How To Make Your Fresh-Brewed Iced Tea

At stores like Chick-fil-A and McAlister’s Deli, customers don’t only visit for the food. People go for the beverages and often buy them by the gallon.

What does it take to turn your fresh-brewed iced tea into a destination product? To start, you need a quality product. Make sure you’re using an iced tea brand that’s known for its great taste and that you’re following brewing instructions carefully.

But iced tea quality isn’t the only factor that will bring customers in droves. You’ll need to tighten up your beverage offering in a few other areas first.

Maintain Consistency With Every Brew

If your customers are visiting you specifically to buy fresh-brewed iced tea, make sure it lives up to expectations with a consistent, high-quality taste. Customers will lose trust in your brand if the same tea product tastes strong and sweet one day and weak the next.

You can ensure consistency by purchasing a commercial iced tea brewer and following instructions, or by using a coffee machine to brew your tea and taking care to follow the same steps every time. [Link to: Blog #6 (The Pros And Cons Of Using A Coffee Machine As An Iced Tea Maker) – Not yet live)

Offer A Variety Of Iced Tea Flavors

While some people enjoy drinking the same type of tea day after day, other customers crave variety. Offer an assortment of iced tea flavors such as sweet tea, peach tea and raspberry tea with the option to mix flavors and create a unique blend.

You can also tie tea flavors to events, festivals and holidays to bring people in the door and create excitement around your brand.

Promote Your Iced Tea On A Budget

McDonald’s has turned its beverages into destination products by offering soft drinks of all sizes for $1 and advertising this fact widely. However, you don’t need the marketing budget of a fast-food giant to promote your iced tea.

Try selling a refillable iced tea cup and offering a lower price on fresh-brewed iced tea to customers who purchase the cup. Those customers are more likely to buy from you again and again.

Alternatively, you can create a tea loyalty program to keep customers coming back. You may offer a free glass of iced tea with every 10 glasses bought, for example. Whatever option you choose, make sure customers know about your program by displaying prominent signs in your store or restaurant.

Think Success

To increase customer passion for your fresh-brewed iced tea, you need to think like other companies that have turned their beverages into destination products.

Chick-fil-A and McAlister’s Deli started out like your business, with an iced tea offering and the ambition to make it profitable. They achieved success by offering unique flavors, brewing great products and using their marketing dollars wisely to attract loyal customers.

Ready to learn more about how you can increase the profitability of your beverage offering? Discover five tips for boosting your convenience store iced tea sales.