What’s the first thing your customers experience when they crack open a drink menu?
The cocktail names.
At this point, your customer might not even be sure what they want to drink yet, which is a huge opportunity. You, the bar manager, need to get this part right if your customer is going to have a good cocktail experience.
“Building a cocktail list with great names—and great descriptions—is extremely important,” said Dan Dufek, Breakthru Beverage Development Specialist. “You need to keep people interested when they open a drink menu.”
"If your cocktail list isn’t written well, it could turn people off ordering a cocktail entirely."
Here are five common mistakes found on drink menus, according to Dufek.
1) Obscure Descriptions
Dan Dufek: If you list the ingredients under a cocktail name in an ambiguous way—a way that’s unfamiliar to a regular person—that’s not going to work for your business. Just saying angostura is confusing. Just saying mango is confusing. Without being too wordy, explain the ingredients. For instance, if you are using a French liqueur called “Pamplemousse,” just list it as “grapefruit liqueur.” This will help your customers understand the cocktail, and it creates less work for your serving staff since they won’t have to explain the ingredient.
2) Leading Your Menu Off with an Odd Cocktail
The first cocktail on your menu should be something with a wide appeal, like a Mule, Old Fashioned or Margarita. Don’t start with a complicated drink at the top. You want to reach a wide audience with the first drink.
3) No Inside Jokes
Sometimes I see bars that use inside jokes as names for their signature cocktails. While that may be fun for the staff, it does nothing for the customer.
4) Difficult-to-Understand Names
You want your customers to instantly be able to read and begin understanding your cocktails. If the name is too complicated, whether it be due to length or using obscure language, that may have your customers closing that drink menu sooner than you’d like. Sometimes, literal names and descriptions are the way to go, like Raspberry Ginger Collins. Super simple and customers instantly get it.
Feel free to have fun with the names and use pop culture references. I saw a cocktail recently called Netflix and Green Chile—that was funny and has become one of the bar’s most successful drinks.
5) Way Too Many Cocktails
While being spoiled for choices may be a good thing sometimes, it’s not with a cocktail list. I regularly see cocktail lists with more than 20, 30 and even 40 cocktails. That’s madness, and sifting through that many names will be overwhelming for the customer. Try to keep your signature cocktail list to 12 or less and just focus on making a smaller offering of excellent cocktails as opposed to a giant list of average to mediocre cocktails.