Beverage

If you own a Hamilton Beach Commercial beverage blender, you already know it easily creates perfectly creamy smoothies. But have you ever thought about all the other blended drinks you could be making?

Don’t let your high-performance blender sit idly on the bar or counter. Put its power to work! We have 7 ideas for some non-smoothie blended drinks to add to your menu.

The Bartesian Professional Cocktail Machine can make anyone into a great bartender.

With an intuitive interface, this sleek cocktail maker uses mixologist-crafted capsules, spirits and water to make premium cocktails in 30 seconds. Just select the desired drink strength, insert a cocktail capsule, and Bartesian Professional does the rest. It really is that easy!

Get to know Bartesian Professional and discover how this innovative cocktail machine is shaking up the world of high-end cocktails.

Making a great ice cream treat means making a mess.

When you’re adding delicious mix-ins and blending them thoroughly, splatters, fragments and crumbs end up everywhere. The time lost to cleaning can’t be helped. Or can it?

The new MixStation  from Hamilton Beach Commercial changes the game. Not only does it speedily deliver consistently mixed frozen desserts, but its smart design cuts your cleaning time. In short, we took everything our customers love about the Mix ‘n Chill and made it better.

Want to see the MixStation in action? Schedule a demo today! Or read on to learn more.

Biodiversity is something you expect to find in the rainforest — not so much in a smoothie. But the diversity of beneficial microbes is what attracts consumers to kefir: a tangy, fermented and sometimes fizzy milk drink. 

While yogurt may have just two beneficial cultures, kefir can contain more than 50 strains of bacteria and yeast. This, when consumed, can increase microbial diversity and reduce inflammation in the gut. It’s also a good source of calcium, protein and minerals. Add all these benefits together, and you see why kefir is rapidly becoming a top health food trend.  

Remember when molecular mixology was the hottest (and coldest) thing in cocktails? We’re talking clouds of smoke, color changes, and scientific wizardry designed to make guests ooh and aah.

People are ready to go out, have a drink and let loose. But bars will have to compete for their attention — and their budget.

As consumers grapple with an overall higher cost of living, “enticing people out of their homes and into bars will become the number one priority for venues,” predicts Imbibe Live. Higher costs mean 40% of consumers plan to go out less frequently, CGA by Nielsen data shows, and 20% intend to cut back on the number of drinks they order.

How can bar owners get customers in the door? Entertain them, intrigue them, and delight them. That’s the theme of these bar and cocktail trends for 2023.

It’s summer. You’ve got your Shibumi sunshade. You’ve got your platform flip-flops. But one trendy accessory is missing: the drink in your hand.

A few years back, the must-have summer cocktail was the Aperol Spritz. Then came the summer of frosé, the summer of White Claw, and the summer of the espresso martini (and other coffee cocktails). But summer 2022 hasn’t found its One Drink to Rule Them All — and that’s OK! We’ve found some possible candidates.

Can you have a successful cocktail bar with no — or less — alcohol? It’s an experiment that’s increasingly seeing success.

IWSR Drinks Market Analysis forecasts that in 10 core global markets, the compound annual growth rate in no- and low-alcohol volume will rise by more than 8% between 2021 and 2025, outpacing alcohol volume growth.

What’s driving this sustained interest in no-and-low drinks? It’s not strict teetotaling; rather, “moderation is the most common reason for the consumption of no-and-low products,” The Spirits Business reports. About 43% of adults in IWSR’s survey said they used no-and-low drinks as substitutes for alcoholic drinks for certain occasions, rather than abstaining altogether.

We’re witnessing a major upheaval in the world of spirits: People are turning away from vodka and raising a glass of tequila. In 2021, sales of tequila and mezcal shot up more than 30% in the United States. This made agave-based spirits the second-fastest growing category, behind pre-mixed cocktails.

Measured by revenue, agave spirits are selling more than any other liquor category except for vodka, which has reigned supreme in the U.S. since the 1970s. In fact, tequila was the main driver of growth for the entire spirits industry, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) reports.

It seems like everyone is drinking tequila, according to Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes, whose company owns Don Julio and Casamigos: “It has crossed over. The multicultural growth is very strong. It cuts across age segments, it cuts across gender, it cuts across dayparts, the occasion and the nature of drinks. It’s not just shots and margaritas as it used to be many years ago.”

After the long, dark days of Drynuary, we all ask ourselves: What are we drinking this year?

The question is especially poignant after an up-and-down 2021, when many guests celebrated the return to cocktail bars and then found themselves stuck at home again. Here’s a bar’s-eye view of the cocktail trends of 2022.