Chillin’ with the iced coffee waveChillin’ with the iced coffee wave

Iced coffee, coming into play as a year-round refresher, is a fast-growing traffic booster and revenue builder for restaurants.

In fact, total restaurant servings of iced coffee surpassed the 1 billion mark for the first time in the year ended December 2014, spiking by 18 percent over the preceding year, according to research by NPD/CREST.

Along with being a valuable add-on sale in a restaurant, chilly javas arguably draw customers because they are the type of beverages that are more likely to be purchased away from home than made at home. When the Chicago-based research firm Technomic Inc. asked consumers if they purchased various beverages with or without food, the results showed that cold, iced or blended coffee, along with specialt...