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TLDR
Across the country, iced drinks are getting a big, bold twist. This summer, coffee shops everywhere are seeing customers line up for oversized iced lattes, flavored lemonades, and refreshers poured into colorful beach buckets. These drinks are bright, playful, and built for the camera—and for coffee shop owners, they’re becoming a serious seasonal sales driver.
What started as a viral TikTok quickly became one of this summer’s most shareable drink trends. It taps into everything guests want during the summer: generous portions, vibrant presentation, and something fun to share with friends. Cafés are adapting their classic cold drinks into 32 to 64 oz formats, adding creative toppings, and letting their menus do double-duty as social media content.
If you run a coffee shop and haven’t tried this format, this is a great time to test it. This guide shows you how to build an on-trend summer menu, source the right supplies, price it profitably, decorate it for Instagram, and promote it to drive preorders and daily traffic.
Build a Bucket Menu That Feels On-Brand
Make your best iced drinks summer-ready
You don’t need to develop entirely new recipes to create a great bucket drink menu. Start with what already sells well in the summer: iced lattes, cold brews, matchas, refreshers, and fruit teas. These familiar favorites can be expanded into larger formats using colorful buckets and layered with toppings like cold foam, syrups, fruit, or candy.
Weekly rotating flavors help create momentum. Try releasing a new “Bucket of the Week” and naming it with something fun, like “Coconut Cloud,” “Strawberry Matcha Twist,” or “Caramel Cream Splash.” Highlight it on your menu board, promote it in your app, and share a teaser image on your socials every Monday or Friday to spark interest.
Include refreshers, lemonades, and Red Bull-based coolers
Not everyone orders espresso, especially during summer afternoons. Bucket drinks are a perfect way to offer cold, caffeine-forward or caffeine-free alternatives like flavored lemonades or Red Bull-based fruit coolers. Many shops are layering syrups like blue raspberry, mango, peach, or cherry into Red Bull buckets, topped with sliced fruit or candy rings.
These drinks are easy to batch, require little training, and appeal to younger customers and groups. By offering a mix of coffee and non-coffee buckets, you can serve a wider range of guests and build sales throughout the day.
Where to Buy Buckets and Drink Supplies
Sourcing buckets and accessories in bulk for your shop
Most coffee shop owners are sourcing their drink buckets from vendors like Amazon and Alibaba, depending on order size and timing. On Amazon, you can search for "64 oz plastic beach buckets with handles" or "mini pails for beverages." These are often sold in multi-packs, making it easy to test the format without a big upfront investment.
For larger or ongoing needs, Alibaba offers better pricing per unit, especially when ordering 100+ pieces. Just make sure to choose food-safe plastic and check shipping times before committing to a supplier.
Beyond the buckets, shops are buying jumbo straws, food-safe drink lids, and eye-catching garnishes from WebstaurantStore, Uline, or bulk sections of Dollar Tree. Many cafés are also picking up candy toppings—like gummy bears, sour worms, or peach rings—from wholesalers or local distributors to keep things affordable.
Brand your buckets with stickers or seasonal graphics
To make your drinks stand out and feel connected to your brand, consider labeling your buckets with printed vinyl stickers. You can order these through platforms like Sticker Mule, Etsy, or even Canva Print. Use your logo, seasonal artwork, or limited-edition graphics to build a consistent visual identity around your bucket drinks.
Offering customers the option to keep the bucket or return it for a discount on their next order adds another layer of value. Reusable buckets help reduce waste and give you a reason to keep customers coming back.
Price Smart for Profit and Perception
How to set bucket pricing without losing your margins
Bucket drinks typically sell between $9.50 and $13, depending on ingredients and size. A standard iced latte bucket might start around $10, while more elaborate drinks with flavored foams, multiple syrups, or added toppings can go higher. Portion size plays a role, but presentation and novelty also support premium pricing.
The buckets themselves are inexpensive—usually under $1 each when ordered in bulk—and the markup potential on drinks in this format is strong. If you’re using ingredients already in your workflow, you avoid excess prep and reduce labor. What you’re selling here isn’t just volume, but experience. The presentation, color, and shareability all add value that your guests are willing to pay for.
Encourage upsells and bundle opportunities
You can increase your average order value by offering simple add-ons with your bucket drinks. Try pairing them with muffins, cookies, or pastry packs for a small upcharge. You might also sell reusable buckets for a one-time cost with a future refill discount. These small upsells turn a one-time novelty into an incentive to return.
If you're seeing steady demand, introduce a loyalty reward for bucket orders inside your app or offer a “Buy 4, Get the 5th Free” promotion. These strategies build repeat business while keeping the excitement alive all summer.
Planning your first bucket drink drop? Feature it inside your app so customers can preorder, get notified, and see what’s new each week.
Promote Bucket Drinks with Your App
Make your summer menu visible, clickable, and pre-orderable
Once your bucket drinks are ready to serve, the next step is getting them in front of customers fast—and making it easy for people to buy. With Per Diem, you can showcase your summer menu through bold in-app banners, full drink descriptions, and rotating weekly highlights. This helps guests see what’s available right away and builds momentum with every new flavor drop.
Use vivid photos to make your buckets stand out and include details like drink size, ingredients, toppings, and limited-time availability. Featuring a “Flavor of the Week” inside your app gives regulars a reason to check in often and builds a rhythm around your promotions.
Run happy hour deals and push last-minute offers
Bucket drinks are also ideal for timed promotions. With Per Diem, you can run happy hour specials during slower afternoon windows or set up dayparted pricing based on traffic. For example, a “Bucket Break” from 2 PM to 4 PM can help turn your mid-afternoon lull into a sales spike.
You can promote these flash offers using push notifications, which land right on your customers’ phones. Messages like “New Tropical Guava Bucket just dropped—available today only” drive immediate traffic, especially when paired with sunny weather or weekend foot traffic.
Why the Bucket Drinks Trend Is Taking Off
They’re visual, generous, and easy to share
Customers are naturally drawn to drinks that stand out. A colorful iced coffee or lemonade in a plastic beach bucket is easy to spot, hard to forget, and perfect for social sharing. The larger format, bright colors, and playful presentation invite people to take photos and post about their experience, which puts your brand in front of new audiences without any extra effort on your part.
These drinks are also great for group orders. Friends often come in together to try different flavors or grab a set to take with them. When you pair this with reusable buckets or seasonal themes, the drinks feel even more special. Guests want products that feel fun, personalized, and easy to enjoy in warm weather. Bucket drinks offer all of that, plus a generous portion that makes the price feel worth it.
The real power of this trend is that it brings energy into your space. It creates curiosity among walk-ins and gives your staff something fun to talk about. A well-designed summer drink menu can keep things fresh and profitable without overcomplicating your operations.
Final Thoughts
Bucket drinks are popular for a reason. They offer a seasonal boost, high visual appeal, and flexible pricing. When paired with good planning and a smart app strategy, they can become one of your most effective promotions of the summer.
Start by testing a few drink concepts using ingredients you already have. Add fun names, toppings, and simple branding to build a buzz. This trend is approachable for any coffee shop willing to try something playful, practical, and highly marketable. It gives you a chance to drive more foot traffic, boost average order size, and stay top of mind in a competitive summer season.
Start building your summer bucket drink lineup with the tools that help you sell smarter. Book a free demo and see how to turn your iced drink ideas into repeat sales.
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