Everleaf Drinks business development manager Andreas Gunduz talked to students at the Club Soda Academy – run by Laura Willoughby OBE late last year – about the importance of displaying sober drinks to customers.
On visiting a pub or bar, people may not order a non-alcoholic drinks for a multitude of reasons such as them not being visible enough on a menu, they may seem too expensive or have no idea about the flavour of the category profile.
Gunduz of Everleaf Drinks, which sells 95% of its non-alcoholic aperitifs in the on-trade, said: “Some of these reasons is where a menu can help a pub or bar sell more non-alcoholic options and availability is a good starting point.
“Before the gin boom, there was only one gin on the menu in a restaurant, for example. Now, there’s 10 or 15 gins even though, interestingly, you don’t often see a full gin list of gin and tonics on a menu anymore.
“Like vegan and vegetarian food, they all started with nothing at all then there was one and now every place has multiple options.
You don’t want to be the only one having something less intriguing just because you don’t have alcohol.
Andreas Gunduz
“When non-alcoholic options are difficult to find a menu, they will usually be stuffed at the back or not on the menu at all, which is a common problem.
“It could be they are listed with the spirits or they may only be available on request.
“There may just be a price for the actual liquid rather than a fully built drink, which is another barrier for the customer to overcome themselves, whether or not they want to ask questions.
“People might not choose non-alcoholic things when they want them and they’re available because they maybe feel a bit belittled by the offering.
“For example, they have typical non-alcoholic cocktails that are just juicy, cheap and sweet.”
He adds operators may think they have non-alcoholic cocktails on the list, so that’s OK but it’s probably not.
If a bar’s non-alcoholic cocktails are priced at £6 and alcoholic cocktails are £14, the price indicates the quality to the guests so there will be a big difference and a customer can see the effort a pub or bar has put into it.
“If you’re going to go for a special occasion, such as the festive period with your colleagues, you don’t want to be the only one having something less intriguing just because you don’t have alcohol.”
This means choice and variety is an absolute staple of on-trade menus nowadays – and brands like Everleaf do not demand exclusivity on menus because they realise the greater the choice, the more people will be drawn to something in the non-alcoholic options.
Gunduz explained Everleaf is an aperitif that has some bitterness with intriguing flavours while Three Spirit offers a very bitter Amaro-style drink and Pentire serves a “coastal, refreshing-style” drink. All of these drinks can be used to create a “fleshed-out, fully considered list that you would also be able to do with five to 10 different types of alcohol”.
He added: “One day, [non-alcoholic spirit producers] will get there with enough variety and enough quality products that when the bar managers are looking to create these lists, they will have an arsenal of things to choose from.”
The golden triangle
Positioning on a menu is very interesting, Gunduz stated and added when non-alcoholic cocktails are added to a menu, it can help sales if they are listed with alcoholic cocktails but not indicated as such.
“It shows they are as considered as the alcoholic ones and the only indication may be that ‘non-alcoholic’ may be listed in a small font or in brackets, which “works really nicely”, he said.
He showed delegates on the Club Soda Academy a range of menus and explained a food menu from the Swan pub in Chiswick, west London, showed the non-alcoholic drinks in the middle of the page, which worked well.
Meanwhile, a different menu limited the potential of non-alcoholic drinks by being placed at back of a big menu and listed alongside teas and coffees.
He added there is a science for menus known as ‘the golden triangle’ whereby people who create menus believe people will look at the centre of menu page then look at boxed out section in the top right then top left of the page – despite reading in the western hemisphere generally going from top left to bottom right.
The next thing to consider are call outs on the menu. This is the next stage after considering where menu items should be placed but then it’s about what will an operator want to highlight.
That can be done in various ways such as with boxouts, a symbol of some kind or a logo or a bolded name, which all work well.
Inclusivity is the most massive thing we talk about when we’re selling these to bar managers.
Andreas Gunduz
Everleaf suggests adding “something sustainable with the drink” on a menu, for example, a little Everleaf leaf next to the drink indicates there could be information about something the business does as a charitable initiative or something for their team and so on.
Gunduz said: “All these little bits and bobs all catch the eye of the consumer and make them more interested to purchase.”
Choosing the drinks is the next key step and a site needs to make them as saleable as alcoholic ones.
“Everybody knows what they like to drink, which is the biggest thing to overcome and that’s the biggest thing I say to bar managers in hospitality, they’re in it because they love to create and they like to show off their own prowess and drinks.” he added.
“And I’m trying to get across to the managers that what they’re making is not for them, it’s for their customers.
“It may be for my mum. It’s for people who don’t drink alcohol for whatever reason and the reason isn’t important. But the fact they’ve got a great selection of things to choose from is paramount, especially in today’s day and age.
“Inclusivity is the most massive thing we talk about when we’re selling these to bar managers.”
The name, description and ingredients are vital. A pub or bar can name drinks by calling out flavour, for example.
Gunduz explained: “Pulling out the names of the flavours of the ingredients… one of the Everleaf flavours has, for example, cherry blossom in it and if we mixed it with Double Dutch cucumber & watermelon tonic, it could be named a Watermelon & Cucumber Spritz. This also helps to educate customers about how it will taste before trying it.
“You’re not going to call it a Bitter-sweet Aperitif or use words like that because customers may not be au fait with them.
Quick and engaging
“Another thing is the description. Menus seems to have lost descriptions these days. People put ingredients in the name of the drink and the price but no explanation of the drink.
“I have a menu where the ingredients are infused into the description of the drinks. Another way to do that is to have the description of the products that you’re using as like a blurb at the top of the section, for example, if you’re using Everleaf or Three Spirit, use a little one liner about what it is and how people can understand it in one little moment.
“They haven’t got loads of time to be flicking through the menu so something simple and really quick and engaging will eliminate any fear of purchase.”
The next thing to consider is the style of the drinks you’re going to make. Are they copies of the alcoholic ones that have had the alcohol removed and replaced with a non-alcoholic spirit?
“The other way is to go with something completely bespoke to the non-alcoholic section. One thing it does is it creates a value perception that bartenders, the bar and the operation has catered for customers specifically,” said Gunduz.
His advice is to continue doing things in the way you already do for alcoholic versions though. So if you operate a “fantastic five-star hotel bar that makes their own creations and have classic cocktails on the side, do that”.
Meanwhile, a pubco with 100 sites is less likely to make bespoke drinks in each of its venues, so go with understandable, recognisable, classic cocktails.
Another alternative is to serve a range of non-alcoholic spirits with a mixer, which Gunduz referred to 1+1.
The appeal of your drinks is the way your team members sell them and how they talk about them and how they react to someone when they order them.
They’re not confident in the products that they’re giving to the guests.
Andreas Gunduz
Gunduz said: “You will not believe how many places I go and when I order a non-alcoholic drink there, they tell me, ‘oh, it’s not alcoholic,’ and that’s really disappointing.
“You don’t want them to be down-selling or underselling you, especially if it’s your product. And often I’ve not revealed myself by the time I’ve said that. I understand why they’re doing it. It’s because they’re not confident in the products that they’re giving to the guests.”
The last one to think about is price indicates quality.
Gunduz explained: “When people look at French Bloom alcoholic-free wine and see the price, they know it’s obviously good quality. And that only works once if it’s not great quality but if it is, they will buy it again.
“With alcohol, sometimes I don’t want another drink because alcohol is, ultimately, hard to drink and the reason cocktails were made was to make them palatable. The first cocktail was a daiquiri, which was very, very aggressive rum, and they mixed it with lime from a tree and sugar cane – it was unpalatable without the lime and sugar cane.
“Now, we’ve got this thing where every drink you make is delicious and it’s just dependent on how you get that across to the guest.”
He stressed the final point is to keep it varied so that could mean different drinks in different glasses, different garnishes and uses different ingredients.
“You want the same kind of thought and effort that’s gone into the rest of the menu as you have the non-alcoholic section,” he summarised.
