Cocktail Culture: How to enhance the 2025 trends
As 2025 is over halfway through its time to talk cocktail trends. Cocktails are growing in popularity and evolving faster than ever with a focus on the blend of tradition and innovation. This year’s drink trends are all about fizz, mindful drinking and appearance. With more and more trends entering the market it is important to enhance these trends to keep your bar new, trending and competitive.
The Spritz: Perfect For Every Season
Over the past few years Spritz sales have skyrocketed. They are the perfect light and minimalistic cocktail served in a traditional wine glass with fruity or herby garnishes. They have previously been viewed as a summer-only drink but the spritz has recently reinvented itself to a year-round staple.
Summer:
The Aperol spritz still takes the crown as the most popular spritz and the perfect summer drink. However, the Hugo Spritz has seen a significant increase in popularity since going viral in 2023 with its refreshing elderflower flavour. Although these are amazing summer drinks it’s important to keep reinventing the Spritz. The perfect summer spritz is certainly fruity and refreshing. This can be created with citrus flavours like lemon, lime and grapefruit. Adding crushed ice can give the spritz an enhanced and refreshing quality.
Autumn:
As the leaves begin to change so does the perfect spritz. However, this doesn’t mean that Spritz should be abandoned until next summer. The perfect autumn spritz focuses on cozy, earthy and spiced flavours. To capture this, start with spiced rum as your base or enhance your spritz with a splash of pear or orange liqueur. Garnish with fresh sage or rosemary, a dehydrated pear or orange slice and finish with a cinnamon stick stirrer.
Winter:
Winter isn’t usually the typical spritz season, but it can be easily transformed with rich and cozy flavours making it warmer without losing the signature spritz sparkle. Substituting the base for something deeper like spiced amaro, spiced rum or dark fruit liqueurs brings the warmth. Alternatively, so does adding a dash of mulled wine spirit. While winter fruits like blood orange or cranberry keep it fresh. Consider garnishing with cinnamon, orange peel or frozen cranberries.
Spring:
Spring is all about freshness, so the rising trend of botanical flavours is perfect. Focusing on flavours like rhubarb, lavender, elderflower or strawberries bring bright and floral flavours from fruits that are just coming into season. Garnish with flower petals, cucumber ribbon and mint. Serve with crushed ice for a lighter, springtime aesthetic.
Mocktails and Ways to Enhance Them.
Mocktails are growing fiercely in popularity as the years go on. Reports show that there is 20% less alcohol consumption among Gen Z compared to millennials. Therefore, mocktails are no longer alternatives and instead first choice for many. The best mocktails aren’t trying to mimic cocktails and that’s why it’s important to enhance mocktails to make them exciting, original and standalone. Its time to make space on your menu for innovative mocktails.
Appearance:
The appearance of the mocktail (and cocktail) is an important factor with social media controlling many trends. Using exciting, different and aesthetic glasses offers an appealing option. While adding smoke elevates the overall experience by creating a sensory layer which enhances flavour, aromatic impact and appearance. Smoke allows the drink to be inhaled before it is drunk adding a flare of originality to the traditional mocktail. Plus, it’s easy to create with a smoke gun!
Flavour:
Just like a regular cocktail, mocktails need structure. It’s important to balance sweet, sour and bitter. Although bitterness can be harder to achieve with a mocktail, therefore, use bitter teas, unsweetened tonic or burnt or charred ingredients. Not to mention, experimenting with texture can enhance a mocktail. Whether it’s using egg whites to create a silky foam in shaken cocktails, coconut milk, oat milk or nut milks for a creamy, rich mocktail or chia seeds and frozen fruit for texture.
As cocktails continue to evolve in the future it’s increasingly important to innovate the trends that have been done time and time again. Creativity, seasonality and inclusivity are the best ingredients for cocktail making.
