Top 10 ideas from Food and Beverage over the last 12 months

We've picked out our top ten Food & Beverage articles from the last 12 months on Springwise, designed to provide entrepreneurs with plenty of fresh inspiration for the future.

We’ve picked out our top ten Food & Beverage articles from the last 12 months on Springwise. We hope that the ideas listed below provide entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration and spark even more innovative efforts in the future!

1. Cocktail bar offers discounts based on stock market drops

Considering the disastrous current situation with the world economy, it’s good to see a positive spin being put on things. This is offered by the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, which offers discounts on cocktails based on the stock market – the bigger the drop in share value, the bigger the discount. This system is intended as a pick-me-up for investors on the stock market who may have lost money on particular share options. Bar owners recognize the importance of patron loyalty, and offering discounts in line with the occupation of the majority of your customers is a shrewd way of tapping into customers’ concerns. Read more about the Bull and Bear Steakhouse »

2. In the UAE, coffee chain’s cup sleeve is printed with the hour’s top headline

For many people coffee and a newspaper go hand-in-hand so it was only logical that United Arab Emirates’ Gulf News would take the next step and amalgamate the two. The result saw Tim Hortons coffee shops in the UAE selling cups of coffee that had paper sleeves printed with the news headlines of the day. The intention was to use the coffee holders as a marketing tool to show off Gulf News’ attention-grabbing headlines and encourage coffee drinkers to keep coming back for their daily hit of news. Read more about the Y&R Dubai campaign »

3. In Brazil, Hellmann’s prints customized recipes on grocery shoppers’ receipts

Hellmann’s recognized that despite their success in creating one of the leading mayonnaise brands, their product wasn’t being as widely used as they’d like. In an effort to boost sales further they decided to expand their product’s horizons in the eyes of their customers by printing suggested recipes on the supermarket receipts of those who had just purchased a jar of Hellman’s. Using a ubiquitous item such as a shopping receipt to introduce consumers to creative culinary ideas is a winning combination. Read more about the Hellmann’s mayonnaise campaign »

4. With every half-sized restaurant meal, a donation to fight hunger

Encouraging restaurant-goers to think about the amount they eat, Halfsies partnered with a number of restaurants to offer half-sized meal portions to diners at the full portion price. The extra money was donated to food poverty charities, meaning the diner could enjoy their meal as well as contribute to a worthwhile cause. Restaurants are the preserve of the well-fed, and so Halfsies initiative was brave and thought-provoking in its focus. Read more about Halfsies »

5. User-generated drinks company offers online beverage marketplace

The beverage market is a competitive field, with new flavors being introduced all the time but with old favorites often dominating the field. uflavor’s business model, however, puts the customer at the forefront in an interesting twist designed to challenge the established methods of bringing a drink to the table. User’s can concoct their own flavor of drink, which then has the potential to be sold to the general public if it proves popular on the site. Users can also design a bottle sleeve for their creation, and eventually these drinks will be mixed by a vending machine and then dispensed to the buyer. At the moment the most popular flavor combinations are available on the website for purchase. Read more about uFlavor »

6. Farmers’ cooperative pairs up singles to share leftover food

We’ve seen dating sites in many forms, and while there have been many innovative twists on the traditional date format it’s rare that we see a dating site with a focus on social causes. This is exactly what the brains behind Swedish Lantmannen concern themselves with, encouraging singles to sign up to their service by posting leftover ingredients they have lying around the kitchen as well as items required to complete a meal. The service then matches users accordingly. Read more about Lantmannen »

7. In Canada, all-in-one cheese-making kits

Increasingly consumers are becoming more adventurous in the kitchen and the DIY culture in the food industry is growing in popularity. With her finger firmly on the pulse, the woman behind Make Cheese, Ella Kinloch, recognized this trend in self-sufficiency and has developed cheese-making kits for the household. Based in Alberta, Canada, the company sends out kits including ingredients, equipment and recipes to subscribers. At the moment mozzarella, poutine and brie are on offer, with plans to introduce blue cheese and gouda in the future. Read more about the Make Cheese »

8. In the Netherlands, kitchen gardens grown on urban roofs

As the global population steadily increases year on year, finding space for horticultural pursuits may prove difficult. A kitchen garden initiative in the Netherlands, Dakboerin, has foreseen this problem and has consequently been making use of the huge amounts of roof space across cities as a blank canvas for growing vegetables. Dakboerin design the gardens to work around the urban space and they can also maintain the gardens if the roof owners require it. Hyperlocal initiatives are growing in popularity, and the reduction in food miles by producing food in the home means that this is a welcome and necessary development for the food industry. Read more about Dakboerin »

9. Personalized coffee blends, shipped weekly to the door

Coffee is now a daily staple for many people dragging themselves out of bed in the morning, so we were interested to come across a subscription service that gives users the chance to customize their own blend each week and then have it sent straight to their door. UK-based EightPointNine also offers a different blend each week to those who are uninterested in customising their own, picked by the team. For time-strapped consumers, this straight-to-the-door service could provide a welcome boost in the morning. Read more about EightPointNine »

10. Monthly food and music pairing package by subscription

Music and food have long made a perfect pairing, so Turntable Kitchen set up a subscription service which combines ingredients, recipes and carefully selected music to accompany the cooking process. The emphasis is on supporting smaller initiatives, with locally sourced ingredients and lesser-known bands featured on mixtapes to introduce the subscriber to new sounds. Variety is the spice of life, but it can also prove somewhat of a headache in the decision-making process so Turntable Kitchen’s curated service seems particularly pertinent. Read more about Turntable Kitchen »