The Cold Foam Idea That Turned Into Our Biggest Café Launch This Year
Cold foam has been one of the biggest coffee trends of the year.
We've watched demand continue to grow across our cafés, with several of our cold foam drinks taking off on social media. Rather than creating another flavour, we asked ourselves a different question.
What if customers could try all of them?
That simple idea led to one of our most successful café launches to date.
The Idea
During one of our regular café innovation sessions, our Head Barista suggested serving our four most popular cold foam flavours together on a tasting paddle.
The goal wasn't just to launch another drink. It was to create an experience people would want to talk about, photograph and share.
Because we also serve beer, we already had tasting paddles behind the bar. Instead of investing in new equipment, we simply used what we already had.
The tasting board included:
- Salted Cream Cold Foam
- Strawberry Cold Foam
- Double Choccy Cold Foam
- Vanilla Cold Foam
Customers could enjoy them on their own or discover their favourite before adding one to their next iced drink.
The Results
A few weeks after launch, the numbers exceeded our expectations.
- More than 1,000 Cold Foam Tasting Boards sold
- More than 1 million people reached across social media
- Hundreds of first-time customers visited our cafés
-
Gross café sales increased 12.9% during June
More importantly, it reminded us that customers aren't just looking for another coffee.
They're looking for something worth experiencing.
What Cafés Can Learn
We know our situation was unique. Having tasting paddles already available certainly helped.
But that wasn't the real reason it worked.
The success came from taking something customers were already excited about and presenting it in a way they hadn't experienced before.
Every café has opportunities like this.
Rather than asking, "What's the next trend?", ask:
"How could we make this trend uniquely ours?"
Sometimes the best ideas aren't the most complicated, they're simply a different way of serving something customers already love.
Want to Try Cold Foam?
If you're thinking about introducing cold foam to your menu, we've put together a practical guide covering our base recipe, flavour variations and a few lessons we've learned along the way.