Arkadia Beverages is helping cafés stand out from the crowd with its extensive range of chai and drinking chocolate options.
With market competition strong and café operators looking to retain consistent and new customers, having a point of difference and unique menu can be make or break to business success.
To assist café operators in the process, Arkadia Beverages Brand Manager Nathan Alfrey says Arkadia offers a variety of chai and drinking chocolates that can be served in multiple ways to suit the venues unique menu.
“We have developed the Arkadia Beverages range understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. With each chai and drinking chocolate we produce, we try to offer something for every type of café and every beverage menu,” says Nathan.
“There are so many incredible coffee roasters in Australia, so we try to fill the rest of the gaps on a café’s beverage menu. For cafés, it means they can buy their preferred coffee and get everything else they need for their menu from the same supplier, which makes life so much easier.”
Nathan says the Arkadia range caters to everyone, whether customers like their chocolate indulgence to be sweet and creamy or rich and dark.
“The Arkadia drinking chocolate range can be used to create cappuccino dusting, higher cocoa content blends and specialist offerings. The product range includes Fairtrade Organic, gluten free and vegan options,” he says.
“Trends are always on the move and lately we’ve seen a shift towards higher cocoa content chocolates, and our 33 per cent cocoa blend seems to have hit a real sweet spot in the market.”
Similarly, Nathan adds that its chai range has continued to grow to give cafés all the options they need to meet market demand.
“Our chai spice powder is probably what we are best known for and the go-to chai for many Australian cafés. Many cafés now serve a leaf chai as well as a powder, so the Arkadia sticky chai gives cafés a leaf option as well,” he says.
As customers become more educated in high-quality beverage options and seek premium coffee and beverage blends, Nathan says Arkadia has seen an increased demand for sticky leaf chai.
“The café scene in Australia is very mature, and the quality is second to none. Consumers are looking for new taste experiences and are more willing to experiment and taste new menu items,” he says.
“Now we’re seeing a trend in cafés serving both sticky chai and a powder selection as premium options rise in popularity, so we created both, leaving the choice to the consumer.
“For other cafés looking for a point of difference but still wanting the convenience of a powder, our Turmeric, Masala and Vanilla chai give more choice to baristas and consumers.”
Nathan says Arkadia’s powder chai dissolves easily, meaning it’s fast to serve as a chai latte, and can equally be used to make an iced chai or chai frappe by simply adding hot or cold milk, and stirring.
“The clean-up is just as easy, with no tea leaves to scoop out and tea pots to have to wash up. It literally takes as long as the time needed to steam your milk and pour it into a glass. There’s no steeping required, which is a huge operational advantage for high turnover venues.”
Developed for the Melbourne café scene over 15 years ago, Nathan says Arkadia chai blends are now enjoyed all over the world, due to a refined and perfected ingredient list.
“The Arkadia sticky chai is handcrafted and all natural. The wet chai blend is made from 100 per cent pure Australian native honey and Ceylon loose leaf black tea, combined with cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and black pepper to create a truly distinctive taste,” he says.
“We’ve had the product in the market for six years and continued to tweak and improve the formulation over time to ensure we are serving the best tasting chai on the market.”
Nathan adds that Arkadia’s drinking chocolate range is also quite extensive, each with its own special formulation.
“We source a variety of cocoas from around the world to make each blend unique. From West Africa, the Dominican Republic and South America, our cocoas each have their own taste profile that gives the drink a distinct flavour,” he says.
“Likewise, the range of sugars used are varied. Each gives their own influence to taste and mouthfeel. The vast majority of sugar we use is sourced from Australian farms, with some of the more specialist sugars coming from overseas, like panela and coconut blossom sugar.
“Our research and development team are experts in the art of blending those cocoas and sugars to deliver a uniquely indulgent beverage that cannot easily be replicated.”
With many ingredients sourced from Australia, Nathan says it is important the company to supports Australian made products and employment.
“We have our own dry powder blending facility in Melbourne where we produce all our powdered products. Our sticky chai is also hand blended out of the same facility,” says Nathan.
“We also have a second manufacturing site in Queensland where we produce all our own liquid beverage bases, including syrups, sauces, milkshake toppings, smoothies, and more.”
He adds that due to the company’s use of high-quality ingredients, baristas and consumers can be assured they’re getting a great taste experience with Arkadia.
“The range is widely available from coffee roasters and distributors around the country, and we try to make it as quick and easy as possible to serve up a great beverage,” Nathan says.
Arkadia Beverages has no plans to stop growing, with several exciting new launches expected to hit the market this year.
“We have a new range of loose leaf and pyramid tea bags that just launched in May, and another premium drinking chocolate in the pipeline for later in the year. We’re also developing new syrup flavours to keep growing that range,” says Nathan.
“At the end of the day, our expertise is in selecting and blending the right ingredients to make a unique and indulgent beverage. It’s our mission to make your menu stand out through offering other quality beverages.”
For more information, visit www.maltrafoods.com and www.arkadiabeverages.com.au
This article appears in the June 2022 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.