Every Friday Uncorkd will compile a list of the restaurant and beverage industry stories that had us talking this week. Here’s our list of must read articles from the web this week. Featuring Whisky Advocate awards, salvaged foods, new dessert trends, and the ever present purchasing power of millennial diners. Read more
Earlier this year, international wine and spirit suppliers began efforts to combat the large and profitable counterfeit alcohol market. Utilizing new technology, they’re attempting to change how consumers interact with products in stores. Suppliers are looking beyond security measures, though. The fraud detection technology also opens up new marketing channels. It’s an interesting two-fold effort that looks to combine two distinct areas: consumer fraud protection and marketing. Industry leaders Diageo and Pernod Ricard have focused on the future of mobile marketing. But will the efforts pay off by reducing bootleg liquor sales and changing how marketers advertise to consumers?
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When you think of England and alcohol, wine doesn’t necessarily come to mind. Beer? Of course. It’s tough to beat an English ESB. Gin? Certainly. There aren’t many labels more iconic than the Beefeater yeoman warder stationed on their London dry gin. But English wine, and specifically, English sparkling wine? No, that doesn’t bubble to the forefront of the mind. But be warned: that may soon change. Read more
The growth of hard cider in the U.S. has been noted and written about for some time now. The boom began between 2013-2014, when the cider category grew over 75%. That’s an insane growth curve for a market. Cider has a lengthy history steeped in European beverage lore. Accounts of the fermented beverage date back to the Roman Empire. While Europe holds the mantel of cider (Britain boasts the worlds largest per capita consumption of cider), the earnest beverage of fermented apple juice has begun to capture American palates once again. This market growth has allowed cidery’s to experiment with production and offer innovative new products. Read more
It can be intimidating to start your wine education. As you dig down into the soil bed of wine you can find yourself pushed up against thousands of years of nuance and history associated with the fabled elixir. There are important geographies, a unique lexicon, long histories that span across countries, famous vintages, and much pride that comes along with wine production. I
If you work at a restaurant or bar, or are just a curious consumer, there is a lot you feel like you’re missing when you’re dealing with wine. For me, one of those head-scratching moments comes from understanding the differences and similarities between French and American wines. In this post, I aim to help you out with some of those distinctions. Read more
Sparkling wine continues its growth in both U.S. and U.K. markets.
The overall wine category has grown in the U.S. market for 22-straight years. And its future continues to look bright as many publications and industry experts note that millennials are drinking more expensive wine, and more often, than previous generations.
Eco-friendly has been the mindset (or marketing) of a growing number of hip and trendy restaurants for years now. The “green” mantra is often repeated on menus across the U.S. in the form of buzz-word phrases like “locally-sourced,” “organic,” and “post-consumer.” Your server might have told you that your table was made from “reclaimed wood” from something else that used to be wooden, or that the light fixtures were made from repurposed subway parts. Though the green movement has its haute annoyances, eco-conscious business is certainly a good thing. And new technology is making it easier for restaurants to adapt to a more green way of doing things, both in the back-of-house and in front of guests.
The restaurant industry is an insane environment to work in. In a full service restaurant, you have multiple “departments” that are crucially interdependent on one another. Restaurants function as a service assembly line; on that partially occurs in full view of guests. Communication is paramount in this situation. But often, workers are rushed, or don’t share the same first language. This complicated relay is a task restaurants perform hundreds of times on a busy Friday night. There are spaghetti-thin margins-of-error for a restaurant operating during service.
It takes a great staff to perform at a high level night in and night out. Great staff will keep the stress and chaos tucked behind smiles, out of guests’ view. But in an industry that has one of the highest rates of staff turnover, how do you keep a stellar restaurant staff motivated and clocked in? Read more
Food and restaurant tech has surged over the past few years, with consumers becoming the no. 1 adapters to apps like delivery databases Grubhub or Seamless. Now, big chain store behemoths, Starbucks and McDonald’s are creating their own services, launching apps that customers can use to pre-order and pay for items before entering the store.
But for restaurants looking to utilize technology to help bolster business and increase customer loyalty, the focus is on analytics and understanding customer behavior over just simplifying procedure. Read more
When it comes to beer, America runs on lagers. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Just check out this ranking of the top 20 beers in the U.S.
What is surprising, is that lagers have become one of the fastest growing styles produced by craft brewers. Much of this growth has centered in the craft pilsner category. In January of 2015, craft pilsners grew 56% in a year to year comparison. Read more