Mocktails Take Center Stage at the National Restaurant Show with Twisted Alchemy

New trends at the NRA show 2019

From May 18th to 21st, 2019, the National Restaurant Association will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Restaurant Show. Multiple studies show that younger Millennials drink less alcohol than any generation since the Greatest Generation. In 2018, searches for ‘mocktails’ on Pinterest rose 160 percent. Seeing that the future of the bar industry may contain the same number of drinks but with less alcohol, Twisted Alchemy is crashing the bar pavilion with a menu of delicious, 100% cold-pressed juice mocktails!

According to Forbes and a number of other research institutions, non-alcoholic drinks are on the rise. Health conscious bar-goers today are in search of deliciously crafted cocktails but with lower ABV. That’s why Twisted Alchemy paired with Monin and Seedlip to provide National Restaurant Show attendees with a taste of the future: craft mocktails!

According to the National Restaurant Association’s annual “What’s Hot” survey, 65% of respondents indicate that craft, artisan, and locally produced spirits is the No. 1 alcoholic beverage trend. “At restaurants and other foodservice operations today, beverages, including wines, spirits, beers, and nonalcoholic drinks are big traffic drivers,” said Hudson Riehle, the NRA’s senior vice president of research. “Offering craft liquors, wines, and other beverages, allows restaurants to distinguish their drink programs from their competitors. At the same time, putting a more local, sustainable spin on beverages is particularly appealing to millennials, who, in general, are more apt to support smaller, different, more socially responsible businesses and products.”

Less alcoholic, but more artisanal

Twisted Alchemy recognizes the public interest trending towards sessionables (low ABV) or non-alcoholic beverages. According to Technomic’s 2018 Beverage report, 67% of consumers say they would be more likely to purchase beverages that are 100% fruit juice, while 54% say the same about handcrafted beverages. While restaurants and bars almost always offer non-alcoholic soft drinks, consumers still crave hand-crafted beverages. Whether it’s craft beer or craft cocktails, consumers love the vibe of an artisanal product made to order. House-made lemonades and sodas are already popping up in craft food and cocktail bars around the country, and mocktails with 100% cold-pressed juices are next!

To quote Craft Beer Business, “2017 has been dominated by the color of the food and drink we consume, and the environments we drink it in. Why? The simplest and most obvious answer is social media. With most people permanently carrying a high-quality camera, and Instagram growing in both reach and influence, we’ve arguably never lived in a more visual culture. … If 2017 has proved anything, it’s that color has both power and social currency.” Twisted Alchemy cold-pressed juices help mocktails and cocktails alike shine on the bar with the vibrant colors and flavors of watermelon, grapefruit, lemon, and more. There’s no need to skimp on presentation when serving a drink without alcohol. This year at the National Restaurant Show, Twisted Alchemy will showcase just how delicious — and artfully crafted — mocktails can be!

How to bring mocktails into your bar or restaurant

Twisted Alchemy offers a simple solution to growing demand of craft cocktails and mocktails: bottled juice that is 100% cold-pressed with no GMOs and no added sugars. With Twisted Alchemy juice behind your bar, you can easily fill mocktail orders on a small and large scale while skipping the labor of juicing fruit on-premise. Whether crafting a tropical drink with pineapple or orange, a summer beverage with watermelon or grapefruit, or a classic recipe with lime or lemon, Twisted Alchemy’s got you covered!

Interested in more adventurous recipes? At Twisted Alchemy, experimentation is our bread and butter. After some testing and extremely positive feedback, we recently launched our newest juice: blood orange. We source our blood oranges from around the world to make sure they are harvested at peak ripeness and have the best sweet to sour ratio. Our recent batch of 100% cold-pressed blood orange juice is made with oranges from Italy and has already made it as one of our top selling juices. At the National Restaurant Show this weekend, we’ve brought Milos Stevanovic, bartender, mixologist, winner of the first Catan Pisco Mix-off, and co-founder of The Best Bar Podcast Ever, onto our team. He will be behind our bar crafting delicious drinks that highlight the fresh, clean taste of the blood orange and our other cold-pressed fruit juices.

Swing by our booth (#11152) at the National Restaurant Show May 18-21, 2019 to learn more about our industry pricing and the new flavors we have in the works!