5 Reasons Why The Cup Is the Growth Engine

With coffee demand hitting record highs, liquid assets are now the ultimate margin engine.

In a stressed economy, beverages have evolved from a menu-sidecar into a strong-margin, low-risk vehicle for frequency-driven loyalty. While food traditionally anchored the quick-service playbook, the modern landscape has seen a seismic shift in consumer behavior. Total coffee consumption in the U.S. has reached a two-decade high, with the National Coffee Association reporting 67 percent of American adults now drink coffee every single day.

“Beverages are now one of the most controllable margin levers available, offering faster production, higher repeatability, and lower commodity risk than complex food assemblies,” says Christine Dalrymple, Vice President of Operations at The Human Bean. “A beverage is an easily accessible and affordable indulgence for guests when they want a treat during their day.”

Beverage Sales Strategy

For operators looking to optimize their earnings, The Human Bean has a blueprint for leveraging drink-powered operations through five core pillars of generating repeat visits.

1. Make the Drink the Destination

To drive true frequency, a beverage must be craveable enough to inspire a dedicated trip rather than just tagging along with a food order. The Human Bean achieves this through a commitment to high-quality ingredients. Premium hand roasted specialty coffees are at the core.

Accompanying their coffees are several other beverage categories including their proprietary clean caffeine energy drink ‘Bright Energy’, whole leaf teas, real fruit smoothies and an array of Italian soda combinations that provide their guests something for all taste preferences. Their Menu Innovations Team. the “Notorious MIT” as they like to call it, have a relentless passion for creating new flavor combinations with both existing, and new cutting edge flavors.

They are currently expressing their creative inspiration with delicious flavored cold foams, premium toppings, a new lemonade, and collaborations with Ollipop and Albanese.

“It is really all about educating the customer,” Dalrymple says. “When we introduce an innovative beverage as a limited-time offering or test, and guests try it and love it, they will continue to come back and order it.”

But innovation is as much about internal buy-in as it is about guest demand. When employees are genuinely excited about a new rollout, they become the brand’s most effective advocates, leading to more authentic suggestions and higher attachment rates. That passion is contagious, and it fundamentally changes the guest experience.

Menu Engineering

1. Pair with Purpose

While the drink drives the traffic, food add ons provide ticket lift. The mistake many operators make is relying on generic prompts guests find easy to ignore.

“We see more success when our teams are very specific when we make a recommendation,” Dalrymple says. “Not ‘would you like something to eat’ but rather ‘would you like to try our Jalapeño, Sausage and Egg Sandwich or Bacon and Cheese Egg Bites this morning?’ This tactic increases conversion rates and average checks while remaining frictionless.

1. Engineer Menuboards for AddOns

In a drive-thru environment, the building design must make the operation work smarter. Because guests have a limited window to scan a peripheral menuboard, the layout must be optimized for natural eye flow from the driver’s perspective. While coffee leads the presentation, The Human Bean uses its digital screens to visually sell upgrades.

“The upgrades that sell themselves are the ones customers can instantly see and imagine,” Dalrymple says. “Cold foam is a great example: it creates a layered, elevated look that signals both indulgence and craftsmanship without a single word. One of the most impactful enhancements we’ve made was introducing a rotating feature in the center-bottom panel of our digital menu boards to highlight secret-menu drinks. It’s a relatively small change in placement, but it’s delivered an outsized impact where we see an immediate lift in sales mix for whatever item is featured.”

Staff Training

1. Train for Upsell Without Friction

One of the biggest operational hurdles in the quick-service industry is training staff to recommend upgrades without making the guest feel pressured. The Human Bean solves this by removing robotic scripts and replacing them with authentic, kindness-first engagement.

“We don’t believe in scripting for our teams,” Dalrymple says. “We suggest they be specific about what they suggest, but also suggest their favorite item or something they love. That passion makes their recommendation authentic. It should be an authentic suggestion and not feel too pushy. The specificity of the suggestion will either interest them or not and quickly. Ultimately, the customer experience is the most important thing to us, so we suggest, not pressure.”

Operational Efficiency

1. Simplify Back-of-House Execution

The challenge of a beverage-first model is the potential for operational drag caused by 20–30 different customization options for each beverage. “We can offer many beverage options, but we try to use the same ingredients in many ways and keep our recipes consistent when it comes to measurements and process,” Dalrymple says.

The Human Bean protects its speed of service by streamlining order flow and ensuring more customization does not mean more operational complexity. “We may use different ingredients and put various combinations together, but we try to stay consistent with our recipe measurements and process. That allows us to innovate, but our baristas already know how to make the drink. This removes any unnecessary complexity from the execution.”

The Bottom Line

Winning the beverage war comes down to being a strong brand ambassador for quality and experience. For operators looking to grow sales without adding labor, Dalrymple suggests focusing on memorability and incremental food upsells at every interaction.

“Operators succeed by following best practices and brand standards while fostering a workplace culture where team members genuinely enjoy coming to work,” Dalrymple says. “That passion shows up in every customer interaction, creating an exceptional experience; and exceptional experiences build loyalty that brings customers back again and again.”