Drinks tend to be an inexpensive, highly profitable and operationally straightforward way to create news about your menu, which is probably why the past two months have seen an explosion of new drinks on menus, from smoothies to shakes to soft drinks to cocktails, and also new low-carb wine at True Food Kitchen.
Beverages also can contribute to incremental sales, and of course any upgrade from tap water is a win for restaurant operators.
Lots of the current offerings are seasonal, like the watermelon drinks from Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant, Charleys Philly Steaks, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Clean Juice, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Halal Guys, Jamba, Juice it Up!, Main Squeeze Juice Co., Nekter Juice Bar, Red Mango, Robeks, Sonic Drive-In, Taco Cabana, Tropical Smoothie Café and Ziggi’s Coffee.
There are also a bunch of new berry drinks on offer, including beverages from, Black Bear Diner, Corner Bakery, Gott’s Roadside, The Human Bean, On the Border, Peet’s Coffee (although the big news there is the new brown sugar jelly), Pretzelmaker, Snooze, Wendy’s and Taco Bell.
Taco Bell’s new Brisk Dragon Paradise Sparkling Iced Tea also has trendy dragon fruit, an ingredient also listed at drinks from Auntie Anne’s, The Human Bean, Piada Italian Street Food and Ziggy’s Coffee.
Chick-fil-A and Mooyah both have peach milkshakes, and Tous uses peach syrup in its new cold brew tonic.
There are other new shakes at The Counter, Epic Burger, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Gott’s Roadside, IHOP, Lion’s Choice and Main Event. Smashburger and Shake Shack both have non-dairy shakes.
Cold brew coffee is also in new drinks from Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, IHOP, Potbelly, Tacodeli and Tim Hortons.
What about Starbucks? That chain has a new pineapple-and-passion fruit refresher, with or without coconut milk.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, has the first new McFlurry of the year. It’s made with chocolate-covered pretzels.
There are new alcoholic options at Dave & Buster’s, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Mellow Mushroom, O’Charley’s, On the Border, Rutter’s, Snooze, Studio Movie Grill and Sunny Street Café.
Joe & the Juice sells matcha lattes now, Fosters Freeze and Scooter’s Coffee have new drinks made with Red Bull, and PJ’s Coffee has new coconut drinks and Arnold Palmers.