Refreshing summer drinks lined up, milkshakes and frozen fruit

5 Refreshing Summer Drinks to Add to Your Menu to Boost Revenue

Summer is here, and we are searching for cool, refreshing beverages to beat the heat. For a hospitality sector,  this is a great opportunity to attract more customers and increase sales with an exciting summer drink menu.

At Caffe Prima, we offer everything you need to create standout summer beverages that will keep customers coming back. Our premium wholesale products allow you to create eye-catching, delicious drinks that will have customers returning throughout the season.

Here are five essential summer drinks that not only taste great but also offer excellent profit margins and Instagram-worthy presentation that drives social media engagement.

1. Cold Coffee Creations

When summer temperatures rise, coffee lovers don't abandon their favourite beverage, they simply seek it in cooler forms. Creating a diverse cold coffee menu allows you to showcase the quality of your beans while offering refreshing alternatives that keep customers coming back throughout the season.

The beauty of cold coffee drinks lies in their versatility and broad appeal. From simple iced coffees that highlight the natural flavour profile of quality beans to indulgent frozen concoctions topped with whipped cream, there's a cold coffee option for every preference and occasion. Premium Caffe Prima beans, when properly brewed and chilled, maintain their complex flavour notes while offering cooling refreshment.

Consider offering a signature cold brew as your café's summer staple. Cold brew's smooth, less acidic profile makes it particularly appealing during warmer months, and its concentrated nature allows for creative combinations. Our Colombian Arabica beans, with their full-bodied character and balanced acidity, create an exceptional cold brew that serves as a perfect canvas for customisation with milk alternatives or sweeteners.

For customers seeking something more indulgent, coffee frappes blend the caffeine boost they crave with the satisfaction of a frozen treat. Our Italian Mahogany beans, with their rich cocoa notes, provide an ideal base for blended drinks that can appeal to even casual coffee drinkers.

Key Product Categories:

  • Coffee Beans - Our range of quality beans provides the perfect base for cold coffee drinks. If you are planning to offer cold brew coffee, medium to dark roast is the best choice.

Popular Summer Options:

  • Premium Iced Coffee - A simple yet sophisticated offering using your café's signature beans

  • Coffee Frappes - Blended frozen coffee treats that combine caffeine with cooling refreshment

  • Cold Brew - Smooth, less acidic coffee concentrate ideal for hot days

2. Milkshakes & Frozen Treats

Few summer offerings generate excitement quite like a well-crafted milkshake. These frozen indulgences tap into nostalgic memories while satisfying the universal craving for something cold, sweet, and creamy during hot summer days. For café owners, milkshakes offer the perfect combination of visual appeal, high profit margins, and broad customer appeal.

The key to a successful summer milkshake programme lies in offering both reliable classics and exciting innovations. Our Shmoo range makes creating consistent, premium milkshakes effortless even during busy periods. The thick, creamy American-style texture that customers expect is achievable with minimal training, while the range of flavours allows for endless creativity.

Classic chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla milkshakes remain perennial favourites, particularly with families and younger customers. These familiar options provide a comfortable entry point for new customers discovering your milkshake offerings. However, it's the speciality flavours and unique combinations that can truly set your café apart. Our Raspberry & White Chocolate option, with its eye-catching pink hue and sophisticated flavour profile, appeals to customers seeking something more distinctive.

The visual presentation of milkshakes offers exceptional marketing value. Served in clear glasses that showcase vibrant colours and topped with premium garnishes like Belgian chocolate curls or rainbow strands, these drinks practically market themselves when customers share photos on social media. Consider creating a signature "loaded" shake with elaborate toppings that becomes your café's must-try summer item and visual hallmark.

Key Product Categories:

  • Milkshakes - Our comprehensive Shmoo range includes everything needed for perfect shakes

  • Toppings & Garnishes - Add visual appeal with chocolate curls, rainbow strands, and mini marshmallows

Popular Summer Options:

  • Classic Flavours - Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla milkshakes remain consistent bestsellers

  • Speciality Combinations - Unique options like Raspberry & White Chocolate offer premium appeal

  • Dessert-Inspired Shakes - Transform classic desserts like banana splits into drinkable treats

3. Chai & Tea-Based Beverages

As café menus diversify beyond coffee, tea-based offerings have emerged as essential components of a well-rounded summer drink selection. These beverages appeal to non-coffee drinkers while providing refreshing alternatives that even coffee enthusiasts enjoy as a change of pace during hot weather.

Our Drink Me Chai range offers café owners a simple pathway to creating premium chai beverages that can be easily adapted for summer service. The aromatic blend of spices, including cinnamon, ginger and cloves, creates a warming flavour profile that seems counterintuitive for summer, yet works beautifully when served over ice. The complex spice notes provide a sensory experience that feels both indulgent and refreshing, particularly when paired with cold milk or a dairy alternative.

Iced chai lattes make excellent entry points for customers who might be unfamiliar with chai flavours. Their visual appeal - a gradient of rich amber tones when properly layered - makes them stand out on your counter or in social media posts. For something truly distinctive, our Matcha Chai offers the vibrant green colour that has made matcha-based drinks so popular, combined with the familiar comfort of chai spices.

Beyond chai, traditional iced teas provide lower-priced options that still deliver excellent margins. Consider creating signature tea-based refreshers by combining premium black or green teas with 1883 fruit syrups and fresh garnishes. These beverages offer lighter alternatives that appeal particularly during the hottest days when customers seek pure refreshment without the richness of milk-based drinks.

Key Product Categories:

Popular Summer Options:

  • Iced Chai Lattes - The aromatic spices work beautifully over ice for a refreshing summer treat

  • Matcha-Based Drinks - Vibrant green colour and health benefits make these highly marketable

  • Iced Tea Variations - Classic summer refreshers that can be enhanced with fruit or herb infusions

4. Plant-Based & Vegan Options

The demand for plant-based alternatives has grown from niche interest to mainstream expectation. Today's café customers increasingly expect quality dairy-free options, making a comprehensive plant-based summer drink menu essential for business growth rather than merely optional.

Our Iglooh Vegan Frappe Mix offers a versatile foundation for creating dairy-free frozen beverages with the creamy texture and satisfying mouthfeel customers expect. Unlike improvised solutions that can result in watery or inconsistent drinks, this purpose-formulated mix produces professional-quality vegan milkshakes and smoothies every time.

Fruit smoothies represent the perfect summer option for health-conscious customers seeking refreshment with nutritional benefits. Berries, tropical fruits, and green ingredients can be blended with the vegan base to create vibrant, Instagram-worthy beverages that celebrate summer's fresh flavours. The natural colours, deep purple from berries, tropical green from kiwi and spinach combinations, create visually stunning drinks that attract attention both in-store and in social media shares.

Beyond smoothies, vegan versions of your popular coffee frappes and milkshakes ensure that plant-based customers can enjoy the full range of your summer offerings. The growing segment of flexitarian consumers - those who aren't strictly vegan but regularly choose plant-based options - presents additional revenue opportunities. Many of these customers will gladly pay the small premium typically charged for dairy-free alternatives, particularly when the quality matches or exceeds the traditional version.

Highlighting your plant-based summer options demonstrates your café's commitment to inclusivity while capturing a growing market segment that might otherwise choose competitors with more accommodating menus.

Key Product Categories:

  • Vegan Frappe Mix - Our Iglooh Vegan Frappe Mix creates perfect dairy-free smoothies and shakes

  • Plant-Based Milks - Complement your vegan offerings with quality dairy alternatives

Popular Summer Options:

  • Fruit Smoothies - Berry, tropical, and green varieties appeal to health-conscious customers

  • Vegan Milkshakes - Dairy-free versions of classic favourites

  • Plant-Based Frappes - Satisfying frozen coffee options for vegan customers

5. Luxury Iced Chocolate Drinks

While iced coffee dominates the summer beverage scene, iced chocolate drinks represent an untapped opportunity for cafés looking to differentiate their menu. These indulgent, cooling treats appeal to chocolate lovers who crave something special during warm weather but may not enjoy coffee's bitter notes.

Premium iced chocolate is far more than simply chilled hot chocolate. When properly crafted, these beverages offer a sophisticated flavour experience that balances the rich complexity of quality chocolate with refreshing coldness. Our premium drinking chocolate powder serves as an excellent base for creating luxurious iced chocolate drinks with velvety texture and deep flavour.

For a simple but effective menu addition, consider offering a classic iced chocolate made with high-quality drinking chocolate powder, chilled milk, and ice. This straightforward offering can be enhanced with whipped cream for visual appeal and textural contrast. The key to exceptional iced chocolate is using proper drinking chocolate rather than instant powders—real chocolate content delivers authentic flavour that discerning customers appreciate.

More adventurous options might include frozen chocolate blends that approach the texture of a milkshake while maintaining a more sophisticated flavour profile. By combining our drinking chocolate powder with frozen elements, you create a drink that feels both indulgent and refreshing—the perfect counterpoint to hot summer days. These premium frozen chocolate drinks command higher prices similar to specialty coffee beverages but appeal to an entirely different customer segment.

Key Product Categories:

Popular Summer Options:

  • Iced Chocolate - Premium chocolate-based drink served over ice for sophisticated refreshment

  • Frozen Chocolate Blends - Thicker, milkshake-like drinks with authentic chocolate flavour

Why Summer Drinks Will Boost Your Revenue

Implementing a thoughtfully designed summer drink menu delivers benefits far beyond simply offering seasonal variety. When properly executed, these refreshing options can transform your café's performance during what might otherwise be slower months, driving significant revenue growth and building lasting customer loyalty.

The premium pricing potential of specialty summer beverages creates immediate margin enhancement. While a standard filter coffee might sell for £2.20, its iced counterpart easily commands £3.50 or more despite requiring minimal additional ingredients. Similarly, specialty items like iced chocolates and fruit-infused refreshers carry production costs of pennies per serving while selling at £3-4, generating margins that substantially outperform your regular menu.

Perhaps even more valuable is the marketing power these vibrant, photogenic beverages provide. In today's social media-driven market, an eye-catching watermelon refresher or layered iced chai latte becomes a powerful marketing asset when customers share images with their networks. Each Instagram post or TikTok video featuring your creations functions as authentic word-of-mouth advertising reaching hundreds or thousands of potential new customers at zero cost to your business.

The psychological power of limited-time offerings should not be underestimated. By clearly communicating that your summer specials will only be available for a defined period, you create a sense of urgency that motivates customers to visit promptly rather than delay. This "fear of missing out" drives immediate sales and increases visit frequency, as customers return to enjoy favourite seasonal items before they disappear.

Strategic menu design creates natural upselling opportunities around summer beverages. Offering premium toppings, flavour additions, or size upgrades provides customers with personalization options they value while incrementally increasing your average ticket size. A customer who might hesitate to spend £4.50 on a milkshake may happily pay £5.25 for the same drink with added premium toppings, perceiving the personalised experience as worth the additional cost.

Perhaps most importantly, a diverse summer drink menu expands your customer base by appealing to different preference profiles. Health-conscious consumers might visit specifically for vegan smoothies, while others seek indulgent treats like loaded milkshakes. By offering options across multiple categories, you create entry points for various customer segments who might otherwise not consider your café during summer months.

Ready to Refresh Your Summer Menu?

As temperatures rise and customers seek cooling refreshment, now is the ideal time to plan your café's summer beverage strategy. With the right wholesale partner, creating an exceptional seasonal menu becomes both straightforward and profitable.

Caffe Prima offers a comprehensive solution for summer beverage innovation. Our carefully curated product range spans premium coffee beans, specialised milkshake ingredients, versatile vegan options providing everything needed to create distinctive summer offerings that set your business apart.

Beyond simply supplying quality ingredients, we understand the practical challenges the hospitality sector faces when implementing seasonal menus. Our competitive wholesale pricing structure ensures healthy margins on your summer specials, while our efficient next-day delivery service (free on orders over £45) minimises stockouts during peak summer demand. The convenience of sourcing your complete range from a single reliable supplier streamlines your ordering process and ensures consistent quality across your menu.

Our dedicated UK-based customer support team offers more than just order processing. With deep industry knowledge and practical café experience, our specialists can provide menu development guidance, product recommendations, and troubleshooting advice specific to summer beverage offerings. This consultative approach ensures you maximise the potential of our products while creating drinks perfectly tailored to your unique customer base.

Summer represents a significant revenue opportunity for forward-thinking café owners. By introducing a thoughtfully designed selection of seasonal beverages, you create multiple benefits: increased foot traffic during traditionally slower warm-weather months, higher average ticket values, enhanced social media presence, and strengthened customer loyalty. The limited-time nature of these offerings creates urgency that drives immediate sales while building anticipation for seasonal menus in future years.

Start planning your summer menu now to maximise the potential of the upcoming season. Contact our team today to discuss how we can help boost your summer beverage sales with our quality products and competitive wholesale pricing.

Looking for more inspiring café ideas? Follow our blog for regular updates on industry trends, new product launches, and seasonal menu ideas to keep your offerings fresh and exciting throughout the year.

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