Bars, Clubs, Taverns

Cocktails After COVID

are so many great Kiwi-made options, and with the popularity of this beverage blowing up on social media, providing these new, cool brands will be a draw card for your establishment. If your clientele isn’t the Instagram type, there are also tried and trusted Kiwi brands making hard seltzers, even Tui jumped on the band wagon, yeah right!

Get Creative

Despite the hospitality industry experiencing increasing revenue growth between 2015-2019, last year has seen these gains wiped out. The last 12 months have changed consumer’s drinking habits and had a big influence on how and what Kiwis will be drinking over the months ahead.

Let’s take a look at the biggest beverage and bar trends for 2021.

Drinking Clean

way alcohol is extracted from perfume.

There is also an increased focus on hygiene among bar-goers, regular cleaning schedules and higher levels of staff training will keep your customers’ confidence and trust. Providing hand sanitizer for customers to use won’t kill the mood – it’s become such a part of the new normal that people will come to expect it.

Convenience and The Evolution of the RTD

As a result of not being able to go to bars for months on end, we have been forced to become more creative in our drinking at home. This creative mindset is set to continue into 2021, as, more so than ever, people are coming to your establishment for an experience and to try something unique and out-of-the-ordinary.

You can use social media to show off your bar’s unique cocktail creations, you can even have competitions between your team members to see whose creations get the most traction. Create a signature drink that represents the vibe of your establishment, pair it with the perfect bar snack for even more revenue.

Travelling through Taste

Health and wellness remain top of mind as consumers want to stay healthy and avoid getting sick. 2020 cemented the no-to-low-alcohol category as a mainstay in consumers’ drinking repertoires, with COVID-19 prompting key changes in consumer attitudes.

Google searches for ‘mocktail’ increased by 42% in 2020 and since the pandemic began, non-alcoholic beverages have reported a 400% increase in retail sales. Where no-to-low-alcohol offerings were once almost stigmatised, the category has now become aspirational, with consumers increasingly willing to pay a premium for no-to-low-alcohol products.

Make sure that you regularly update your nonalcoholic menu choices with creative and delicious mocktails and keep an eye out for local producers of low-alcohol beer and wine to add to your inventory.

Most large beer brands, such as Export Gold and Steinlager offer 0% alcohol options, and low-alcohol wines are becoming more available. Last year, Kiwi wine company Giesen introduced the world’s first 0% Sauvignon Blanc, using a process similar to the

The ready-to-drink (RTD) which includes hard seltzers, flavoured alcohol beverages, and pre-mixed cocktails, is under rapid transformation across leading markets, with volume growth out-pacing that of other beverage alcohol categories globally.

It’s clear that hard seltzers or seltzer-like products are growing in popularity as consumers look for sessionable, lower-ABV options. Although they have been primarily available in supermarkets, 2021 will see the inclusion of these drinks in bars and restaurants to attract new customers and satisfy hard seltzer converts.

Take a look at your client base and see what sort of hard seltzers you should incorporate into your menu or even consider getting on tap. Pride yourself on your local brews? Investigate to see if there is a local hard-seltzer producer near you.

If you thought the craft beer market was big, wait until you see how many new hard seltzer brands have popped up over the last year. There

With the pandemic putting a kybosh on any international travel for the foreseeable future, consumers are looking for ways to travel to exotic places without leaving their neighbourhood.

Supporting local is essential, but along with Kiwi favourites try adding some international flair to your offerings. We know all about rum from Cuba, gin from England, and red wine from Bordeaux but what about white wine from Croatia or the Canary Islands? Rum from Vietnam? Customers may not be able to travel, but they still want to be inspired by flavours from favourite holiday destinations.

Telling a story about the history and location of an international liquor can create buzz, you can even try themed nights to bring in customers who are desperate to do something different.

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continued from page 20 Lapping up Luxury

Consumers want to treat themselves in 2021 after a hellish 2020. Think about starting, or improving, your premium offering as your clientele might not be coming in as often as before for a while, but research indicates they will be happy to spend money for a product that they deem to be worth it.

Quality over quantity is the common theme for 2021. Time spent in quarantine has developed consumers’ awareness and education around brand and product types. This has a far-reaching impact on the industry because educated consumers expect the best and are willing to pay for premium spirits and ingredients.

Bars can take advantage of this shift by offering a smaller cocktail list that features local, sustainable, or top-shelf spirits. Premium bar ingredients like homemade bitters and infused simple syrups can elevate the cocktail experience even more.

This shift also puts a spotlight on serve quality, so ensuring that all equipment behind the bar is well maintained and spotlessly clean is a good start. Fewer customers are coming into your establishment for a simple, quick drink, more and more they want a full experience, from the interior design and music to the products and customer service.

Staying Social

Social media is the gathering place where many go to feel like they are connected. With the present challenges imposed by the pandemic, an increased social media presence provides a way bar owners can connect with their customer base.

Maintaining a social media presence goes beyond just making regular Instagram updates. Weekly video tutorials that put the mixologist front and centre help to keep customers loyal to their favourite bar. Videos can be posted for free or offered as a subscription service to increase revenue.

During lockdown periods in 2020, many bars and alcohol producers offered digital gatherings such as “happy hours” and tasting sessions. Despite things being more open (for now), continuing this digital presence will be essential for the ‘just in case’, and for maintaining customer loyalty.

In 2021, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been for bar owners. The bar industry trends that are shaping the future bar scene are being adopted out of necessity. Diversifying revenue streams and providing safe, convenient methods of serving will continue to dominate bar culture for the foreseeable future.

D.I.Y Bar Ingredients

One way to personalise the cocktails on your menu is to add a dash of homemade ingredients. Making your own bar ingredients can put a signature spin on a classic cocktail and become a talking point among patrons, it will also save you money in the long run.

Common bar ingredients include bitters, simple syrup, grenadine, and maraschino cherries and each of these you can make yourself.

To get started, here’s how to make one of the most popular bar ingredients: Bitters.

To help direct what kind of herbs and spices you should use to craft your bitters, first consider what kind of drinks you would like to add them to. If the end flavour is going to be fruity and fun, use vodka as your base alcohol with a combination (or all) of a fruit peel, chamomile, lavender, or lemongrass. If you would like to use bitters in a darker, more savoury drink, use whiskey as your base alcohol along with herbs and spices like sage, thyme, allspice, and cloves.

Ingredients and Equipment:

• Two large glass jars • Numerous small jars with lids • A high-proof spirit (at least 100 proof or 50%

ABV) • Cheesecloth • A small funnel • Herbs, spices, roots, and other flavourings of your choice • Measuring spoons • Bitters bottles • Sweetener (only if needed) • Distilled water (only if needed)

How to Steep and Infuse Bitters

Now that you have chosen what base alcohol, herbs, spices, roots, and other flavourings you would like to use for your homemade bitters, you will want to infuse or steep the mixture. As a common rule of thumb, use ½ a cup of alcohol for every teaspoon of herbs, spices, or roots that you want to infuse. Once combined, the entire infusion process will take about 2 weeks (give or take depending on your ingredients) to come to completion.

Preparation:

Gather all spices, herbs, and flavourings you would like to use in your bitters. If you are looking to make multiple kinds of bitters that use a few of the same ingredients, it will be best to separate them into small jars during infusion and then later combine them in the dropper bottles. If not, you can infuse all ingredients together.

Next, pour your choice of alcohol into the jars and tightly secure the lids.

Label all jars with the date and the contents within.

Remember to shake your mixtures daily to distribute the flavours throughout the liquid. Test your mixtures every few days to see if they have reached maximum infusion. The mixture is ready when it smells just like the main ingredient(s).

Strain the contents of the jars through a cheesecloth and into a clean jar or jars (if separated).

Using your small funnel, pour your mixture into the storage bottle that has the eye dropper. If you separated your ingredients, choose which tinctures you would like to combine and pour them into the storage bottle.

If you taste your bitters and think they are too strong, you can add a sweetener or use distilled water to soften the taste.

Many bitters are made to be strong and only need to be added to drinks a few drops at a time to achieve a prominent taste. Have fun experimenting with many kinds of herbs to develop a perfect concoction and enjoy crafting drinks around the flavours you create.

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barsclubstaverns Events Become Experiences

One of the positive trends to look forward to this year is the rise of real-life events. While it’s important to keep up a digital presence, people are excited to be able to get off Zoom, get out of the house and meet face to face.

This is a great opportunity to create events that become true experiences for customers, whether they be large, one-off affairs or regular, weekly events. Create an Instagram-worthy themed night to bring in the crowds and get the customers to share their experience on social media – give your establishment wider exposure.

You can draw people in and increase revenue with food-match evenings, trend talks, tastings, community events, and midweek deals.

People are aching for connection so why not try meet-up events or even speed dating? And then, of course, there’s the classic:

Quiz Night

The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s by Burns and Porter to get people into pubs on traditionally quieter nights, and quickly became part of British culture. The Great British Pub Quiz challenge is an annual event to this day. Although different pub quizzes can cover a range of formats and topics, they have many features in common.

While specific formats vary, most pub quizzes depend on answers being written in response to questions which may themselves be written or announced by a quizmaster.

Generally, someone (either one of the bar staff or the person running the quiz) will come around with pens and quiz papers, which may contain questions or may just be blank sheets for writing the answers on. A mixture of both is common, in which case often only the blank sheet is to be handed in. Traditionally a member of the team hands the answers in for adjudication to the quiz master or to the next team along for marking when the answers are called.

The questions may be set by the bar staff or landlord, taken from a quiz book, bought from a specialist trivia company, or be set by volunteers from amongst the contestants.

Pub quizzes are relatively easy to set up and there are companies that can help.

The Kiwi Pub Quiz Company wanted to make setting up and running a weekly quiz easy and affordable for any venue wanting to fill a quiet night. Its quiz writers are people living in New Zealand with over ten years’ experience writing interesting and entertaining questions for Kiwis. At The Kiwi Pub Quiz Company establishments can find well thought-out, professionally presented pub quiz pack.

Believe It Or Not Quiz Events was established in 1988 in Auckland and are New Zealand’s largest provider of trivia, quiz questions, weekly pub quizzes and quiz nights for the corporate sector. Believe It or Not weekly quiz nights are run at over 300 pubs, bars, and clubs nationwide with some drawing in as many as 200 people.

Free Pub Quiz is a website that loves quizzing and writing quality quiz questions that challenge, entertain, and inspire. While based in the UK the website offers a page of specifically New Zealand based trivia questions. It’s a great source for free quiz PDFs to download with interesting questions from and about the globe.

Give quiz night a go and ace the art of filling your bar, club or tavern with happy patrons.

People Want to Share Again

Having spent a large part of last year separated from friends and family, people are ready and wanting to get together. Whether it’s the office crew heading in for after work drinks, a family function, or a catch up with friends, many diners want to share food among a group.

The platter is perfect when you are providing dining options for groups both large and small. Delicious platters and finger foods are not only time saving for your kitchen staff, they can also yield large profits.

Items on a snack menu can be re-imagined and elevated with the right plating creating food envy within other patrons.

Street-food style snacks are particularly on trend, mini samosas, curry puffs and other fried goodies always go down well. These items also fit nicely into a flexitarian diet as vegetarian options are made easy.

Fish is always popular with Kiwis and can be used in several different ways, from the delicious simplicity of a snack size piece of fried fish to the more exotic flavours of an Asian inspired crab-cake. Fish is also a great filler for mini empanadas, and you can’t go past the all-ages appeal of a fantastic fish finger or squid ring.

Potatoes, everyone’s favourite vegetable. It’s so versatile, even the classic chip can be offered in a variety of styles, chunky hand-cut, shoestring, wedges, or take inspiration from America with a curly fry. And don’t forget about potatoes’ sweeter cousin, kumara, another Kiwi favourite, choose the orange variety to add some colour to the plate.

Speaking of colour, a unique dip can really lift a platter. Good old tomato sauce and aioli go down well but offering more interesting options can create a memorable dining experience and can keep customers coming back for more. Dips are also a great way to get more out of ingredients that are already on the menu. Take a sauce from a dinner item and turn it into a one-of-kind dip, could that cheesy sauce you already use on a main become the chip dip everyone’s talking about?

A perfect platter is a pub’s best friend so get creative with the classics and get your customers reaching for more.