The week of May 6-12 is national Nurse Appreciation Week and it’s one of the busiest weeks of the year for our mobile smoothie catering business at Maui Wowi. We have been serving hospitals for over a decade that recognize the contribution of their nurses and medical support staff.

Here’s an idea: have a smoothie bar for your nursing staff (we can serve many hundreds an hour) and incorporate some fun promotional product gifts as well. A great company to contact is Positive Promotions. They’ve come up with a number of ideas to accompany a refreshing Maui Wowi smoothie at your event. We love the themes they’ve developed, like Living the Scrub Life. A great logo and positive message on a pair of cushioned ankle socks, a tote bag, a lunch cooler bag, a coffee-to-go mug set (and no reason we can’t pour a smoothie into those cups!) and many other employee appreciation and recognition ideas can be found on their website.

Maui Wowi can provide our mobile smoothie catering service for any size group. One of the larger groups we work with is Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. The last annual employee appreciation event we catered for them with our smoothie bar involved 2000+ attendees over three shifts from 11am to 1am. (That’s AM with an A.) The hospital’s HR team came up with a great theme – Superheros, to make the staff feel like the superheroes they truly are. The leadership provided novelties, signage and apparel to support the theme. The Maui Wowi staff even wore Superman t-shirts (although we told people the “S” stood for “Smoothie-Man)!

And for all of you trivia and crossword fans out there who may be wondering about the timing of national nurses week, which ends on May 12, there is something special about that date. It’s the birthday of Florence Nightingale. As anyone in the medical profession knows, Florence was an English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organized care for wounded soldiers. (OK, so you didn’t know that, but now you do and you can impress your friends over a Maui Wowi smoothie at your next employee appreciation event.)

There are countless types of social events for which party-givers hiring catering services: weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, graduation parties, Sweet 16s, family reunions, summer backyard parties, and the list goes on. Maui Wowi Coffee & Smoothie Catering (that’s us, folks) has catered exactly 4,862 events since 2002 (we keep count). So we have seen it all. And there are a few things we’ve learned that we can pass on to you so that you’ll benefit when you decide to have a smoothie or espresso bar for your catered event.

Bar Mitzvah Madness

We once brought our mobile smoothie station to a lovely place along New York’s East River for a bar mitzvah. The parents of the young guest of honor made a dubious decision—to have all the kids at the party dropped off by parents and un-chaperoned. What could possibly go wrong?

We were hired to make our delicious smoothies for about 100 young teens (mostly boys). Our smoothies are made with our all-natural fruit and yogurt blends (we also have non-dairy) to which we add banana. These children were unusually rambunctious. And they very much liked bananas. In fact, many asked for a banana in addition to or instead of their smoothie. We were stationed outside the party room so we did not have a view to what was happening inside.

We probably made 200 smoothies and handed out 100 bananas – hey, we thought, these kids are really health-conscious! Later on when the parents came to pick up the kids and we were breaking down our bar, we saw where the bananas went. The kids made quite a game of stomping the bananas into the carpeting of this elegant restaurant, and having a grand old time slipping and sliding on banana peels.

I saw the event manager assessing the damage and he seemed unperturbed. I asked him how he was remaining so calm. He replied, “I just charged their parents’ credit card $20,000 for the cleaning service to come in after the party.”

We’ve also been to many bar/bar mitzvahs where the kids and the adults celebrate on different floors. That’s almost as bad an idea.

Moral of the story: Don’t ever have a bar mitzvah party that’s “just for the kids.” And hire a party company that specializes in kids’ parties. These folks know how to corral the youngsters into activities to keep them from making up their own games.

Weddings

Maui Wowi provides smoothies and espresso drinks for many weddings, and fortunately we’ve never had an incident like the Bar Mitzvah story above at any wedding we’ve catered. As long as 13-year-olds don’t get married, we should be fine.

Most people planning a wedding would not ordinarily think of a smoothie bar as something guests might like, but they’re missing out. While we’ve often set up our tiki bar on a beach or under a tent for a themed wedding, we’ve also done plenty of more formal (and black tie) weddings. Obviously, we don’t set up a tiki bar for those events. We use a more classic bar provided by the catering establishment or rental company. Same smoothies – with or without alcohol. (Our pina coladas with Malibu rum are something special.) Smoothies and frozen cocktails are especially nice for a late spring through early fall wedding when the weather is still warm, and when guests can be outside. We are able to serve several hundred smoothies per hour with two servers, so there are no lines and waiting.

Speaking of lines, we’ve been to some weddings as guests where smoothies or frozen cocktails were served. Caterers are great at a lot of things, but making smoothies is not one of them. We’ve seen amateurs forget to put the blender cap on before blending, and the result on a bride’s dress is something that once you’ve seen it you can never un-see. Also, people who don’t blend smoothies every day are sssslllllooooowwwww. And guests hate having to wait.

Another downside of just having your caterer blend the smoothies? They may use a truly terrible sugary smoothie mix rather than an all-natural blend with no artificial ingredients. We shop where caterers shop and the frozen smoothie blends that these wholesale restaurant warehouses stock are truly horrific. Your tastebuds and your guests will never forgive you. Maui Wowi smoothie blends are made in small batches by a privately-owned provider who’s been working with us for 30 years—not by the Industrial Food Complex. We’ve also seen those machines that churn frozen goop into smoothies, like in 7/Eleven. Would you really serve that to your guests? ‘Nuff said. Give them the good stuff.

What about espresso drinks?

Here again, caterers don’t do this and don’t want to be asked. But ask. They know us and we do a great job. Or call us directly. We can set up two high-production espresso machines with four servers and make 100+ lattes an hour—more than enough for most weddings. And our espresso beans are grown in Hawaii and custom roasted for us.

We’re often asked what kinds of corporate events we have provided our mobile coffee and smoothie catering services for. It would be a shorter list if we catalogued the types of events we haven’t catered. But here goes.

The most popular event type for our mobile smoothie and espresso bars in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area and beyond (including greater Philadelphia and New England) are employee appreciation events. Human resource managers (nowadays also called People managers – is HR still a PC term?) hire us the most frequently. With unemployment being historically low and competition for talent being at an all-time high, companies are doing whatever they can to keep their people happy. The best way to do it is to show appreciation – which many studies show is more remembered and valued that paid time off or a little extra money.

Corporate employees definitely remember Maui Wowi when we roll in with our tiki bar to make our smoothies, or with an elegant linen-covered table for our espresso service.

After employee appreciation days, the most popular event types for our mobile espresso bar and smoothie bar is client appreciation events. We are often hired by financial wholesalers who are calling on advisory firms. These salespeople drop by the offices of Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch to chat with the advisors and remind them about their products. It helps – a lot – to have something special to pry these advisors off the phone and into the break room or conference room for a few minutes of friendly soft-selling over a latte or a strawberry banana smoothie.

Next up is health and wellness events. Corporate HR managers and event planners in New York City and elsewhere love to have our smoothies to draw attendance to their health fairs. An important part of corporate wellness programs is actually getting people to walk through and talk to the participating vendors – everything from gyms and nutrition experts to yoga and acupuncture. Taking advantage of these services is another key aspect of employee retention. When Maui Wowi comes in with a smoothie bar, we work with the corporate event planner to promote our presence in advance. We’ll design signage and email flyers that will let people know we’re coming so they can get their free smoothie. And we serve 7-oz cups, so attendees can come back and try all our different flavors (we usually serve three at a time).

Let’s face it: the last thing your employees are likely to want to do on January 2 is head back to the office! Even when Monday January 7 rolls around, you may see some long, cold faces.

What to do?

Two words: Maui Wowi. We’ll come to your office, warehouse, manufacturing plant of facility and create a custom gourmet hot-cocoa and latte bar. Catering our mobile hot cocoa bar is something very special. This is not a packet of Swiss Miss and some hot water. We use only Ghiradelli hot cocoa, which we think is the best available.

Now the real fun begins. Your employees can choose from our wide selection of toppings:

• White, Dark, and Milk Chocolate Chips

• Grated Cinnamon.

• Sprinkles.

• Peanuts.

• Shredded Coconut

• Mini M&Ms

• Marshmallows – Regular, Mini and Fruit-Flavored

• Candied Ginger

• Peppermint Sticks

• Whipped Cream

• Caramel Sauce

• Chocolate Sauce

• A Variety of Syrups – Orange, Chili, Salted Caramel, and more

Just tell us which six topping combinations you want and we’ll have it ready for your event, served by our expert baristas.

Speaking of baristas, we’ll also have a menu of espresso drinks to offer, including lattes, cappuccinos, Americanos, mochas and more.

And even though it might be cold outside, there are those special snowflakes who would rather have an ice-cold smoothie than a hot beverage. That’s easy for Maui Wowi. We’ll be happy to blend our tropical delights in flavors like Strawberry Banana, Pina Colada, Mango Orange, Kiwi Lemon Lime, frozen Cappuccino, Tropical Fruit (non-dairy) and Lemon Wave (a non-dairy frozen lemonade).

So show your employee appreciation in a cup with Maui Wowi for your catered event anywhere in metro New York, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey and beyond.

Maui Wowi provided smoothies for the wrap up of Wellness Week at KWI Inc. KWI provides cloud computing solutions for specialty retailers.

Maui Wowi has provided smoothie bars for corporate wellness events for many years.  Sometimes we’ll set up our tiki bar at a wellness fair where a company will have an array of different vendors on site that offer health benefits to employees – things like chiropractic, chair massage, vitamin and supplements companies, fitness centers and others who advocate wellness. Our smoothies are a powerful draw to get employees to attend the wellness fair. In the case of KWI, events had been underway all week and we were the proverbial “all-natural, non-fat” cherry on top. KWI’s people enjoyed our strawberry banana, kiwi lemon lime and black raspberry banana smoothies. 

Some of our customers ask if we always set up our tiki bar for catered employee events. Nope! If it fits with your environment and you like it, we’ll bring it. If not, we can set up on cloth-covered tables or a bar you provide. We serve the same great, healthy Maui Wowi smoothies no matter how we set up.

We’re also asked quite often how many people we can serve. One of our expert staff can easily serve 250 smoothies (7 oz) in an hour — and more if we break a sweat. With two servers, well, you do the math! We have done many events requiring thousands of servings, in which case we just bring more bars and more servers.

Want to show your employees that you think they’re superheroes? It’s easy. Just look at what Lenox Hill Hospital did for their annual employee appreciation event in New York.  Maui Wowi has been catering smoothies for the annual event for 2000+ people for many years. This year, the theme was to make the staff feel like the superheroes they truly are. The Human Resources and Catering staff at the hospital decorated with novelties, signage and apparel and the Maui Wowi smoothie staff took off our usual Hawaiian shirts in favor of the famous “S” superhero — that’s right, Smoothie-Man!

We thought it would help our HR manager, event planner and caterer friends to highlight some good ideas for organizing your summer employee appreciation event. Here are some resources you may find useful for company picnics and other employee appreciation events in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and the other lower 44 states this summer.

1. Let’s get the most important and best idea out first. Maui Wowi smoothies and iced/blended coffee drinks for a summer break for your people. Take a look at this frozen blended cappuccino and try not to cry. It’s that good.

Or consider our smoothie catering options with flavors that will amaze you. How do these sound?

• Black Lava Beach: black raspberry and strawberry banana
• Sunny Paradise: strawberry banana and kiwi lemon lime
• Hawaiian Breeze: strawberry banana and mango orange
• Hawaiian Dreamsicle: pina colada and mango orange.

We could go on but we don’t want to continue teasing you. If we were really mean we’d mention our Kona Chill – a Kona-blend coffee that you’ll swear is ice cream. Or our Chai Chill, a spicy blended chai with a shot of espresso.

Say Uncle?

Okay, then give us a call or email us (see below) and we’ll be right over. Your employees will appreciate us and you and you’ll be on your way to a fantastic summer event.

Now on to some other ideas:

2.  Epic Party Ideas from SnackNation: Sumo Throwdown, Office Olympics, Throwback to your Favorite Decade…and a lot more fun stuff here.

3. A Boat Ride! If you’re in New York or some other place with waterways, what a perfect perk for your people. And yup, we can bring our tiki bar onto any boat. (Well, not row boats or canoes. Although we haven’t tried, so maybe.)

4. Talent Show: A great way for people to get to know each other and revel in embarrassment. (Give them all Maui Wowi smoothies afterward.)

5. Did we mention calling Maui Wowi to cater a smoothie or frozen coffee drink bar?

Your high school or college student is graduating, finally! If it’s high school, and they’re going away to college, congratulations on not having to clean their room anymore. If it’s college, congratulations on being one step closer to having them off the payroll. Either way, it’s time to celebrate.

Maui Wowi smoothies are the best thing to cater at a  graduation party. Why? Because kids (high school or college) love smoothies. And they love the parasols (some people call them umbrellas) that we put in the drinks to give them a festive look. Bring us to your grad party and we’ll throw in leis to make it more fun. We can also use special cups – coconut cups are really popular. Add to all that our portable tiki bar, which sets up in minutes by your pool or anywhere, and the party is ready to start.

Graduation parties with a Hawaiian theme are especially fun and easy to plan. Click over to Oriental Trading or similar sites and you’ll find an array of inexpensive decorations which we can place on our bar.

A Hawaiian theme grad party is also an excuse to pick up an Aloha shirt (any Hawaiian theme shirt). You don’t have to blow a month’s tuition payment for Tommy Bahama. Every retailer sells inexpensive Hawaiian shirts these days (even if they’re made somewhere other than Hawaii — and they always are).

BTW, we can pour alcohol for your college grad party so they can have real pina coladas (and yes, we will check their IDs, and no, we will not serve them alcohol if they’ve had enough, or if you instruct us not to).

Now, what about summer/backyard parties? We have many clients who have an annual family/employee/friends gathering…some we’ve been serving for 15+ years or more running. At one of our favorite parties, we’re placed opposite the sushi bar (where two experts make sushi and the kids consume it just as fast).  Whether your party is for 50 or 500, we can manage it easily with our expert staff who man the bar and our blenders so there’s never a line.

If you’re an HR manager, event planner or company owner looking for something special to do for your employees this summer, a Maui Wowi catered smoothie bar for an employee appreciation event is the best idea you’re going to find. Here are six reasons why (and if you need 80 more, call us):

1. Everyone loves smoothies. We offer dairy and non-dairy options like Maui Wowi Tropical Smoothie for your smoothie catering event. Plus we come to your location with our portable tiki bar and set up in minutes. If you provide it, we’ll add alcohol to make the best pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris and margaritas you’ve ever had.

2. New York (and other cities) are miserable in the summer. Like the song says, “Hot times, summer in the city, back of my neck feeling dirty and gritty.” Make your New York (or hundreds of other cities) summer a little less of a sweat with a smoothie catering event at your office, warehouse, manufacturing plant, or any place else there are people in need of cooling off.
3. Everyone loves coffee. If fruit smoothies aren’t your jam, how about frozen blended cappuccino or cold-brew iced coffee?

Add some gourmet flavor syrups (think Peppermint, Macadamia Nut, French Vanilla and more). Don’t like coffee or smoothies? Sorry, don’t know what to tell you.
4. Our smoothie catering events are healthy events. Our smoothies give your people a full dose of Vitamin C for the day. Fewer sick days. More productivity. Higher revenues. Higher earnings. Bonuses! Do the math!
5. The alternatives are crummy. Ice cream? Messy and fattening. Donuts? Sure, feed your people fat bombs.
6. Get your employees to stay later on Friday. Want people to hang around and get an extra hour of work? Have our smoothie catering on a Friday afternoon–  or any late afternoon — and your people will stay at work longer.

Summer is coming – which means corporate picnics, employee appreciation events and a little bit more of a laid-back atmosphere. Many of Maui Wowi’s smoothie catering clients have every-other-Friday relaxation events as a way to keep people motivated before the weekend. Having Maui Wowi provide smoothie catering for your event and serve pina coladas (and other flavors — and perhaps even with a shot of rum or vodka) is a great way to bring your staff together.

We serve a variety of dairy and non-dairy smoothie flavors for our smoothie catering events The most popular are strawberry banana, pina colada and mango orange. A big summertime hit at corporate picnics is our Lemon Wave – a frozen lemonade. We also offer frozen cappuccino, black raspberry, peach and kiwi lemon lime. And we just introduced our non-dairy Tropical Smoothie, which combines coconut, pineapple, guava orange and banana.

Most of our customers love our portable tiki bar setup. In minutes we’ve got our Vita-Mix blenders humming, blends ready to go, and we can make hundreds of smoothies an hour for your team members. One bar and one or two servers are fine for most events of 150 people of fewer. We’ve had events for thousands, like the one pictured below at Viacom. For that, we set up four stations with eight servers. So large or small, we can handle it.

We also operate indoors or outdoors. Whether on a balcony, in a parking lot,  in a public park or onboard a boat, we can do our thing outside. 

The most important element of what we do is work effectively with event planners and catering companies who are organizing company picnics, employee appreciation events, promotions/trade shows and other events. We make sure that we do our job so you can do yours. We’ll arrive early, set up fast, operate professionally and clean up well. Just show us where the electric is and we’re good!