Arkadia discusses its summer recipe range, which offers cafés a new way to transform their traditional beverage offerings during the warmer months.
With temperatures rising and summer upon us, beverage specialist Arkadia believes that businesses across the country should take advantage of the warmer conditions by offering customers unique and inventive drink options.
The flavour specialist has developed a series of recipes best suited for the summer, allowing cafés to expand on their offerings beyond what’s expected of a café.
Arkadia showcased a variety of these recipes at this year’s Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE), including the pina colada frappe, biscoff frappe crunch, mocha cookie crumble frappe, strawberry cheesecake frappe, and chai affogato.
“We created the summer recipes based on consumer and market research to ensure cafés have exciting on-trend offerings for this summer,” says Arkadia Brand Manager Kylie Chan.
The new summer recipes were the focus of the masterclasses Arkadia ran at MICE, where dozens of spectators learned how to recreate each drink.
“We were extremely pleased with the feedback we got at MICE,” Kylie says. “People were coming back for seconds, thirds and fourths because of how much they were enjoying the Arkadia beverages.
“We initially had three workshops a day, but by the end we were realising how popular they were, so we started to run more of them.”
Kylie says the workshops were successful in achieving what the group set out to accomplish.
“Our goal was to showcase how versatile and interchangeable the Arkadia range is,” says Kylie.
“There is still a bit of confusion around the difference between a frappe and a milkshake, so having the recipes to sample and being able to demonstrate how easy a frappe is to make with Arkadia’s Frappe range made it a great informational session for all.”
Each recipe unveiled at the expo is available online, as well as through a downloadable summer recipe booklet from Arkadia’s new website.
“The summer recipe booklet is something our customers are loving,” Kylie says. “Business owners don’t always have the time to do research and develop new recipes for their menus.
“We are here to partner with cafés and to help them by providing on-trend beverage menu inspiration and quality products to ensure they launch a successful summer menu which will appeal to their customers.”
Each recipe is designed to be easily replicable and showcase the flavour opportunities that Arkadia provides. For the chai affogato, for example, Kylie says you only need vanilla ice cream, hot water, and four teaspoons of the Arkadia Chai Spice to create an exciting chai twist on the classic affogato.
For those who prefer alternate ways to recreate the recipes, the Arkadia team have developed a visual way to follow along.
“Some people just aren’t as inspired through traditional recipe formats in text, so we worked closely with our videographers to create recipe videos that showcases those flavours, as well as how Arkadia products can work together to create a delicious recipe,” says Kylie.
The recipe videos, which are 40 seconds in length, can be found on the Arkadia website and its YouTube channel.
“When it comes to recipe creation, it’s important for us to show potential customers the different ways to use our products,” Kylie says.
Regarding trends, Kylie says the Arkadia team noticed more of a focus towards nostalgic flavours that transport people back to their childhoods, as well as those inspired by international influences.
“We saw a lot of nostalgic flavours, and flavours that had a bit of an influence from around the world, which helped inspire the chai affogato in particular,” she says. “It’s not the typical espresso affogato you get. We’ve added a bit of a twist to it.”
The number of summer recipes available in the booklet is a testament to the versatility of the Arkadia flavour range, which Kylie says is an important goal for the business.
“We started with just drinking chocolate back in 1997, and soon we launched our signature chai spice,” Kylie says. “Fast forward to today, and we now have a wide range of syrups, dessert sauces, frappes, and much more in our range.
“Our chai and drinking chocolate ranges are distributed to over 10,000 cafés and are a must-have staple item on any beverage menu, as they are known for great taste, quality, and versatility of use.”
The summer range of recipes, along with many previous recipes Arkadia promotes, showcases the possibilities of its most popular products, chai powder, in both hot and cold drinks.
“Chai on the menu offers a delicious alternative beverage to coffee,” Kylie says. “Arkadia Chai Spice can be used across a variety of beverages, not just as a hot latte. You can add it to frappes or serve it as an affogato.
“We are here to partner with cafés to reinvigorate the beverage menu and offer on-trend solutions to drive sales and loyalty Our team can assist with menu development and provide on-trend recipes to any café that has, or is looking, to add our beverage range of solutions.”
Arkadia’s wide range of products is continuing to grow at a rapid rate, broadening the possibilities available to café menus.
“It’s all about reimagining what you can do with your standard drinks. Arkadia’s products will help make your menu stand out,” says Kylie.
Arkadia believes that creating a unique, on-trend signature beverage for a café will create a point of difference, which can help keep customers coming back for more.
“Summer is a great opportunity to re- vamp and add new recipe creations to your menu, and Arkadia has the product range and quality to deliver exciting solutions that your customers will love,” saysKylie.
For more information, visit www.arkadiabeverages.com.au
This article appears in the December 2023 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
