Got back from Chicago last week. Feet still hurt. The National Restaurant Show floor is about four miles of walking if you're doing it right, and I never do it halfway. Spent most of my time in the equipment halls — you'd expect that — but this year I made a point to hit the beverage pavilions harder than usual.
Here's why. Three of my catering clients asked me the same question in the span of two months: what should we be doing with drinks? Not alcohol necessarily. Just beverages in general. They're seeing tickets where the protein margins are tight but the drink markup could carry the check. Smart operators think this way.
So I walked. I sampled. I talked to about two dozen vendors and watched what the crowds were actually stopping for versus walking past. These nine stuck with me.
The Smoked Stuff Is Getting Serious
First booth I hit on day two was a small outfit out of Kentucky doing smoked simple syrups. Not the gimmicky liquid smoke nonsense you see at county fairs. These guys were cold-smoking sugar water over cherry and hickory for actual hours, then bottling it. The rep let me taste the hickory version in a basic lemonade. Worked better than I expected.
I'm skeptical of most "smoked" anything in a bottle. But this had real depth. Reminded me of the way a good bark tastes when it's just slightly charred but not bitter. If you're running a BBQ-focused catering operation and you're not thinking about how smoke translates to your beverage program, you're leaving something on the table.
Second smoke-related find: a smoked ice company. Yeah. Smoked ice. They freeze blocks over smoldering wood so the smoke compounds bind into the ice as it forms. You drop a cube in bourbon and it releases smoke flavor as it melts. Gimmick? Maybe. But the demo was packed all three days.
Agua Frescas Everywhere
This wasn't a surprise if you've been paying attention. Agua frescas were in maybe a third of the beverage booths, and not just the Latin-focused vendors. Mainstream distributors are pushing them now.
Talked to a guy running a taco operation out of Phoenix who said his horchata outsells beer two-to-one at lunch. That tracks. Non-alcoholic options are money if you position them right. Families order them. Designated drivers order them. People who just don't want to drink at 1pm on a Tuesday order them.
The hibiscus version I tried at one booth was genuinely excellent. Tart without being sour, floral without tasting like soap. They were doing it from concentrate, which normally I'd criticize, but the quality was there. Sometimes the shortcut works. Sometimes.
Fermented Sodas Are Having a Moment
I'm not talking kombucha. That's been around. I'm talking about small-batch fermented sodas — ginger bugs, tepache, stuff with actual live cultures that taste like soda but carry that funky fermented edge.
One vendor had a pineapple tepache that reminded me of this stuff my neighbor's grandmother used to make when I was a kid. Sweet, fizzy, a little yeasty. Not for everyone. But the right customer loves it, and those customers tend to be the ones who spend.
The challenge for operators is shelf stability. Most of these need refrigeration and have short windows. That's fine for a restaurant with good turnover. Harder for catering where you're loading a truck at 5am and serving at noon in a field somewhere. But worth knowing about.
Coffee That Doesn't Taste Like Coffee
There was a cold brew vendor doing infusions I hadn't seen before. Coffee infused with toasted rice. Coffee infused with dried chiles. Coffee infused with — I swear this is true — smoked brisket fat.
The brisket fat one was... interesting. Not something I'd order twice, but I understood what they were going for. Rich, savory, a little weird. The toasted rice version was actually good. Nutty and smooth. Could see that working as a signature drink for a BBQ joint that wants to do something different with their morning coffee service.
Point is, coffee innovation isn't slowing down. If you're still serving the same drip you've had for ten years, fine. But know that other operators are finding margin in specialty coffee.
Shrubs and Drinking Vinegars
These have been around forever in craft cocktail bars. What's new is seeing them packaged for foodservice at scale. One company had a peach shrub concentrate that you could mix 1:4 with soda water and serve immediately. No bartender required. No cocktail training. Just pour and serve.
I bought a case to test with my catering crews. The tartness cuts through fatty food — obvious pairing with smoked pork. We ran it at an event two weeks ago alongside the usual sweet tea and lemonade. Sold out before the tea did.
The vinegar taste throws some people. You have to let customers know what they're getting. But for operators who want a non-alcoholic option with some sophistication, shrubs make sense.
Functional Everything
Can't escape it. Every third booth had something with adaptogens, nootropics, CBD (in states where that's legal), or some other functional ingredient. Drinks that promise to calm you down, wake you up, improve your gut health, whatever.
I'm not the target market for most of this. But I watched who was sampling it. Younger operators. Health-conscious types. People running concepts in urban markets where customers ask about mushroom extracts unironically.
One drink stood out: a turmeric-ginger tonic with black pepper (apparently the pepper helps absorption — don't ask me to explain the science). Tasted like a spicy, earthy lemonade. Not bad. The vendor said they're in about 200 restaurant accounts nationally and growing. Real numbers, not hype.
Draft Cocktails Done Right
This isn't new technology, but the execution is getting better. Saw a system where you batch cocktails in kegs, carbonate them in-line, and serve from a tap. Consistent pours every time. No bartender measuring. Speed of service goes way up.
For high-volume catering, this is interesting. You can set up a cocktail tap alongside your beer and serve 200 people in an hour without a dedicated bar station. One of my competitors in Houston has been doing this for two years and I've been watching his numbers. He's not wrong.
Quality depends entirely on your batch recipe. You still need someone who knows what they're doing to develop it. But once it's dialed in, consistency is nearly automatic.
Premium Lemonade and Sweet Tea Aren't Going Anywhere
For all the trendy stuff, the biggest crowds I saw were still at booths selling upgraded versions of the basics. Fresh-squeezed lemonade with real fruit chunks. Sweet tea brewed from premium leaves with actual depth instead of that tannic bite you get from cheap stuff steeped too long.
One vendor from Georgia had a peach sweet tea that was dangerously good. Real peach flavor, not syrup. Subtle. I asked about pricing and it wasn't cheap — about 40% higher than standard tea concentrate. But they argued the markup on the menu more than covers it. They're probably right.
Don't overthink your beverage program. Sometimes the move is just doing the classics better than anyone else.
What This Means for Your Operation
Here's my take after walking that floor for three days. Beverage programs are where a lot of operators are finding margin they can't squeeze from food costs anymore. Protein prices aren't coming down. Labor isn't getting cheaper. But a drink that costs you $0.60 to make and sells for $4.50 still pencils out.
The other thing: customers expect more options now. Not just Coke products and Bud Light. They want something interesting. Something they can take a picture of, if we're being honest about how people behave.
None of this changes what we do at Southern Pride of Texas. We sell smokers. That's our lane. But I've watched too many operators spend $40,000 on a SP-1000 and then serve Sysco tea out of a cambro like it's 1995. The equipment investment makes sense when you're building a complete operation. Beverages are part of that.
If you were at the show and saw something I missed, let me know. I'm always curious what other operators are paying attention to. And if you need parts, accessories, or want to talk through equipment options for your operation, you know where to find us.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | QSR Magazine | Restaurant Business Online
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About the Author: Earl has been competing in sanctioned BBQ events since the early 1990s and operates a commercial catering operation in Southeast Texas.