Sparkling fruit cocktails are arriving at the bar
Derby Blue and the Flairtender school develop recipes with carbonated fruit drinks, following the new tastes of consumers.
At the bar, fruit juice is no longer simply served straight: it becomes a base for cocktails. This is the aim of the collaboration between Derby Blue and Flairtender, the Padua-based advanced beverage training school, founded to develop recipes featuring Derby Blue Sparkling Fruit, the new line of fruit-flavored carbonated drinks recently launched for the HoReCa sector.
A collaboration, not a catalogue
The initiative was created to explore the bar uses of the seven products in the range: five fruit-based flavors with no added sugar (Ace, Pink Grapefruit, Pineapple, Green Apple, Lemon Mix) and two tonics, Classic and Mediterranean. Working on the recipes are Francesco Mortai, owner and founding partner of Flairtender, and Carlotta Rizzi, instructor of the school's bartending and coffee courses. This isn't a public menu to consult, but rather a field project: to demonstrate that the carbonated fruit drink can also be enjoyed as a mixologist, not just neat.
Less sugar, fewer calories, more curiosity
The project's starting point is a real shift in consumption. More and more people, especially younger ones, are seeking beverages other than the sugary soft drinks they're used to: lower in calories, with recognizable ingredients, and a less predictable flavor profile. Derby Blue Sparkling Fruit was created to meet this demand: the five fruit-based flavors contain no added sugar, the fruit content reaches up to 40%, and the calorie content ranges from 7 to 19 kilocalories per 100 milliliters.
The project's creators themselves explain: the Horeca channel is undergoing a period of change, with a clientele increasingly oriented towards light, versatile, and contemporary offerings. The idea, they say, is to "go beyond the concept of fruit juice," leveraging the range's versatility for both direct consumption and blending, in both non-alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions.
An example: the Derby Fizz
Among the recipes developed by Mortai is the Derby Fizz, a drink that perfectly encapsulates the project's rationale: sweet and sour, Frutta Frizzante, Derby Blue Ace, and gin, mixed directly in the glass. No complex preparation, no hard-to-find ingredients: the carbonated fruit drink serves as the base, like a juice or soda, but with a less sweet and fresher flavor profile.
The brand behind the project
Derby Blue is a historic Conserve Italia brand, present on the market for over seventy years and increasingly a key player in the Horeca channel. The Frutta Frizzante range consists of seven products in 200-milliliter blue glass bottles. Conserve Italia is a cooperative group based in San Lazzaro di Savena, in the province of Bologna, which brings together over 14,000 farmers in 35 cooperatives and processes approximately 600,000 tons of fruit, tomatoes, and vegetables in twelve plants in Italy, France, and Spain.