There is a moment when a spirit stops being just a drink. It is not defined by alcohol strength, nor by aging long enough to earn a premium label. It happens when the people who make it, present it and choose it begin to treat it as part of a story larger than the liquid […]
There is a corner of the spirits market that long seemed unusually resistant to change: the ultra-premium tier, bought as much for the signal it sends as for what is inside the bottle. Even there, though, the ground has started to shift. According to IWSR, status spirits value fell by about 10% in 2025, marking […]
One word keeps appearing in the language of contemporary whisky: provenance. It does not refer only to the place printed on the label, but to the way a product is assembled piece by piece. The barley comes from a specific field, the casks from a controlled supply chain, the water from a spring or a […]
There is a point when a beverage category stops growing mainly through curiosity and starts relying on something else. For spirits-based ready-to-drink products, that moment now seems close. Over the past five years, the segment has attracted many first-time buyers, helped by a broader range of flavours, different base spirits and formats designed for a […]
There comes a point in the life of every spirits category when reputation alone is no longer enough. Rum seems to have reached that point some years ago, although it is better read as a set of separate signals than as a single turning point: the work of some major brands in the United States, […]
In the spirits and ready-to-drink space, a few recent launches point in a fairly clear direction: more attention to lighter formulas, readable ingredients and formats that strip away anything unnecessary. That is not enough to call it a full sector-wide shift, but it is a meaningful signal because it shows up in products that look […]
There is a point when a distilled spirit stops being just a bottle and starts defining itself. In rum, that moment often comes through ageing: the choice to leave the liquid in cask for years, giving up some immediate turnover in order to build something more distinct, more recognisable, more deliberate. One of the clearest […]
In many European markets, spirits volumes are under pressure, and the on-trade — bars, restaurants, hotels and cocktail venues — remains strategically important for brands. Not because it delivers the biggest volumes, but because it does something other channels struggle to replicate: placing a product in the right setting, in front of the right person, […]
It is striking how the same plant, agave, can support two very different ideas of what a spirit should be. On one side is artisanal mezcal, where patience, provenance and manual work are central to the story. On the other is a more convenience-led tequila, designed to fit easily into recipes and informal gatherings. Rather […]
A few years ago, hard seltzers were among the most talked-about categories in the global beverage world. The lightly alcoholic sparkling waters had persuaded major groups and independent brands alike to bet on a format that seemed set for further expansion. The U.S. market, which accounts for the dominant share of global hard seltzer consumption, […]