We likely read a lot of the same trade press you probably skim past during your morning run: Punch, Eater, Imbibe, the industry trend reports. Most weeks there's a pile of noise and a handful of things actually worth knowing. This isn't everything, but it's enough to have things to talk about with your staff, and a few recipes to build on yourself.
I am not a marketing team writing about the industry from the outside. Day-by-day we make syrups and juice for a living, and we're behind our own bar as much as anyone we sell to. I wanted a newsletter that reads like a note from a small business that gets the industry, not a brand pushing product (though I'd love to drop by a sample if you haven't tried it already).
“House-Made is here to stay.”
"House-made" or "Hand-Crafted" is turning into a real differentiator again, not a nice-to-have. Eater ran a piece this week on how customers are starting to treat premade syrup brands as an actual red flag, not just a quality nitpick. People are posting about walking out of cafes when they see a shelf of the big bottled stuff. One coffee shop hired a full-time staffer just to make syrups and cream tops in-house, and says it's become their whole identity. If you're already making your own, or buying from someone who does, that's worth saying out loud on your menu. I love allowing your staff to be creative and build to their product but it's exhausting and can cause burnout. Out-sourcing your beverage prep to a hyper-local small business isn't something you should whisper about. You're giving your customers the quality they're begging for, but able to keep your pricing where you want it. Customers are actively looking for menus that highlight this for now.
Hot and sweet together is the flavor direction for 2026. "Big syrup" brands are all pushing "swicy," sweet paired with real heat: hot honey, chili-citrus, that kind of thing. We've been testing something similar into a couple of our own fall syrups, more on that below. Have something that you've fallen in love with? Let us know. We love a good recipe.
Tart and fermented flavors are climbing fast.
Hibiscus, mango sticky rice, and banana are all showing up more on menus and in cocktails. This is absolutely worth keeping an eye on as you start to build out your spring menu concepts.
Technique Worth Stealing
A no-tools garnish trick. The move comes from Giacosa 1815 in Florence. Dust straight lines of colored powder, cocoa, raspberry powder, whatever fits the drink, directly onto a dry, airy foam, then spin the glass itself with a slow, smooth turn. Centrifugal force fans the powder out into a swirling pattern. Speed up the spin for something looser, slow it down for a tighter pattern. Works on cocktails or coffee drinks with foam, just not anything served over ice since the ice breaks the pattern up. Costs nothing but a shaker of powder and a steady hand.
"Densing" instead of fat-washing. This one takes real equipment (that we don't even have): a vacuum blender, generally $350 to $2,000, but it's worth knowing about still as a concept in case your shop has some room in its holiday equipment budget. Instead of a 12 to 14 hour fat-wash, you blend spirit and fat together, about 0.5 to 2.5 percent fat by weight (bartender Max Dizard uses 1 percent olive oil), with everything held around 104 to 140°F, while the vacuum pulls air out and forces the emulsion. Run it in short bursts, about 3 minutes on, 30 seconds off, for two or three passes, until the fat is fully absorbed and nothing separates. The whole process takes about 15 minutes instead of half a day, and it's said to hold onto more acidity and aroma than a traditional fat-wash. Not a cheap buy-in, but if you're doing enough volume on fat-washed drinks to justify it, it pays for itself in time.
Start your eggnog now
If you're planning to pour eggnog this December, start aging it now! (Trust us, ours has been aging for over a year). Aging eggnog makes it safer than serving it fresh, and your customers have likely never tried anything like it.
Want to order an OatNog Base from us? Reach out to us and let us get you a gallon delivered today!
Running the Room
Costs are up, and price increases alone aren't fixing it. National Restaurant Association numbers out this fall: total operating costs are up 36 percent since 2019, wages up 41 percent, wholesale food up 35 percent. 42 percent of operators said they weren't profitable in 2025. Menu prices have already risen about as much as they reasonably can, so the industry conversation has shifted toward efficiency instead of raising prices again. Again, not here to sell you, but if we can help give you the quality you love without the labor overhead it's something every bar or coffee shop owner should consider.
Fewer SKUs, simpler ordering. Operators cutting SKU counts by up to 20 percent a year are doing it specifically to reduce waste and simplify ordering. I love having a range of flavors as much as the next person but not every bar needs it. If you can get 5-6 core syrups into your bar program and slim down the rest there's a world of menu options you can build off of that don't cause you to have a syrup shelf as big as your liquor shelf.
A third of bars are weighing their own wholesale or B2B play. Which tells me the category itself, batched syrups, ready-to-pour programs, prepped ingredients, is seen as a true real growth lane. Our opinion on this one: let us spend the time making your beverage prep, you guys spend the time doing what you love.
From Our Kitchen
I've been playing with a hot honey direction in a couple of our fall syrups. Cinnamon Apple and Pumpkin Pie have both gotten a version with a little heat on the back end that hasn't seen a single drink outside of our own kitchen yet but maybe will soon. If you want a sample to try against what you're already running, just say the word.
Coming soon! We're putting together a monthly industry night here in Austin: a rotating host bar, a short menu built around a few of our syrups, a discount for industry folks who show up and say where they work. First one's still being locked in, we'll have details soon. If you want your bar considered as a future host, reply and let us know.
If something in here was useful, or you think we got something wrong, just hit reply. We're reading.
