Key takeaways
- Cocktail on tap systems significantly reduce service times, allowing bars, restaurants, and hotels to serve high-quality cocktails in seconds.
- Dispensing pre-made batch cocktails improves consistency and portion control, keeping your customers satisfied.
- Versatile taps can serve a range of cocktails, as well as other in-demand drinks like iced coffee and matcha.
As we look to 2026 and beyond, the drinks service landscape is changing faster than ever. The past few years have seen the explosion of drinks like iced coffee and matcha. Now, high-quality craft cocktails are next in line to grow rapidly.
Fresh cocktail service is vital for restaurants, bars, and hotels – but manually preparing and serving each cocktail by hand is time-consuming and inefficient. For this reason, investing in a cocktail on tap system to dispense batch-made cocktails can be an effective strategy.
To learn more about the benefits of using a cocktail on tap system, I spoke to Colin Hampden-White. He is the presenter of The Three Drinkers, an award-winning Amazon Prime TV series, and a Non-Executive Director of Cask Trade. Read on for his insight.
How important is a cocktail on tap system?
A cocktail on tap system will be more important than ever in 2026 as a way of streamlining your drink service. Systems like the Flo-Smart allow you to automatically dispense a pre-made cocktail in under six seconds. This saves time compared to manual preparation and ensures each serving tastes the same.
Colin believes these systems can be useful based on your bar’s market positioning. “I think it depends on the establishment and the local area,” he tells me. “Taps would work for bars that don’t specialise in cocktails and whose bartenders don’t have the training to make cocktails. If they want to have a select number of cocktails for sale, taps could be very useful.”
Using systems like the Flo-Smart, fresh cocktail service is much more streamlined than manual methods. The system connects directly to industry-standard bladders, meaning you can batch prepare cocktails before you open and have them ready to serve all day. This means no variance in drink quality, since each serving will taste the same as the last.
You can also program the equipment with pre-determined portion sizes. This ensures accurate portion control for different cocktails, such as serving espresso martinis in smaller volumes than an old fashioned.
Another important benefit of a cocktail on tap system is the time you can save. If you’re a catering business working a live event, for instance, you can use Flo-Smart to cut queue times and keep visitors happy.
The financial element of a cocktail on tap system is also worth considering. Cocktails are much more profitable than other drinks like matcha and iced coffee because most of the ingredients – from juice to spirits – are inexpensive. Using a dispenser to quickly serve cocktails, you can capitalise on this higher profit margin to make much more money in a day.
For instance, if your per-unit price for a cocktail is $5 and you can sell it for $15, the more efficient your service, the higher your profits. Using Flo-Smart, you can serve hundreds of cocktails a day at your bar or restaurant, more efficiently than any manual method. This translates to significantly higher revenue from these high-margin drinks.
Colin believes this kind of service model is likely to become more common going forward. “Pre-batched cocktails served quickly through a tap will become more popular in 2026,” he says. As consumer expectations for efficient service grow, this type of equipment can easily become the backbone of your workflows.
What should you look for in a cocktail on tap system?
Alongside fast dispensing times, Colin believes that variety and easy maintenance are two other key features of a good cocktail on tap system.
“I would say one that can flush between serves and have multiple serves would be good,” he says. This kind of versatility is vital, not just for operational efficiency but also for a business’s equipment budget. If you need different equipment to dispense Negronis, martinis, and pina coladas, the investment soon outweighs the benefits.
That’s why systems like Flo-Smart are particularly useful. The machine is compatible with a wide range of chilled, non-carbonated beverages, ranging from cocktails to even iced coffee and matcha. For bars, this means expanding your menu without needing to invest in additional equipment. This agility also means you can adapt to new trends, like low- or no-alcohol mocktails, using your existing bar setup.
That said, Colin also emphasises the importance of focus: finding out which cocktails work best with your dispenser and sticking to them. “I think it’s important to find a few very good serves,” he says. “But if all of your serves are good, then as long as you’re flushing between them consistently, having more serves can be useful.”
In this regard, easy cleaning and maintenance are very important. If your cocktails contain dairy-based or perishable ingredients, hygiene is very important for any equipment you use. Flo-Smart has semi-automated and fully automated cleaning programmes, helping you eliminate potential contamination issues no matter which cocktails you’re serving.
He also believes that the time you can save with a cocktail on tap system allows you to experiment with your own signature drinks. “Taps that can take bespoke cocktails, as they do in Dram Bar in Soho, would be good,” Colin says. These exclusive menu items can be a key differentiator for your bar, incentivising customers to visit you instead of competitors.
Evidently, investing in a cocktail on tap system can be a very fruitful strategy for bars, restaurants, and hotels. It allows you to quickly and efficiently serve high-margin cocktails without the bottlenecks presented by traditional service. The versatility they offer also means you can expand your menu with ease, presenting unlimited opportunities for innovation.
How Mr. Consistent used Flo-Smart for fresh cocktail service
Using Flo-Smart as a cocktail on tap system was particularly beneficial for Mr. Consistent, Australia’s leading cocktail and mixer manufacturer. They used Flo-Smart systems to serve cocktails at Oasis concerts taking place at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
The team at Mr. Consistent uses five portable rigs, consisting of a Flo-Smart system, an under-counter refrigerator, and a dispensing line. Using the multi-tap feature, they could dispense their cocktail mixers with the appropriate amount of alcohol at the touch of a button.
For settings like live music venues, the benefits of Flo-Smart dispensers are vast. Staff members didn’t have to spend time manually measuring and preparing each drink to order, which made service much more efficient. As a result, they served hundreds of cocktails per rig each night, with the contract caterer making tens of thousands of dollars in gross profit across one event.
If you’re interested in a Flo-Smart cocktail on tap system, visit our website or get in touch with us directly.
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