In Italy, coffee is drunk in similar quantities throughout the year, and suppliers are keen to encourage the same pattern in the UK to dispel preconceptions that coffee is popular only when the weather turns cold.

With a little effort and imagination you can spruce up your coffee menu with seasonal recipes that add value and interest whatever the weather. The big coffee chains often promote a specially flavoured coffee at various times of the year. During the summer months we see numerous iced coffee or smoothie recipes, and towards the end of last year Starbucks had an "egg nog" coffee on its menu.

"The standard of providing consumers with choice and variety, in addition to consistently good quality coffee, has been set by coffee-focused chains such as Starbucks," says Barry Kither, Lavazza UK foodservice sales director. "If operators are to gain any credibility, they need to get as close to this operative platform as possible."

Lavazza has developed a collection of recipes under the banner I Piaceri del Caffé, encouraging caterers to offer consumers innovative ways of enjoying coffee all year round. The recipes involve using one of four flavoured syrups - chocolate, hazelnut, amaretto and orange - to produce both hot and cold coffee-based cocktails.

Katy Hilditch, beverages category lead for Nestl Foodservices, agrees that caterers should look towards the success of the coffee-shop chains for inspiration. But there's also a lesson to be learnt from chefs who have long since understood the potential offered by a specials board to profile seasonal produce. "By implementing a similar approach to a beverage menu, caterers can enjoy premium profit margins and drive sales," she says. "Offering drinks which reflect seasonal occasions is a great way to encourage consumers to trial and trade up from a regular coffee.

"In the summer months, when demand is high for cool refreshments, caterers should introduce contemporary chilled items such as coffee-based cocktails and frapps to persuade customers to trade up from less profitable offerings. Likewise, as we move into the winter months, offering richer, warming drinks will encourage consumers to treat themselves during cold weather."

Union Coffee Roasters frequently works with its customers to develop bespoke recipes which add value to their coffee offering. "Well thought-out recipes - in particular those using flavoured syrups - not only introduce larger numbers of consumers to delicious-tasting coffee, they also add enormous value, and thus an opportunity to increase the profit margin accordingly," says Claire Matheson Jones, the company's training and development manager.

"We typically kick off any recipe development by sitting down with our customers and taking a look at what they stock. Which style of espresso are they serving, and what could be purchased to maximise sales? If they hold syrups, which ones have been sitting on the shelf for longer than expected? Creating a recipe which not only builds their coffee business but shifts the syrup that's not selling results in more customers choosing that flavour in a straight latte after the promotional period has ended."

Summer is an ideal time for caterers to build on their repertoire of speciality coffees and take advantage of the recent surge in the popularity of chilled coffee beverages or coffee smoothies.

"Smoothies offer excellent profit margins," says Paul Freeman, brand manager for Douwe Egberts Coffee Systems. "Blended smoothies that are made to order offer a different level of refreshment that you simply don't get with packaged cold drinks. In addition, if you make them in front of the customer it reinforces the fact that they're getting something fresh and made to order so much that the customer generally expects to pay a higher price for them."

For the consumer, there's nothing like seeing the product, or better still, tasting it, so with new products, why not offer small sample drinks to create a buzz and generate interest. Sales of products such as smoothies also rely on plenty of point-of-sale material such as pavement signs, table talkers, counter displays and window stickers.

So what do you need to get your summer coffee menu up and running? "A blender that can crush ice as well as blend softer items such as ice-cream can be used to produce coffee-flavoured smoothies, frapps and crushes, with little fuss and without the need for multiple pieces of equipment," says Kenwood Catering's Ian Parsons. Let blending begin.

Recipes for summer months

Cafe fraîche cocktail
Blend together a cup of chilled strong black coffee, 150ml of condensed milk, two teaspoonfuls of brown sugar and a shot of brandy. Add 100ml of crème fraîche and blend again briefly. Serve in a chilled glass.

Chilled out zone
Put two scoops of vanilla ice-cream in a blender, add one cup of cooled coffee (mild blend), a shot of amaretto fo almond essence/syrup and top with cream to taste. Blend and serve with amaretti biscuits.

Espressly forbidden
Put one cup of cooled espresso in a blender, add one shot of brandy, one scop of chocolate ice-cream, one teaspoonful of soft brown sugar and blend. Servein a glass topped with grated dark chocolate.

Iced cookie blast
Put two crumbled chocolate chip cookies, three teaspoonfuls of strong black coffee, 15ml of chocolate syrup, 200ml of milk and a splash of double cream into a blender. Blend until frothy and serve into a tumbler topped with ice-cream and chocolate shavings.

Iced Macchiato
Prepare half a cappuccino cup of espresso, add sugar to taste and pour into a cocktail shaker. Add about five tablespoonfuls of crushed ice and shake vigorusly for 30 seconds until creamy and smooth. Pour into a tall glass. Carefully add two or three tablespoonfuls of frothed milk to the top of the iced coffee.

Liegeois
Make up a cappuccino cup full of espresso. In a blender, add about 12 ice crubes, half a cup of milk, two tablespoonfuls of chocolate or caramel syrup to taste. Blend vigorously for 30-60 seconds. Pour blended mixture into a tall glass and add one scoop of coffee ice-cream. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle choclate shavings or chocolate powder if desired.

Coffee cola float
Mix 150ml of double cream (pouring consistently) into two-and-a-half cups of chilled black, sweetened coffee and use to half-fill four tall glasses. Add a scoop of vanilla or coffee ice-cream to each and carefully top up with cola.

Choca mocha shake
Combine 300ml milk, one-and-a-half cups of chilled black sweetened coffee, six scoops of coffee ice-cream and six scoops of chocolate ice-cream in a blender unitl creamy. Pour into tall glasses and garnish with a chocolate flake.

Thai iced coffee
Add two teaspoonfuls of ground cardamon to enough ground coffee for four cups and brew. Add four tablespoonfuls of sugar and a teaspoonful of almond essence to the hot coffee, mix well and allow to cool. Half-fill four tall glasses with crushed ice and fill two-thirds with the coffee. Stir a tablespoonful of cream into each glass. Alternatively, pour cream over the spoon so that it floats on top of the coffee.

Iced caramel coffee
Add half a cup of caramel-flavoured dessert sauce and four to six tablespoons of sugar to three cups of strong hot coffee and allow to cool. Half-fill four tall glasses with coffee and top up with three cups of cold milk. Finish with whipped cream, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of caramel sauce.

Thick coffee banana smoothie
Pour two cups of strong black coffee into a shallow dish, put two bananas in another dish and place both in a freezer for about 30 minutes. Combine the coffee, bananas, two to four tablespoonfuls of clear honey andt wo drops of vanilla extract in a blender until smooth. Add three cups of vanilla yogurt and blend again.

Iced cafe au lait
Combine half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract and two cups of chilled milk with two cups of sweetened strong black coffee. Add a few ice cubes to four glasses and pour over coffee. Top with whipped cream and ground cinnamon.

Iced coffee continental
Allow five cups of sweetened strong balck coffee to cool and stir in half a teasponful of angostura bitters and half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Fill tall glasses with coffee ice cubes and pour over the cooled coffee.

Brandied chocolate punch
Freeze two cups of cooled strong, sweetened coffee in ice-cube trays. Melt four squares of a good quality dark chocolate in a microwave and blend with the frozen coffee cubes, two cups of milk and four tablespoons of brandy until frothy.

Coffee Alexander
Put four cups of strong balck coffee, sweetened and cooled, in a blender with two measures of Kahlúa, two measures of amaretto and four scoops of chocolate ice-cream. Mix well, pour into tall glasses and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

The shakerato
In a blender, put 80-100ml of skimmed milk, two tablespoonfuls of sugar and five to six ice cubes. Blend for about one minute or until the mixture forms a thick cream. In a cocktail shaker, put a long espresso (40-50ml), four squirts of coffee syrup in a flavour of your choice, one tablespoonful of sugar, four to five ice cubes and shake for 30 seconds. Pour the espresso mixture into the bottom of a martini glass. Carefully top up the glass with the cream mixture to form two separate layers. Serve immediately.

Recipes for when the weather turns colder
Chocolate fudge temptation (renamed chocolate fudge sparkler for Bonfire Night)

Put 10ml chocolate syrup and 10ml caramel syrup in a mug and top with 200ml hot milk. Add three tablespoonfuls of strong black coffee and float over the milk. Float the cream on top and decorate with fudge pieces and chocolate sauce.

Hot orange truffle (renamed Rudolph's delight for Christmas)
Add three tablespoonfuls of black coffee to 15ml of chocolate fudge syrup and 30ml of orange syrup. Top with 250ml of frothy hot milk and dust with cocoa powder. Serve with an orange Matchmaker to stir and melt into the coffee.

Spiced white chocolate mocha
For a hint of Christmas cake with marzipan icing, mix a shot of espresso with the teaspoonful each of almond and cinnamon syrups and three teaspoonfuls of white chocolate sauce. Fill to within a centimetre of the top of a cup with hot frothed milk and top with whipped cream. For a Mixed Berry Mocha Valentine's Day special, substitute non-alcoholic grenadine syrup for the almond and cinnamon syrups.

Recipes from, Kenwood Catering, Lavazza, Melitta System Service, Nescafé, Union Coffee Roaster, Nespresso