Top 10 Beverage Myths Restaurant Pros Must Ditch Now
Top 10 Beverage Myths Restaurant Pros Must Ditch Now
A line cook squirts espresso into a shot glass. A server pours white wine into a flute. A guest asks for oat milk in an Americano. Behind the scenes, the myths pile up. They lurk in the POS, in menu notes, in staff chatter. They kill profit, confuse guests, and erode trust. Time to burn them down.
Myth One: Diet soda helps guests lose weight. It does not. A Harvard study found that diet soda drinkers gained nine percent more weight than those who skipped artificial sweeteners¹. They feel virtuous, yet the scale punishes them. Your menu sells illusion. Your books feel the blow.
Myth Two: Fresh-squeezed juice is always healthy. An eight-ounce glass of orange juice has 21 grams of sugar². That equals a cola. You charge a premium. You pour empty calories. Your profit climbs, but your guest pays later, in health, not cash.
Myth Three: Coffee cures all. Coffee can cut Parkinson’s risk and lower some cancer odds³. Too much gives acid reflux and sleepless nights. The World Health Organization says 400 milligrams of caffeine a day is safe⁴. That is four cups of drip. Teach your barista to count shots like cash.
Myth Four: Craft beer margins hit 300%. The average tap markup sits near 200%⁵. Some brewers push higher. Some bars lose volume. You need balance. Sierra Nevada at your tap moves, but jack the price, and it stalls. Watch your keg data.
Myth Five: Red wine adds prestige and profit. Wine-by-the-glass sales fell five percent last year at table-service spots⁶. Guests chase cocktails. They skip your by-the-glass pours. Turn wine into a star feature. Host flights. Curate one rare bottle each month. Make wine matter.
Myth Six: Mocktails are sodas with a twist. Demand for zero-proof mixology jumped 20% in 2023⁷. Guests want layers. They seek bitters, shrubs, and house syrups. Death & Co. in New York sells a nonalcoholic Negroni that feels heavy on flavor. Train your staff. Charge for craft.
Myth Seven: Bottled water is a loss leader. Bottled water yields up to an 80% margin⁸. It costs pennies and brings dollars. Place brands where guests see them first. Watch per-cover checks rise. (It might be considered a loss leader because the managers and staff drink so much of it, instead of letting it be sold to their guests).
Myth Eight: Every guest craves a strong cocktail. 42% of diners skip high-ABV drinks to dodge next-day fog⁹. Offer a 4% ABV spritz that tastes like eight. Your sales grow. Your bar team smiles at low-cleanup calls.
Myth Nine: Sparkling water steals still-water sales. On-premise sparkling water grew 8.7 percent in 2023¹⁰. It is now the fastest-rising bar pour. Stock Pellegrino, La Croix, or better yet, a local brand. Guests will pay.
Myth Ten: Seasonal menus kill consistency. Seasonal pours lifted beverage checks by 12 percent last year⁶. A summer-berry spritz. A winter-spice toddy. They drive buzz. They push check averages. They tell your brand’s story.
Call to Action
The bar is blood and math. Every pour is profit or loss. You cannot run on hope or hearsay. You need facts. You need data. You need a plan.
Audit your menu. Break every myth. Train your staff. Price with care. Test new recipes. Track every ounce. Measure every dollar.
Be ruthless. Toss the fluff. Serve truth. Engineer your drink menu like your cellar line depends on it. It does.
#BeverageMyths #MenuEngineering #HospitalityInsight #RestaurantProfits #DrinkTrends #OperationalExcellence
Footnotes
¹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Weight Gain and Diet Soda Study 2018
² USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 28
³ National Cancer Institute Brief on Coffee and Cancer Risk 2022
⁴ World Health Organization Caffeine Intake Guidelines 2021
⁵ Brewers Association Beer Markup and Distribution Report 2023
⁶ NielsenIQ On-Premise Alcohol Trends 2023
⁷ Mintel Global Non-Alcoholic Drinks Report 2024
⁸ National Restaurant Association Profitability Benchmarks 2023
⁹ Gallup Poll Health Survey December 2023
¹⁰ Euromonitor International Sparkling Water in On-Trade 2023