Beverage

$10 used to be the magic number.

A decade ago, that was a typical price for a craft cocktail. Since then, that number has climbed and climbed — $14 to $16 is normal now, and in cities like New York and Los Angeles, no one blinks at $20.

Why have cocktails gotten so expensive? Restaurant operators cite several reasons: rising rents, the increased demand for quality ingredients, and most importantly, the cost of labor, which includes hiring skilled bartenders and paying for the time required to make elegant, complicated concoctions.

Serving high-end cocktails can do wonders for a restaurant’s bottom line, bringing in a 15-25 percent profit (compared to the 4-6 percent margin most operators see overall). But what if customers start to feel cocktail price fatigue?

An Artichoke Negroni that combines the delicate flavor of baby artichokes with gin.

Bourbon that tastes like smoked cinnamon.

Maker’s Mark flavored with roasted black sesame seeds and sesame oil.

Imagination is the only limit when you’re creating infused cocktails — that, and the time it takes to develop the flavors. But there is a  way to heighten flavor and cut the time required from days to hours: a vacuum chamber sealer.

Here's your recap for the top 6 most-read blog posts for July 2018.

Why "Top 6" you ask? Kahlua Colada continues to be up there for views...so now we are including a "Top 6" to allow for a little more variety.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Juice and smoothie flavor trends come and go, but the immense popularity of both juice and smoothies continues — and the power players won’t be juice bars, but restaurants that have all-day foot traffic, predicts John Craven, founder and CEO of BevNet.  

Maybe this will be the year your business adds a juice or smoothie program. But in the battle of juicing vs. blending, who wins? Is one healthier than the other, and is one a smarter choice for operators?  

Here's your recap for the top 6 most-read blog posts for June 2018.

Why "Top 6" you ask? Kahlua Colada continues to be up there for views...so from now on, we'll be doing a "Top 6" to include just one more post for a little more variety.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Let us tell you the legend of the Kahlua Colada: a source of endless fascination for us at Hamilton Beach Commercial. After we put this frozen piña colada recipe on our blog three years ago (courtesy of Bartender Magazine), it rapidly became our most popular post of all time — and remains a hit to this day.

Why is the Kahlua Colada so popular? Maybe because it’s both simple and surprising. The combination of Kahlua, cream of coconut and pineapple juice sounds odd, but it works. In that spirit, here are a few more fun riffs on the piña colada to inspire you.

Here's your recap for the top 6 most-read blog posts for May 2018. Hard to believe we are already almost into summer here in the U.S.

Why "Top 6" you ask? Kahlua Colada continues to be up there for views...so from now on, we'll be doing a "Top 6" to include just one more post for a little more variety.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

If you’ve ever had a high-performance blender conk out after many years of hard use, the culprit was probably the brushes.

“Brushes?” you might ask. “I didn’t know my blender had brushes.” Most people don’t, because busy restaurant operators never think about the innards of their blenders. But we do. For eight years, we’ve been thinking about how to design a better blender motor that doesn’t die when the brush wears out — and now we have it. It’s called Endura™ Motor Technology.

Here's your recap for the top 6 most-read blog posts for April 2018. 

Why "Top 6"? Kahlua Colada continues to be up there for views...so from now on, we'll be doing a "Top 6" to include just one more post for a little more variety.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Here's your recap for the top 6 most-read blog posts for March 2018. 

Why "Top 6"? Kahlua Colada continues to be up there for views...so from now on, we'll be doing a "Top 6" to include just one more post for a little more variety.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.