Healthy Cocktails Guide

Healthy beverages are a rising trend

Recent global events may be the reason that people have become much more health conscious, but it shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

Across all elements of their everyday life, consumers are looking for easy ways to live a healthier lifestyle – utilising simple switches to do so.

In addition to people wanting to explore colours and flavours, they are also returning to the idea of introducing certain ingredients to their diet for purely medicinal reasons.

The popularity of this trend has also been amplified by ‘Drinking your greens’ or ‘Green Juice’ trends being advocated by celebrities, influencers and wellness bloggers – a trend we are starting to see more and more of in the hospitality industry.

Adding nutrients to your serves

Fruits

When it comes to appreciating nutritional ingredients and revisiting the ways our ancestors would eat and drink, it’s hard to avoid the use of fruit. After water, fruit juice is surely the oldest from of drink. A naturally flavoured and sweetened water, it refreshes and rejuvenates. People’s love for this balance has been refined over centuries – with the practice leading to the creation of cocktails – with fruit still being the go-to option for adding natural flavours and a sense of wellness.

Vegetables

With consumer flavour profiles changing, there has been a rise in the use of vegetables in drinks – with creators using them to provide a more savoury taste and, alongside that, a more varied set of nutritional benefits. Peppers, cucumber, corn, beetroot and carrots are common to include in serves such as smoothies but veg is now also making an appearance in cocktails too – serves like a carrot and ginger Martini or a Celery Sour, infused with pineapple syrup now appearing on menus around the globe.

Green and clean

Green has been long associated with healthy and aligned with nature, but modern consumers commonly look beyond appearances. In 2020 a study found 69% of people want to consume food and drink that is 100% natural. Putting aside discussions about whether something can be truly 100% natural, these are the types of products that people see as offering taste and nutrition simultaneously. Serves that fit this image can often appear guilt-free in the eyes of your customers.

Tips for creating healthy cocktails

Going beyond the obvious elements of fresh fruit and vegetables, there is a whole world of ingredients to make your healthy serves stand out.

Add ferments

Fermentation opens up a wide range of flavours while also providing an extensive selection of probiotics. With their slightly acidic taste profile, fermented ingredients not only offer a great way to balance out the sweetness of some drinks.

The undoubted star of fermented drinks is Kombucha – accounting for 21% of total fermented drinks across Europe. A recent explosion of flavours include more traditional cocktail ingredients such as Passionfruit and Mandarin or strawberry and peach. To easily create your own range, you could use a base kombucha and add syrups.

Cocktail Infusions

Infusing fruit, herbs, spices and even flowers, is a great way to not only bring a more dynamic flavour blend to serves but also a way to include nutritional benefits such as vitamins and can reduce the calorie and sugar content.

Herbal teas are possibly the most common infusions used in drinks creation. Green Tea Gimlet or Rooibos Old Fashion are simple twists on classic cocktail serves that offer the health benefits of tea and the indulgence of a classic serve.

As with any trend, the most important part of joining is to still create something that tastes great and that fits in your other offerings on the menu.

If you do create some new serves, with our products, we’d love to be tagged in your posts about it, using https://www.instagram.com/mathieu_teisseire/.