Halloween is becoming scarily popular, with an estimated UK consumer spend of £420m in 2018[1]. As the nation continues its love affair Halloween, 2019 celebrations are set to be bigger and better than ever before. So the odd ghoulish decoration behind the bar and Thriller on repeat will no longer inspire the increasingly expectant consumer.

Lee Hyde, beverage innovation manager at Monin UK, shares his top five tips and favourite spooky recipes to help create a point of difference:

  1. The Drinks Offer – Adding a few Halloween concept drinks such as a Creepy Crawly Frappé, a Poison Apple Cocktail or a Deadly Daiquiri to your existing menu will help demonstrate a point of difference. Incorporate flavours already available on the back bar to minimize wastage, but remember Monin Pumpkin Spice syrup, Monin Grenadine syrup and Monin Blackcurrant syrup are great flavours to carry through the Halloween theme.
  2. Have some fun – Consumers are becoming increasingly more curious when it comes to drink flavours and formats. Look to offer a ‘Trick or Treat’ menu. Give consumers the choice between the two options. Of course, the ‘Trick’ beverage still needs to be enjoyable, but perhaps it combines more unusual flavour combinations or even edible insects.
  3. All about the garnish – Halloween is a relatively small promotional window so getting the theatre and visual appeal right is essential to capitalising on this particular celebration.  All Hallows Eve is a great opportunity to really make your drink visuals pop!  Dry ice can be used to create mist, perhaps paired with the witch’s cauldron style drink.  Edible sweets in the shape of bugs or eyeballs or brains can help to enhance the consumer experience, while Le Fruit de Monin Raspberry can help to replicate blood.    For example our Spooky Caspa-cino was made by dropping a few iced ghosts onto a vanilla cappuccino. All these ideas can really boost your sales during this narrow promotional window.
  4. What’s in a name? – Spooky beverages are a great sales driver at Halloween and can be simply made by adding Halloween inspired names to your standard offer.  Consider overloading a hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate curls and calling it Death by Hot Chocolate.
  5. Think beyond the menu – Consumers are now looking for a fully immersive experience, which starts from the moment they walk through the door. Many consumers enjoy being ‘scared’ so good decoration is essential, and if space allows, consider recruiting some actors to help bring the experience to life. This doesn’t have to be costly if you start with drama students at your local college for example.

Haunting Halloween Serves:

Creepy Crawly Frappé
30 ml Monin Chocolate Cookie syrup
1 scoop Le Frappé de Monin Vanilla
120ml milk
1 cup of ice

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend for 20 seconds. Pour into your cup and garnish with a selection of creepy crawly themed toppings.

Spooky Caspa-cino
15 ml Monin Vanilla syrup (or any other flavour)
Double Espresso
180ml milk

Add the vanilla syrup and double espresso to the cup and steam your milk until frothy. Pour frothed milk into the cup, garnish with ghoulish ghost toppings

Don’t Feed the Zombies
30ml Monin Blood Orange syrup
1 scoop Le Frappé de Monin Vanilla
120ml milk
1 cup of ice

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend for 20 seconds. Pour into your cup and garnish with a selection of zombie themed toppings.

Death by Hot Chocolate
15 ml Monin Chocolate Cookie syrup (or any other flavour)
hot chocolate powder
240ml milk

Prepare the hot chocolate and add in the chocolate cookie syrup. Top with whipped cream and a large heaping of chocolate.

The Poison Apple Cocktail
20ml Monin Apple Pie Syrup
50ml gin
20ml lemon juice
25ml apple juice
0.5 grams charcoal powder

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass or goblet. Garnish with an apple slice.

For more information on MONIN products please visit www.MONIN.com