After a summer of refreshing iced coffees, fall can signal a return to the regular hot cup of joe for many coffee drinkers. But just because your customers might stick to a routine doesn’t mean your coffee-bar offerings should.
Keep customers interested by offering a variety of options, such as seasonal beverages that can be enjoyed either hot or over ice. Although hot coffee is popular year-round, Technomic’s 2016 Beverage Consumer Trend Report noted that 59% of consumers say they consumed a cold/iced or blended coffee drink in the past month. So, it’s in retailers’ interests to keep consumers coming back for more by offering new and trending iterations, like cold-brew coffee, along with the trusty standbys like iced coffee.
Hot or iced, it’s all nice
When it comes to purchasing coffee at convenience stores, according to Technomic data presented at the 2017 CSP EduNetworking Hot Dispensed Beverages Forum, 38% of consumers say they are purchasing hot specialty coffee drinks more now than they did two years ago, and 65% of consumers say they’ve ordered a regular hot coffee drink at least once in the past month. But although a lot of people do still switch back to hot coffee when the weather cools off, that’s not what everyone does anymore.
Chuck Moyer, food service category manager for Rutter’s, a Pennsylvania-based chain of c-stores, says, “Several years ago, you would have that September, October increase in hot coffee. And you still do, but there’s people that are now purchasing iced coffee, iced lattes, cold-brew coffee year-round, and not switching back and forth depending on the temperature.”
In other words, no matter what the weather forecast says, operators should strive to offer the latest coffee drinks—hot and cold—to maximize profits and engagement.
Pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin
C-stores know it’s important to offer customers different types of coffee—decaf, different roasts, etc.—but flavored and seasonal coffees have been on the rise for several years now, so it’s also essential to offer specialty flavors as the seasons change.
According to Technomic’s MenuMonitor, the top 10 most popular flavors for all coffee beverages at c-stores are:
- Vanilla
- Hazelnut
- Mocha
- Caramel
- Cream
- Chocolate
- Pumpkin
- Banana
- Blueberry
- Chai
And while many of these flavors are popular year-round, there are a few that may increase in demand as the weather cools down, such as caramel.
What consumers really want, though, is pumpkin spice.
“Today, everybody just expects pumpkin everything,” Moyer says. “We have pumpkin-spice cappuccino, syrup and creamer for the condiment bar. From September to November, everything’s pumpkin. I’m trying to expand it some, because obviously there are some customers who may just get pumpkined out—there’s opportunity for possibly getting into apple ciders and other things that are harvested around fall. You can never not have the pumpkin, though.”
This post is sponsored by Keurig Green Mountain