more about how to use watermelon on your beverage menu, visit the Countrywide Watermelon Advertising Board website.
By Peggy Carouthers
