Even though sig bevs create a novel flavor experience for customers, building drinks around standard bar workflow helps integrate them into busy services. Ensuring baristas enjoy making the drink is essential for customer experience as well as employee morale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen considering workflow to ensure baristas have fun even during rushes, we like to stick with what we know,\u201d says Kristina D and Becca P of Cerberus Coffee<\/a> (we\u2019re using initials for privacy reasons) in Jacksonville, Oregon. \u201cFollowing the same basic formula when concocting recipes ensures the team isn\u2019t thrown any curveballs when prepping ingredients,\u201d they say. Kristina and Becca suggest building drinks around \u201cthe natural muscle memory of service by not changing up tools, measuring units, or ratios unless absolutely necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKeep everything as simple as possible, from the ingredients to the drink prep to the making of the drink itself,\u201d says Steph Achter, barista and sig bev maven at Likewise Coffee<\/a> in Milwaukee. They emphasize that recipes shouldn\u2019t disrupt workflow or require a lot of prep time. \u201cIf baristas enjoy making it, we\u2019ll be much more likely to recommend it to customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aireus Robinson<\/a> agrees. He\u2019s a self-described nomadic barista, Go Fund Bean<\/a> board member, and 2022 Glitter Cat<\/a> finalist. \u201cYour signature beverages should slip into your standard caf\u00e9 workflow with such ease that they needn\u2019t interrupt service,\u201d he says. \u201cThey should be as easy to incorporate into a line of drinks as a flat white or a cortado, and they should be able to be made in droves in the case of a rush.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He also emphasizes listening to baristas. \u201cWe know which customers like extra syrup in their drinks. We know which customers won\u2019t appreciate our one-of-a-kind single-origin red honey carbonic maceration processed Gesha and instead want a cup of coffee that tastes like chocolate and raisins.\u201d The same logic applies to signature beverage design, he says. \u201cIf a barista says something isn\u2019t working, work with them to alter the drink until it works or scrap the project altogether.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the keys to making a sig bev your baristas love to make is creating a recipe they can craft in batches, minimizing labor. While most baristas love to create bespoke drinks, executing them repeatedly during a rush is a different story. The ideal sig bev has ingredients that can be bulk-prepped in advance, batched, and measured out with as little work as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhenever possible, batch sig bev components,\u201d says Angela Ferrara, veteran barista, educator, seasonal menu developer, and now marketing manager at Rancilio North America<\/a>. \u201cWhether it\u2019s a coffee or tea concentrate, a syrup, an infusion, a special garnish, or even just combining ingredients, having things as ready as possible when the drink is ordered is a key time-saver.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n One way to do this is using brewed coffee or tea as the base component instead of espresso. \u201cEspresso sig bevs are great, but can easily clog up workflow,\u201d she says<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson is all about batching. \u201cPresentation only matters once the beverage is in the customer\u2019s hand. They\u2019re unaware of most of the processes behind the bar.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n While it might feel like baristas may have a bias against batching drinks\u2014perhaps stemming from the idea that batching makes a drink less special\u2014Robinson says the association of more labor with more care is something we need to unlearn. Batching doesn\u2019t make a drink any less thoughtful and carefully constructed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen developing sig bevs, make sure you\u2019re able to reliably and cost-effectively source every ingredient,\u201d says Achter. \u201cYou want to be sure that the drink can be made for as long as you have it on the menu and that your profit margins are consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To craft a cost-effective sig beverage, look at what is already available at the caf\u00e9. \u201cIf your caf\u00e9 has a kitchen or shares space with a restaurant, consider how you can incorporate spent ingredients from other dishes into a sig bev,\u201d says Ferrara. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Achter agrees. \u201cLook at the ingredients you already have in the caf\u00e9 and let them guide you. If the baker is zesting citrus for a pastry, what can you use the juice for? Which of your loose leaf teas would be great made into a syrup? Is there a bottle of fennel seeds or a bag of dried hibiscus gathering dust in the kitchen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson emphasizes shelf stability as an essential factor for batching drinks. \u201cLook at your recipe and understand what you can break down into a shelf-stable mix. Suppose your signature beverage involves tea, simple syrup, bitters, and a garnish. In this example, you can batch the simple syrup into the tea. The added sugars help make the tea shelf-stable and reduce the labor that goes into the workflow for constructing the drink.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also works to optimize ingredients for maximum efficiency. Inspired by the aphorism \u201cwhen life gives you lemons, make lemonade,\u201d he uses the example to demonstrate how a barista can use lemon in several ways to make base ingredients for a signature drink. \u201cThe lemon gets zested (for a lemon-salt garnish), peeled (for candied lemon peel garnish), then finally turned into lemonade. From this process, you\u2019ve created three different ingredients that can be the staple of another signature beverage, thus lowering your production cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does summer taste like? A sig bev should pair well with the weather and the season\u2019s vibe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The two primary tastes of summer from sig bev specialists I talked to were tropical and locally-inspired seasonal flavors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love tropical flavors like pineapple and mango, both of which are surprisingly delicious with coffee,\u201d says Achter, \u201cespecially with an added kick from spices like cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and black pepper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferrara agrees, citing \u201ccitrus, melon, pineapple, coconut, and mint\u201d as go-to ingredients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oregonians Kristina and Becca focus on what\u2019s seasonal locally. \u201cWherever you are, there\u2019s something to be said about following the principle \u2018if it grows together, it goes together,\u2019\u201d they say. \u201cChamomile growing on the roadside during the morning commute draws inspiration for a new donut flavor, or greens grown by our friends at Wayward Acres get incorporated into our weekend bakes. Every day the area around us informs our creative process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson loves the locally-influenced starting points of cucumber, melon, and lemon-lavender combos. \u201cCucumber and watermelon are incredible summer thirst-quenchers that can take the sweet, salty, or spicy route in a drink,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sig bevs are a great way to add novelty to your menu, connect with seasonality, and expand revenue. If you want to add a sig bev to your menu for the first time, it may feel daunting, but all the ingredients are there. All it takes is a little experimentation and a sense of adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cover photo courtsey of Steph Achter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n RJ Joseph<\/strong> is a coffee writer focusing primarily on equity, workers\u2019 rights, and structural alternatives to the status quo. She\u2019s been a barista, a roaster, a green coffee grader and lab tech, and finally made coffee writing her full-time gig at Red Fox Coffee Merchants. In her decade in coffee, she\u2019s also run a queer coffee events organization, written a blog on equity in coffee, and run a coffee satire website called The Knockbox. If you see her around, say hi.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summer drinks are a fun way to celebrate the season that can bring in new customers and allow baristas to express their creativity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1142,"featured_media":31649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[14250],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AngelaFerrara-683x1024.jpg\")
Batch Everything<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Steph-Summer-Bev-L-R_-Blue-Moon-Acid-Trip-Scouts-Honor-Bloody-Arnie-Matcha-Ginger-Tonic-1024x1024.jpg\")
Maximize Ingredients & Shelf Life<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SA-Sparkling-Limeade-1024x1024.jpg\")
Summer Flavors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SA-Comin-From-Tucson-819x1024.jpg\")