The do's and don'ts for a successful chocolate drinks menu
Do's and don'ts for a successful drinks menu
Ready to overwhelm your customers with amazing chocolate taste and delicious creativity? Don’t forget to take your time to compose your chocolate drinks menu. Consider it your calling card to invite customers to try one of your chocolate delights. The keys: be creative, but be clear.
When browsing the chocolate drinks menu, your customers want to know where they are going. Keep your menu clear and user-friendly so that each visitor spends less time searching and more time enjoying.
1. Giving your menu a clear structure makes it easy to choose for your guests.
Avoid rocket science. Simple logic works best. For example:
• hot or cold drinks
• classics or specials
• small or large
• pure or choctails
• …
Want to try a more creative or thematic approach? Great! As long as it stays logical and syncs with the desires of your customers. For example:
• Classic never goes wrong – traditional chocolate drinks
• Be zen – our choice from relaxing chocolate drinks
• The premium league – here’s the ultimate decadence for you
• Reboot and fuel up – energising chocolate drinks
• …
2. Adding extra tools helps your customers navigate easier through your menu:
tabs, bold fonts, blank lines in between sections… This will speed up deciding and ordering.
3. Visually guiding your customers to your suggestions helps boost sales:
put a few items in bold fonts, enrich them with an eye-catching visual or an exciting colour… But don’t exaggerate or you will lose the effect.
Which great chocolate stories to tell on the menu card with Callebaut?
Customers not only want to enjoy an amazing chocolate experience; they often love to learn more about their drinks. What’s the (short!) story behind the creation and the ingredients: recipe and origin of chocolate, homemade ganache, dairy or non-dairy milk, spices used… Adding a bit of background information seduces every customer to try.
Some examples
Chocolate
We believe in great chocolate taste. That’s why we prepare your hot chocolate with lots of love, and genuine chocolate of course. No cocoa powder - only the real thing, from Belgium. What else?
Origin
For the explorers: this hot chocolate is made with Arriba origin chocolate, made from cocoa beans from the up-river region in Ecuador. You’ll discover a lovely cocoa taste, and plenty of floral and nutty flavours.
Whole ro asted be ans for the whole fla vour
For our hot chocolate, we only use the Finest Belgian Chocolate – made in Belgium from whole roasted beans. It gives our chocolate its typical intense and rich chocolate body, with some delicate notes. Enjoy!
100% Belgian
We prepare our hot chocolate with the traditional chocolate recipe from one of the oldest cocoa roasteries and chocolateries in Belgium, made from a secret blend of the world’s finest beans. Here’s to Belgium, and to great taste that makes you instantly happy!
A boost of happiness and positive energy!
This hot chocolate is packed with natural cocoa flavanols. One cup spices up your day with great taste and tonnes of happiness.
Tickle the senses and the imagination
Excited customers are returning customers. Adding a boost of creativity to your drinks menu feeds their enthusiasm for more.
1. Giving each drink an appealing name opens up the mind and invites customers to discover a unique experience. Not only will it tease your customers to try something new, it will stay top of mind much longer.
For example, names inspired by:
- Ingredients: e.g. Gorgeously Ginger, Cocoa Loco, Cherry Bomb…
- Origin: e.g. Mexican Mystery, Aztec Attack, Heart of Africa,…
- Theme: e.g. Extravaganza, Mellow Out, Choc & Shot…
- Time of day: e.g. One for the Road, Afternoon Delight, Milk & Cookies…
2. Creativity with shape, colours and looks turns your drinks menu into a dynamic experience. It’s a great tool to immerse your customers into the story and atmosphere of your bar or venue.
Good to know
• Research has shown that taking currency symbols (€,$,£,…) off the menu, makes consumers spend more per table. So printing 2.50 instead of € 2.50 will boost your sales.
• Listing prices per drink in a zigzag pattern, for example behind the description, makes it less easy for consumers to compare and improves sales of your more premium or expensive drinks.
• Big and bold sells! Large letters in bold fonts will sell better. An image or drawing now and then may also work.
• 50% of your customers will choose the classic hot chocolate. That means that 50% of customers are open to upselling. They want to explore something more, richer and fancier. They are your money makers.
• Customers browse the menu like an F16 pilot explores a territory. They first look at the menu to discover the borders. Items at the top of the menu and at the bottom will draw more attention… and they will yield approximately 25% higher sales than the other items.