As we reach the height of the summer season, it’s time to cool customers down with a refreshing non-alcoholic drink. Soft drinks should cater for all occasions and demographics and are not necessarily limited to pre-made bottled brands. From fantastic recipes for homemade lemonade, a caffeine kick with cold-brew coffee or a low sugar drink for kids, the soft drinks market is bursting with fresh ideas. If you are looking to add a new health drink to your menu or liven up mocktails with world flavours, our panel of experts did us proud this month, delivering advice and insight to inspire operators across the industry.
Judy Joo, Celebrity Chef & Founder, Seoul Bird
“Our Homemade Korean Ice Teas are refreshing, thirst quenching, uniquely flavoured. They are full of revitalising vitamins and antioxidants too. At Seoul Bird, we offer Yuzu Green Tea, which has a lemony honey sweet, slightly sour flavour derived from Yuzu, a citrus fruit known as Yuja in Korea. Bursting with Vitamin C, Korean’s drink Yuja juice regularly to strengthen their immune systems.
Our best seller, Mixed Berry and Lychee Green Tea needs no explanation as to why it’s so popular! This crowd pleaser not only tastes absolutely amazing, but also packs the endless health benefits associated with green tea and berries. Our ice teas are refreshing and full of flavour; they are the ultimate Korean mocktail. If you feel like stiffening it up slightly, then add a shot or two of Soju!”
Gina Barbachano, Bar Manager, Hanky Panky
“We don’t have a mocktail menu per se, but we love to interact with our guests and create drinks in the moment. We ask what they like and we make something delicious using our imagination. It’s a great way of making a connection as well! Almost all of our ingredients are homemade, we like to make them from scratch so that we can guarantee the flavour and consistency that we want and are famous for. We use a lot of cold brew because at Hanky Panky we don’t have an espresso coffee machine and cold brew is a great option to have for those refreshing and delicious coffee cocktails. We also use cold-brew tea, and actually one of the menu drinks is a cold brew non-alcoholic drink called, Auritum, made with Black Team infusion with coffee peel, topped up with coconut soda.”
Aidan Beaumont, Group Bar Manager, Chaophraya
Our ‘Made in Thailand’ cocktail showcases the exotic and tropical flavours of every corner of Thailand. Incorporating three of the four flavours of Thailand; sweet, sour and spice. Refreshing and moreish, we consider this our signature cocktail. It boasts ginger, pineapple juice, fresh lime juice and is finished with a fiery ginger beer. It comes served in a ceramic bamboo cup with pineapple leaves for garnish. If you’re feeling adventurous, add a non-alcoholic spirit.”
Gabriela Lozada, Bar Manager, Brujas
“This summer we set ourselves the challenge of creating fresh, citrusy flavors by limiting ourselves to using lemon juice or other citrus fruit that is around us. In other words, we are going to exploit ingredients and handle them in such a way that we can highlight the acid notes with sparkling wines and homemade sodas (for very refreshing non alcoholic drinks).
In Brujas we are lovers of mocktails, especially because we open in the afternoon and alcohol is not always a great choice. That’s why we always have herbal infused sodas that we play with by adding seasonal fruits or other ingredients. In my obsession with creating complexity in a non-alcoholic beverage, I began to experiment with edible resins. The weirdest mocktail I’ve ever made was the Mexican Forrest, made using pine resin, citrus ash, agua miel and a bit of mead. The flavor was so complex and unique that it felt like it contained alcohol.”
Anh Pham, Owner, Paeonia
At Paeonia premium bubble tea lounge, we love bringing new, original and exciting flavour sensations to the tastebuds of our customers and we’ve just launched our summer drinks menu. New for SS22 are bespoke and exotic drinks such as dragon fruit tea, whale tea, mango matcha latte and a tropical fruit tea with guava, mango and passion fruit. We’re really excited to see what people think!
We’ve also got several slushies on the menu at Paeonia this season, where we use only the very finest ingredients. Slushies include mango, taro, melon milk, marble matcha and cookies and cream, to mention a few.
