8 ways to drive hot beverage sales

Festive tepee

In the Leeds suburb of Chapel Allerton, a cosy outside environment is being created by the team at Marston’s lease the Mustard Pot to attract and cater for seasonal footfall with plenty of warming drinks.

“Our large festive teepee is being supplied by York-based company, PapaKåta, which models its tents on those used by the Sámi people of Lapland,” explains deputy manager Ben Stickland.

“We’ll use it as an alternative area for private hire or separate it into different areas to accommodate smaller groups. It will be used to serve mulled wine, winter warmers and hot toddies. We hope to drive up bookings throughout the season – not just in Christmas week.”

Free treats

Sweet seasonal treats helped to push up wet sales by about 25% across three evenings in September when the Adam & Eve in Mill Hill and the Prince Albert in Camden, north London, ran their third consecutive annual Festive Fair. Staff distributed trays of sweet and savoury nibbles, such as our home-made stuffing and Christmas pud at regular intervals across the three evenings, attracting about 500 customers in the period for the two successful pubs.

Group director Gareth Leakey says: “People like to be reminded of the nostalgic flavours of traditional cake and biscuits, as well as savoury seasonal nibbles. They sometimes forget how much they enjoy matching them with warming drinks such as mulled wine, cider and more unusual flavours until the winter gloom arrives. So tempting them in around September is a key way to make sure they remember us as a venue of choice for Christmas bookings, and a warming place to bring friends and family in chilly weather.

"By putting in some innovative effort earlier than people tend to expect, you can significantly increase both food and drink sales across the winter months and raise your profile by providing key talking-points. Free treats from the bar always go down well and staff enjoy the morale-boost of getting great feedback from their cheery customers. Make sure you maximise sales by letting all your database customers know in advance that there will be free seasonal treats in store.”

Chocoholics' paradise​

A chocolate-making workshop in the cellar of Glen Duckett’s Thwaites lease Eagle & Child in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, ensures that customers at the pub and pop-up market stalls are never short of the sweet stuff.

Leading the way is Eve Townson, who is Duckett’s executive chef and co-owner of Be Chocolate with her husband Bryan. Chocolate stirrers (£1.50 each) to make hot chocolate were popular at Manchester’s recent Food and Drink Festival, promoting the pub’s culinary reputation with 300 delicious and affordable stocking-fillers.

Eagle & Child guests are offered hand-made chocolates (£2.50 each) with post-dinner coffee, maximising upselling opportunities. “The pub’s cellar temperature is always controlled, giving us a perfect environment for chocolatemaking all year round,” explains Townson.

Warm as toast​

“The main winter warmer that brings us trade in the colder months is our roaring open fire,” explains Cheryl Hickman, co-owner of the Bull Inn, in Barton Mills, Suffolk. “Guests expect it to be lit and to add even more interest and good memories to their visit we often use the fire to toast marshmallows and home-made bread.

"We also promote our hot chocolate with Amaretto & whipped cream (£6) along with our chef’s secret recipe for Suffolk Aspall mulled cider, which sells well in half-pints (£3.50). The smell of the cider is simply irresistible and sells itself — it’s something that most guests can’t or don’t make at home, so they come in for our unique offer and very often eat while they’re here. Last winter we sold about five litres daily.

"Its 73% GP makes it a valuable business-builder.”

Green tea cocktail​

Nigel Sutcliffe, founder of restaurant consultancy Truffle Hunting, ensures that his award-winning Enterprise lease in Hammersmith, west London, is ready for the festive season with eye-catching drinks and décor.

“We dress up the Princess Victoria with dried flowers, light the fires and change our food and drink lists accordingly,” he says.

“Top of our list are those winter stews and comfort foods, winter ales and stouts, robust red wines, plus warm cocktails such as mulled cider and last year’s popular favourite, calvados tea (£8). It’s quite simple: we add 50ml of calvados to 150ml of good quality green tea – we use Sherstons Organic Gold Dragon, followed by canalay of lime with a squeeze of juice and one clove, then stir it with a cinnamon stick.

Obviously you can make it as sweet or tannic as you like; it has a wonderful aroma and is a great match for pork scratchings. When winter sets in we can sell a dozen a day. Margins are generally good on tea, even though a cup of tea costs us about 90p, as we don’t use a builders’ brand.”

Interactive fun​

New Moon Pub Co’s interactive hot chocolate has added to its six pubs’ reputation for pure indulgence, says chef-owner David Mooney.

“At £2.75 our special drink has become a hit all year round and become a guilty pleasure for many new and regular faces across our growing pub group in Cheshire, Manchester and the Wirral. The combination of frothy milk with lashings of chocolate shavings, plus a chocolate stirrer to mix it all up, helps engage customers and keep them coming back. We know that they particularly enjoy adjusting it to the strength they like.

"Their feeling of involvement is good for our profile and on a chilly winter day, we can sell at least 100 cups.”

Winter kit

A wide selection of recipes, ingredients and Suki teas to brighten seasonal menus is available in the winter edition of Matthew Algie’s Espresso Warehouse catalogue. Espresso Warehouse supplies ‘everything but the coffee’ to operators and distributors across Europe, from tea and hot chocolate to snacks and coffee-bar kit.

Nutty caramel latte is just one of many simple but effective recipes on offer, using double espresso, DaVinci Hazelnut and Caramel Syrups, flat latte milk, whipped cream and Chocolate Abyss Caramel Drizzle Sauce.

The company’s caffeine-free Apple Loves Mint Suki Tea won three gold stars and was listed in the Top 50 Foods at this year’s Great Taste Awards. Its flavour, likened to a bag of sweets, has a hint of rose blossom, mixed with apple and papaya, and a mint finish.

Tempting hot milk

Beside a blazing log fire, customers can enjoy hot Scotch milk at Leeds six-pub group Northbar — where an outstanding drinks selection won the company a Publican Award last year for Best Drinks Offer.

Inspired by the much more traditional hot toddy, the comforting drink (£3.50), made with whisky, vanilla, brown sugar and hot milk, has a sprinkling of chocolate dust and achieves a 70% GP, selling about 10 weekly at each of the venues across the group.

Mulled cider and warm mojitos also go down well in the West Yorkshire winter. “It’s fairly easy to attract footfall, push up spirits, cider and wine sales and raise your GP with eye-catching, unusual drinks right through the festive season, as long as they’re prepared with care and deliver imaginative, nostalgic flavours,” says director Christian Townsley.