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The mother of all Beverage Trackers: Summertime drinks from 57 chainsThe mother of all Beverage Trackers: Summertime drinks from 57 chains

New items and returning specials from Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant, Auntie Anne’s, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, Black Bear Diner, Charleys Philly Steaks, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Clean Juice, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Corner Bakery, The Counter, Dave & Buster’s, Epic Burger , Fosters Freeze, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Gott’s Roadside, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Halal Guys, The Human Bean, IHOP, Jamba, Joe & the Juice, Juice it Up!, Lion’s Choice, Main Event, Main Squeeze Juice Co., McDonald’s, Mellow Mushroom, Mooyah, Nekter Juice Bar, O’Charley’s, On the Border, Peet’s Coffee, Piada Italian Street Food, PJ’s Coffee, Potbelly, Pretzelmaker, Red Mango, Robeks, Rutter’s, Scooter’s Coffee, Shake Shack, Smashburger, Snooze, Sonic Drive-In, Studio Movie Grill, Starbucks, Sunny Street Café, Taco Bell, Taco Cabana, Tacodeli, Tim Hortons, Tous Les Jours, Tropical Smoothie Café, True Food Kitchen, Wendy’s and Ziggi’s Coffee

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 6, 2022

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Drinks tend to be an inexpensive, highly profitable and operationally straightforward way to create news about your menu, which is probably why the past two months have seen an explosion of new drinks on menus, from smoothies to shakes to soft drinks to cocktails, and also new low-carb wine at True Food Kitchen.

Beverages also can contribute to incremental sales, and of course any upgrade from tap water is a win for restaurant operators.

Lots of the current offerings are seasonal, like the watermelon drinks from Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant, Charleys Philly Steaks, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Clean Juice, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Halal Guys, Jamba, Juice it Up!, Main Squeeze Juice Co., Nekter Juice Bar, Red Mango, Robeks, Sonic Drive-In, Taco  Cabana, Tropical Smoothie Café and Ziggi’s Coffee.

There are also a bunch of new berry drinks on offer, including beverages from, Black Bear Diner, Corner Bakery, Gott’s Roadside, The Human Bean, On the Border, Peet’s Coffee (although the big news there is the new brown sugar jelly), Pretzelmaker, Snooze, Wendy’s and Taco Bell.

Taco Bell’s new Brisk Dragon Paradise Sparkling Iced Tea also has trendy dragon fruit, an ingredient also listed at drinks from Auntie Anne’s, The Human Bean, Piada Italian Street Food and Ziggy’s Coffee.

Chick-fil-A and Mooyah both have peach milkshakes, and Tous uses peach syrup in its new cold brew tonic.

There are other new shakes at The Counter, Epic Burger, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Gott’s Roadside, IHOP, Lion’s Choice and Main Event. Smashburger and Shake Shack both have non-dairy shakes.

Cold brew coffee is also in new drinks from Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, IHOP, Potbelly, Tacodeli and Tim Hortons.

What about Starbucks? That chain has a new pineapple-and-passion fruit refresher, with or without coconut milk.

McDonald’s, meanwhile, has the first new McFlurry of the year. It’s made with chocolate-covered pretzels.

There are new alcoholic options at Dave & Buster’s, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Mellow Mushroom, O’Charley’s, On the Border, Rutter’s, Snooze, Studio Movie Grill and Sunny Street Café.

Joe & the Juice sells matcha lattes now, Fosters Freeze and Scooter’s Coffee have new drinks made with Red Bull, and PJ’s Coffee has new coconut drinks and Arnold Palmers.

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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