Perc up your profits: hot drinks in pubs

This month PubChef focuses on ideas for marketing your hot drinks offer and insights from licensees on what is working for them.

Innsider information​

Where: Royal Albion Hotel, Broadstairs, Kent

Tenure: Shepherd Neame managed house

What's on offer: The 21-bedroom hotel, pub, restaurant and coffee room overlooks the sea. The venue opens between 7am and 11am for breakfasts, pastries and coffee. A more substantial food offer runs from 12noon to 9.30pm at the venue. There is a coffee lounge and bar and restaurant specialising in local seafood, with views across the harbour. The venue employs 45 staff.

The café: The Royal Albion has a popular coffee lounge called Ballard's, named after James Ballard, the Victorian proprietor whose famous guests included Charles Dickens. The venue offers a full range of teas and coffees. It serves Lavazza coffee with a range of options from cappuccino to latte. It also serves a selection of teas, from standard brew to a full range of speciality teas such as camomile with vanilla, peppermint, green tea and decaffeinated. A pot of tea costs £1.65 while coffees are priced at around £1.85. A standard mocha costs £2.70.

The venue also serves a tempting selection of liqueur coffees. Customer service is at the forefront of its offer and it will make a drink to suit customers' tastes. "If we can do it we will do it," said manager Shane Godwin. The most popular drink in Ballards is a large white coffee.

Trends: The hotel serves between 2,500 to 3,000 hot beverages every week at this time of year, with the majority of its coffee-drinking clientele being locals from the town. This provides the hotel with a major advantage as a café full of locals means the venue is busy and, in turn, this drives more people into the business for tea, coffee and food. The number of hotel beverage sales increases in the summer because Broadstairs is on the coast and attracts tourists to the area. The hotel has an outside area with 200 extra covers, which it utilises during the summer months.

Business benefits: According to Godwin, the major benefit is that "it means that we can employ more staff and we are proud that we can do this in the current economic climate".

What's new in hot drinks? — Magic Mozzo Coffee Box​

Coffee supplier Mozzo has launched a Magic Mozzo Coffee Box to protect the quality of its coffee, and reduce packaging.

Grant Lang, founder and Mozzo Coffee Master, says: "Already one of only a handful of coffee suppliers to use aluminium-free coffee bags, we have now found a way to make additional savings, protect the quality of our coffee and further reduce the impact we have on the environment.

"After researching various options we discovered a very durable material — corrugated polypropylene, which is 100% recyclable and much longer-lasting than cardboard. After successful trials, we are now ready to unleash our Magic Mozzo Coffee Box.

"The coffee box is re-usable up to 50 times and, when it reaches the end of its life, it can be recycled and re-made into another box. All the operator has to do once their coffee has been delivered is collapse the box and store it flat, ready for collection at the next delivery."

Lang adds: "We see the Magic Mozzo Coffee Box as a long-term investment for us. It has provided us with another opportunity to shake up the world of packaging."

Monin unveils basil syrup​

French premium syrups company Monin has launched basil syrup, ideal for tea, cocktails and smoothies. The syrup works particularly well with tomato and strawberry flavours. Monin UK brand ambassador James Coston says: "Bartenders can use Monin's basil syrup in numerous drinks, ranging from a Bloody Mary to a strawberry smoothie, and even in teas for a refreshing lift."

Serving ideas include summer basil tea, which blends Monin's basil and apple syrups with Darjeeling tea.

Marketing your hot drinks offer​

David Cooper, founder and managing director of Cooper's Coffee, offers tips on marketing hot beverages offers.

• Firstly, think about what your target customer will want to buy and make sure that you are catering to the right market. The chances are that pub-goers will want a latte over a fancy drink like a mochachino so don't waste your time and money offering drinks like this. A basic menu featuring around six standard espresso-based drinks and at least six teas and infusions is sufficient for most pubs.

• Know your competitors. See what they offer and how much they charge. If appropriate, consider increasing or decreasing your prices, but never overprice or undersell yourself. This is particularly valid for coffee, which is not price sensitive like some may think — people expect to pay £2 for a cappuccino so don't fall into the trap of underpricing.

• It's not just any coffee — think of the M&S adverts when promoting your hot beverages. Tell your customers that you use a local supplier/that it is Fairtrade/award-winning/that your staff are barista trained etc.

• If it is appropriate to your pub, change your offers throughout the course of the day. For example, a value-driven offer in the morning (a regular latte slice of cake for £2.50) and a higher-priced menu in the evenings if you also offer meals.

• Make sure your customers know about your offering. Use a specials blackboard, table talkers and other PoS material to advertise your hot drinks offers. Consider bespoke table menus to help educate your customers about your hot beverage offering and to encourage them to try new drinks that they might not normally have thought about.

• Keep your menu fresh by having a specials board on the wall advertising "coffee/drink of the week/month" with a brief description. This way you can refresh your offering and try out new drinks without confusing the customer with too much choice. Top tip: speciality filter coffees — i.e. individually-brewed cups of single-origin coffees — are very popular right now. The investment is small, but the point of difference that it gives you is significant and it's certainly worth considering adding a range of "brewed coffees" to your menu as this trend will be here for sometime to come.

• Stand out from your competitors. It's a competitive market out there, so adopt an attitude of being the best in terms of drink quality, the brand and products offered, skilled staff training, knowledge and customer care. Little things, like latte art, can increase your sales and guarantee stand-out in a crowded market-place. It's

also a great surprise for your customers and sure to encourage repeat custom.