One of the most interesting conversations around cocktails right now is not really about ingredients, but about format. In the United States, the way a drink is served has become a practical response to more selective consumption, different occasions, and a demand for convenience that does not want to give up personality. The experiments are […]
The ready-to-drink cocktail segment keeps moving, but the most interesting launches do more than signal market growth: they show how very different brands and categories are trying to find their place inside the same format. Sazerac, the American spirits group based in Louisville, Kentucky, launched three new RTD brands in June 2026: Lovebug Hard Cream […]
There is a particular moment when you sit down at a bar, open the menu, and then close it again. Many drinkers tend to return to classics like the Negroni, Margarita, or Whisky Sour. The choice makes sense: cocktails are expensive, the risk of ending up with something you do not enjoy is real, and […]
A question keeps coming back whenever a forgotten cocktail reappears or a historic tavern finds its way back into international conversation: how much does the place behind a drink really matter? Not as scenery, but as part of the drink’s character – almost as an ingredient in a broader sense. This is less a universal […]
There is an object in cocktail culture that long ago stopped being just a vessel. The V-shaped Martini glass emerged in 1925 at the Paris exhibition of modern decorative arts, in the heart of the Art Deco moment, as a geometric reworking of the traditional Champagne coupe. Since then, it has become something more than […]
There is a way to read two phenomena that, at first glance, seem far apart: the growing visibility of mezcal on cocktail bar menus and the difficulty many venues have in staying open and active. It is not quite a contradiction, but a tension. On one side is a drinking culture that has become more […]
Strawberries often appear on summer menus and in seasonal reinterpretations of cocktails. This is not a brand-new idea, but it is an ingredient that keeps finding room because it is easy to read, instantly familiar and versatile enough to work across very different drinking styles. For bartenders, that versatility is the real point. Strawberries can […]
Few drinks seem to ask for a stage quite like the Martini. It has never been only a question of gin, vermouth and ratios: the way it reaches the table, the setting in which it is served and the object that carries it all matter too. In some London bars, that attention is once again […]
To understand where contemporary bartending is heading, it helps to look at some of the profiles drawing attention now: many begin with personal stories, family memories, places of origin or a single sensory impression. That does not describe the entire industry, but it does capture a clear pattern among part of the new generation behind […]
There is a precise moment when a bar reveals its identity: not when the drink arrives, but before. In the gap between walking in and taking the first sip, every detail helps shape the experience. The glass on the table, the way the menu is built, the lighting, the layout of the room: in more […]