Loryn Terry sampling aTeasters blend recommended by barista Bailee Taylor
By Dan Bolton and Jason Walker
What do rushed consumers eat for breakfast? They eat convenience.
Growth in the breakfast segment has led all restaurant segments for the past five years with take-away items surging past traditional breakfast fare. Quick service restaurants (QSR) now account for 80% of total restaurant morning meals, according to the NPD Group, a global market research firm.
NPD reports breakfast visits increased 2% in the year ended in December 2014 with more than 12.5 billion breakfast visits to US foodservice outlets. It wasn’t the full-service restaurants raking in the lion’s share of sales. Price-conscious and on-the-go consumers gave their dollars to quick and limited service restaurants, which resulted in greater gains than in full service restaurants.
Service time averages three minutes
Meanwhile morning meal visits to midscale/family dining restaurants are declining, according to NPD Group/Crest foodservice market research.
A Packaged Facts study also revealed greater increases in per capita spending on breakfast than other mealtimes in the five years. A part of this upswing is attributed to the healthful, higher quality options being provided. The report specifically notes innovations in tea and juice offerings as an element of these improved options.
In 1984 Americans annually purchased an average 19 morning meals at restaurants, but today the average is 31, according to NPD. The accelerating trend should greatly benefit sales of hot tea, a day-starter enjoyed by about one quarter of US adults.
Tea in the morning
Richard Austin, founder of Teasters Tea Company, a Lubbock, Texas retailer with plans to franchise additional locations, demonstrated a significant increase in morning visits by upgrading and expanding his morning beverage selection of fine teas. Teaster’s drive-thru menu features dozens of teas including multi-steep oolongs and chocolate pu-erh as well as short-steep quince green tea and long-steep tisanes such as blueberry hibiscus and caramel macchiato rooibos.
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“Before, coffee orders were the majority of morning sales, 85-95%,” said Austin, whose shop is equipped with a Franke FM-850 that makes 162 espressos per hour. “Tea just took too long at that time of day. Since bringing on the BKON (pronounced beacon) Craft Brewer we have increased our morning traffic between 40-45%,” he said. The two brewers cost under $15,000 each and make tea in 60 to 90 seconds using reverse atmospheric infusion (RAIN) technology.
“Hot teas are the most popular on cool mornings,” explains Austin. “Our most popular hot tea is ‘Going Nuts,’ a flavored fruit tea with apple, cinnamon and caramelized almonds. It represents about 25–30% of our morning hot tea sales. Going nuts requires a 12 minute steep by conventional methods. With the BKON, we can brew it in 90 seconds. The flavor surpasses any other flavor produced by any other brewing technique. The quality plus speed of delivery creates a much higher morning traffic count than when we used other brewing methods,” he said.
“Our morning traffic was averaging approximately 10-15% of our daily business. Since installing the BKON, revenue from our morning business has increased to 30-35% of daily sales,” said Austin.
Bolstering his morning menu yielded an unexpected benefit.
“The morning customer is my best source of advertising,” according to Austin. “The morning segment creates a demand for a quality drink for lunch, after work, and for evening meals (gallon tea purchases). They have my product sitting on their desk during the morning and sometimes all day. That in itself creates interest and demand from co-workers,” said Austin.
Carly Rodgers with customer Rob Sawicki
The need for speed
TIME magazine reported last year that the amount of time drivers spend waiting in line for food is dramatically increasing, according to the 2014 Drive-Thru Performance Study by the trade publication QSR Magazine. QSR chains generate 60% of their sales from drive-thru customers which makes wait times especially problematic during the morning rush.
“In 2013, drivers spent 180.83 seconds (3 minutes) on average in line, USA Today reports, but now that average has jumped to 219.97 seconds — a roughly 40-second jump. Though the study increased its sample size in the past year, studying 2,188 trips at 17 fast-food companies instead of last year’s 7 chains, those extra 40 seconds make for the longest wait time in the 17 years of its study,” according to TIME.
Brewing tea traditionally takes anywhere from 5 to 12 minutes, yet pouring a regular coffee takes 30 seconds. Pulling a shot of espresso can be done in half the time it takes to make a cup of tea. “With BKON, we produce a hot or iced tea from order to fulfillment in approximately 3 minutes. Wait time at other shops ranges from 7 minutes to as much as 20 minutes for a crafted drink,” said Austin.
“Customers trying to get to work do not have the luxury of time to wait. They want a great tasting high quality product produced in the shortest period of time. They are willing to pay a premium price for that type of service,” said Austin, whose average register ring ranges from $2 to $4.75 depending on preparation (iced / hot) and the type of tea or coffee product.”
“The reason for having a high end brewer is taste and speed. We can brew any loose leaf tea hot or cold in 90 seconds. The competition cannot. That is the competitive edge, an important reason for investing in a BKON,” according to Austin.
“The sheer number of brands crowding into every niche imaginable in quick service has forced players to become better, faster, stronger, more convenient,” according to QSR Magazine. “And that pressure to perform at a higher level has had broad implications on the drive-thru operation, where companies have tinkered with various components in an effort to create an outdoor lane that facilitates a top-shelf brand experience.”
Customers experience short wait timeregardless of tea
All day tea
Gourmet lemonade and specialty ice teas are the 2015 top trends in non-alcoholic beverages according to the National Restaurant Association’s annual What’s Hot in 2015 survey of 1,300 chefs.
Hot offerings convert to iced teas as the summer temps take over, according to Austin, who sells gallon jugs of tea and sacks of gourmet ice cubes. “We now offer 21 iced teas versus 11 and 61 hot teas versus 36 prior to the BKON,” said Austin. Customers can sample any tea on the menu.
“We were able to increase our offering of iced teas as well as hot teas by 40% and we do not have to devote space to accommodate conventional iced tea dispensers,” he said.
“We have a BKON dedicated to hot teas and a second BKON for iced teas. They are interchangeable and brew coffee as well. BKONs give us consistency in taste because of the ability to create and store in the BKON recipes for each individual tea,” he explained. Recipes eliminate errors in brewing time, temperature, and water volume.
Bailee Taylor operates BKON
“The only human intervention is the correct measuring of the grams of tea to be brewed. We have addressed that by creating a special container that is pre-filled by our employees with the correct grams per brew per tea type. This adds to the efficiency and speed in delivery of the product. The consistency of taste is the same on cup 20 as it was on cup 5 or cup 11. By programming recipes and storing them in BKON’s Craft Cloud, the training is minimal in order to produce a quality product,”Austin explains.
“We also save money on labor by having the BKON. We cut 30 minutes off our opening routine by not pre-brewing for dispensers and no longer clean up dispensers on closing, cutting 30 minutes off our cleaning schedule at night. The BKON has a self-cleaning procedure with little employee involvement,” he said.
Technology that produces a better product and a more affordable product appeals to customers, said Austin, whose business has been featured in local and trade press. “We are able to capture a market that is totally untouched by any other craft brewing system, setting the standard for anyone trying to compete in the arena of fast-brewed fine tea,” he said.