Thirsty for… unusual fl avours

Thirsty for...

Make time for tea, don’t forget to off er vegan milk and off er an unusual fl avoured wine

The tea rainbow Moo-less milk

Black, green or red tea might be familiar, but white, yellow and blue teas are starting to gain popularity too.

With 100 million cups of tea being drunk in the UK every day, according to the UK Tea & Infusions Association, make sure you have a wide range of teas to suit all tastes.

Blue tea (butterfly pea flower tea) is a caffeine-free herbal tea made from the flower petals or powder. It’s a striking blue and can be used to create distinctive non-alcoholic cocktails too.

White and yellow teas derive from green teas and are fragrant, slightly fermented, and low in caffeine.

As mentioned in the last issue of Bar & Kitchen Trends, cafes are seeing customers ask for low-caffeine hot drinks in the late afternoon and onwards, so these are perfect to promote towards the end of the day. Adding a splash of milk to your customers’ tea or coffee has never been so complicated. Due to allergies and personal choice, consumers are looking for more sustainable and healthier ways to have dairy.

One of the latest versions of the

NEED TO know!

MILK ALLERGIES VS

LACTOSE INTOLERANCES

Lactose intolerance is a relatively common digestive problem where the body does not produce the lactase enzyme and so it cannot digest lactose sugar found in milk, which leads to stomach ache or discomfort. A milk or dairy allergy is a severe immune response to milk proteins, which can lead to a rash, swelling lips or difficulty breathing. Animal-free milk is lactose-free. However it’s not safe for milk allergies. Similarly, be aware of nut allergies which will make some plant-based milks, such as almond or cashew milk, unsafe for those customers. white stuff includes ‘animal-free’ milk, which is different to plantbased milk. Made using precision fermentation to mimic milk protein (without needing to farm cows), animal-free milk is lactose-free yet contains milk’s essential amino acids and calcium. Mars has already released a Co2coa chocolate bar using Perfect Day’s animal-free milk.

Sales of plant-based milk are still on the rise too, with the Vegan Society predicting that the market for almond milk will grow 16.6% between 2020 and 2025.

Bourbon-Aged wines

Wine producers are now ageing their red wine in bourbon barrels. Crossover products aren’t new, as whisky and beer producers have long aged their products in wine barrels, but the wine industry has been slow to follow suit.

Only 26% of 18- to 34-yearolds are regular wine drinkers (Wine Intelligence, Oct 2021) so innovations like this are key to keep younger customers interested, especially with bourbon’s on-trend associations with cocktails.

Bob Blue, based in the US and maker of 1000 Stories, available from Concha y Toro, says: “We see this wine bringing in customers who weren’t previously interested in wine but have an affinity for spirits.”