Beverage

What does a craft cocktail sound like?

The rattle of ice in a shaker. The squish of a lemon in the juicer. Maybe the whisper of a basil leaf, muddled gently in the glass. And — the whir of a blender?

Frozen craft cocktails are coming into their own. As Punch puts it, “blended cocktails are no different than any other classic cocktail with a rich history: They’ve enjoyed a heyday, seen a resurgence, suffered a dark period and are poised on the brink of another comeback.” They’re novel, they’re popular, and they’re profitable. Here’s how, and why, frozen drinks are being revived.

At Hamilton Beach Commercial, we build our blenders to last. And now, we may have a new record for the hardest-working HBC blender. At Doolies Coffee and Juice Bar in Sydney, a six-year-old HBH850 Summit recently clocked 138,000 cycles. That’s 63 drinks per day, on average, for six years. And it’s still going strong.

Here’s a look at how Doolies has been blending success for 20 years — plus a few surefire smoothie recipes from Down Under.

Italian water ice is having a moment. Once found mainly in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, this sublime summer treat is becoming popular all over the country. Never had one? Try mango water ice swirled with vanilla custard. First, you taste the rich and velvety frozen custard; then, just when you think you can’t eat any more, your spoon breaks through to an icy oasis of fine-textured, flavored ice.

When Rob and Paulette Lamb, both Philadelphia natives, visited Richmond one blazing August, they noticed one big thing missing from this Southern city. “If we’re going to move here, there’s got to be water ice!” they joked. Then they realized they had found the perfect business opportunity. In 2005, they opened Ray’s Italian Water Ice, and now have two thriving Richmond locations. Here’s how they succeeded.

Plain chocolate or vanilla? So passé. We’d like a milkshake garnished with cookie crumbs, hot fudge, rainbow sprinkles, an entire brownie and one perfectly toasted marshmallow, please. If you think that sounds decadent, you should see what else restaurants are cramming into their shakes. Are you ready to invent a crazy milkshake of your own?

Planning a school breakfast program isn’t as simple as it once was. Schools have to come up with meals that meet new nutrition standards, can be served in classrooms or the cafeteria, can be prepared in a hurry, are easy to eat on the run and won’t make a mess. Oh, and they have to please kids’ picky palates. The solution? Smoothies. Here’s why, plus tips on how to successfully launch a school smoothie program.

There's something special about the 91-year-old Lexington Candy Shop, a humble luncheonette on the Upper East Side at the corner of 83rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Maybe it's the vintage decor: neon signs, a chrome-accented counter and signed celebrity photos. Maybe it's the 1940 Hamilton Beach milkshake mixer, admired by generations of customers. Or it could be the fact that Lexington Candy Shop still belongs to the family that opened it in 1925. 

The popularity of craft cocktails is only expected to grow in 2016, and will account for 10 percent of all spirits sales by 2020.  Bar customers want a show. “Theatre remains very, very strong with cocktails ordered," Katy Carter, Cellar Trends’ research and brand manager, tells The Spirits Business. "Great looking drinks sell best  — although speed is important in high-volume accounts.”

Customers want creative drinks, made with flair — but they want them fast. How can beverage directors keep up with cocktail trends while balancing speed and finesse? Here are some strategies to try.

Consumerism and altruism are finally making friends. Consumers want to feel like their spending is doing good in the world, and retailers are obliging. Recently we've seen not just high-end stores, but traditional retailers like Safeway, Kroger and Ahold making serious commitments to fair-trade sourcing.  

The hospitality and restaurant industries haven't quite followed suit, however. Hotels were pioneers in conservation efforts, introducing energy- and water-saving programs before almost anyone else, observes Jennifer Gallegos, director of coffee for Fair Trade USA. "But they have been very slow to embrace fair trade," she says. "Very slow." The reasons aren't clear, but she says foodservice research firm Technomic will soon be conducting a study to find out more. Is it time for hotel and restaurant companies to start using fair-trade coffee and other products? Here's some perspective.

The Japanese enjoy coffee in cans. The Vietnamese pour it over ice with sweetened condensed milk. Ethiopians spend as long as three hours preparing coffee and serving it in a special clay pot.

However they enjoy it, everyone's drinking more of it. “Consumption is increasing as societies in India, China and Latin America continue to be westernized,” Roberio Silva, executive director of the International Coffee Organization, told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. Expect the global demand for coffee to jump 24 percent in the next five years, Silva said, from 141.6 million bags to 175.8 million bags. (A bag weighs about 132 pounds.)

Europeans, Canadians and Americans remain the world's most caffeinated people, drinking the most coffee per capita. But coffee's rapidly becoming a popular drink in nations with burgeoning populations and increasing disposable income, such as India and China. Here's a look at changing global tastes for coffee.

Balsamic vinegar. Arugula. Smoked jalapeno. Blenheim apricots.

Matthew Biancaniello isn't cooking with these ingredients. He's making drinks.

Call him a cocktail chef: a self-taught alchemist who has perfected the art of combining fresh herbs and produce with liquor to make garden-crisp cocktails. Through his company, Eat Your Drink, he now serves as a consultant and bartender for high-profile clients. He shared his expertise on creating and successfully launching an innovative produce cocktail program.