Food & Wine Pros

Should restaurants offer a 'soft drinks list' along with their wine list?

Fruit juice company Pago Fruit Juices has hit the headlines this week for calling on restaurants and hotels to add a fruit juice list to their wine list. The company claims that 17% of British adults are teetotal, and that others periodically avoid alcohol on health grounds or because they are pregnant or driving. They estimate that up to 25% of customers could be looking for soft options to drink when they go out to eat.

Well, my first reaction, obviously, is that they would say that wouldn’t they? They make fruit juices. But in fact Tony Harwood, the obviously media-savvy MD of Pago, may have put his finger on an upcoming trend.

In the states soft drinks menus are being introduced by upmarket bars and fine dining restaurants such as Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago which offers a non-alcoholic beverage tasting menu including Tangerine and Amazake and Red Kuri squash and Toasted Sunflower Seeds. And I know of one equally prominent chef in the UK who is contemplating a similar experiment.It makes sense for the increasing number of upmarket vegetarian restaurants too. In Chicago Green Zebra lists such imaginative drinks as Pink Peppercorn Thyme Soda and Watermelon Lassi while the recently opened London vegan restaurant Saf offers a healthgiving botanical cocktail list.

When you look at the increasing sophistication of the soft drinks market, the launch of fresher-tasting products like Innocent’s This Water and the enduring popularity of juice bars it’s a wonder this hasn’t happened before.

So would you welcome more soft drinks options in restaurants, what sort of drinks would you want and what price would you be willing to pay for them? And would you like to see more about soft drink matches on this site? Mail me at fiona@matchingfoodandwine.com with your views.

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