Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) is aiming to lift its on-premise presence by focusing on the art of the “perfect serve”.
Andrew Romeril, CCEP on-premise communications and planning manager, highlights the untapped potential of Coca-Cola in restaurants.
“A lot of venues treat soft drinks as an afterthought,” he told Club Management.
“But with more people choosing not to drink alcohol, we want to complement their dining experience. Sparkling water is great, but how do you give someone who’s driving or not drinking an experience that goes, ‘That was really good’. People are spending good money on food, so we don’t want staff going out the back to pour a two-litre Coke into a cup.”
According to the company, the “perfect serve” involves five steps: start with a well-chilled glass bottle and a wide-mouth glass filled two-thirds with large, solid ice cubes and a slice of citrus. Open the bottle at the table, then pour slowly at an angle, leaving enough for the customer to top up themselves.
Romeril believes the opportunity to really showcase Coca-Cola is in pubs and clubs “where there’s good volume of throughput of soft drink”.
Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge recently embraced this approach with a custom menu pairing featuring dishes including a suckling pig and sweet sticky short ribs.
“A cold Classic has got sugar in it, so it matches the pig because it’s not very sweet,” he said.
“Whereas the beef is quite rich and a little bit sweet and there’s a little bit of Coca-Cola in the actual mix and we’re serving that with a Coke Zero, so it matches the sweetness of the meat. It’s that similar pairing as you would with wine but wouldn’t expect with Coke.”
For dessert, he brought nostalgia to the table with a Coca-Cola granita and vanilla ice cream — a playful twist on a classic spider.
“One of the things that’s pretty unique to Coca-Cola is you can buy it in about 20 different formats, whether it’s a can a plastic bottle … but we genuinely believe the best expression of Coca-Cola is served in a contemporary dining setting with food out a glass bottle,” said Mitchell Lenaghan, CCEP’s licenced general manager, during the recent dinner event.
Find out more about The Perfect Serve here.