The Twilight Years of Soda are Upon Us. And That’s Not a Bad Thing.

It’s no surprise that global soda consumption is down – way down, in fact. It’s a trend that’s been going on for quite a few years now. But one drink segment that has managed to avoid this trend is that of premium beverages that are typically made in-house. We’re talking about drinks that include iced teas, bubble teas, cold-pressed juices, lemonades and smoothies.

These types of beverages have seen double-digit growth over the past year and have seen amazing growth (approaching 50%) in the past five years.

When it comes to raising the level of quality of your ingredients, it ultimately increases the cost of those ingredients as well. And while many QSRs and fast-casual restaurants do their best to not pass those costs along to customers, it can be difficult to strike a balance between quality and increasing cost of doing business at a higher level.

At a minimum, restaurants that choose higher-quality ingredients (fresh produce, animals raised without antibiotics, etc) can expect a two percent increase in their food costs.

Associated with this cost is something that many people don't often think about - the cost of food safety training for the proper handling of higher quality (and fresher) foods. The cost of this kind of training can be high - and with a generally high turnover rate in the QSR-fast casual industry, brands are looking at a lot of money spent on food - and training on how to properly handle that food.

The stomach wants what the stomach wants – when the stomach wants it.

There was once a time in this world where, after dinner, people would wind down their day and actually do the unthinkable – go to bed and sleep until morning. Then, one day, a restaurant had an idea that it would not just add a meal to the day, but also start a trend that would change our eating habits forever.

Taco Bell decided that Americans needed a fourth meal. They bought it and now we’ve got a mix of late night dominators trying to up their breakfast game and leaders in the QSR sector offering all day breakfast.

If there’s one thing that can be said about the Taco Bell brand it’s that the company is ambitious. In the recent past, the taco brand leader has been at the forefront of innovation that hasn’t just earned it the attention of the media, it’s got customers buying more than ever.

Now, Taco Bell is poised to open over 100 locations in for major markets over the next five years to give itself a 30 percent increase in its number of locations globally.

There’s no real easy way to tell you this, so we’re just going to come out and say it. McDonald’s in the USA has created a new, silicone utensil that lets you insert french fries for prongs. And then you use it to eat. This half-fork, half fries hybrid has been introduced to go along with the brand’s new signature burgers and chicken sandwiches.

So what exactly is it that one would eat with this “Frankenfork”? Well, the idea is that you would use the Frork to scoop up any toppings that may fall off during the course of eating a meal.