Plant based in café is here to stay If you own a café and don’t have plant-based o p t i o n s , i t ’s t i m e t o r e c o n s i d e r y o u r b u s i n e s s m o d e l a s 30% of café patrons are making this choice.
Article by Sean Edwards Plant Based Consultant Today’s customers are far more likely to pick a plant based option for their regular café visit, not because they are on a vegan or a vegetarian diet, it’s now about a lifestyle choice. Green and clean has been thrown around loosely for years, but now global trends are seeing more people mixing their food and beverage choice on a weekly basis. Plant based milk in café coffee service is now around 30% of all drinks sold and almond milk has outgrown soy. Oat milk is hot on almond milks tail and will probably be the next new kid on the block. The stigma of having an unusual diet has gone out the window, mainly due to covid lockdown conditions where more people prepared meals at home and discovered new healthier and tasty diets to overcome the Netflix belly. Plant based options were a good choice as people realised that they
18.
CAFE CULTURE MAGAZINE
could replace meats and bread-based foods with fruit and vegetables without putting on too much extra weight. Exercise was limited in some cities, so diet was a way out of countering the lack of movement in one’s day. There has been a lot of recent studies around switching to a plant based diet to reduce disease, and the constant bombardment of covid figures made many of us think deeply about our lifestyles. Now that we are emerging from home lockups and starting to revisit hospitality venues, we will be asking aloud what our plant based options are? These options don’t have to be too radical, they can be as simple as having more choices in salads, or hot options can be vegetable soups or a veg lasagna. The possibilities are endless for plant base choices in café and most of the largest food service businesses globally are getting involved in development and launching café-ready products.
