Have you recently ordered a Pink Lady? A Grasshopper? A Blue Hawaii? A Harvey Wallbanger? These were among the most popular cocktails of the 1970s. Most are vibrantly colored and designed to mask the base alcohols with lots of sweet liqueurs and flavors such as mint, orange juice, and coconut.
Like many things in popular culture, some trends come and go as fads, others last for years before fizzling, and still others become classics with real staying power.
At Downtime Cocktails, we like to keep our eyes on what's trending in the world of cocktails—we like to see what's coming into vogue as well as what's going out. Here are a few trends that seem to be taking hold in the cocktail community.
- Simple Is Better
In the past year or so, minimalism has taken hold in the world of mixology. This trend focuses on the quality of ingredients rather than the quantity – and it has renewed enthusiasm for the classic three-ingredient cocktail. Like other recent trends, such as hyper-seasonal cocktails, demand for minimalist cocktails has followed the rise in demand for local, organic, and sustainable ingredients. In using fewer elements, simplifying garnishes and emphasizing more "whole foods," bars and restaurants also drastically reduce food waste.
- Savory Over Sweet
As trends continue to veer away from the sweet and syrupy, many of the world’s best bars are now employing a vast array of savory, umami (the fifth taste) ingredients to create complex flavors in their drinks. Ingredients such as tahini, miso, soy sauce, mushrooms, clarified milk, cheese rind syrup, Worcestershire sauce, dashi, shellfish, and seaweed are among the most favored umami-packed recipe additions.
- Fat Washing
This technique has gained favor as the general trend of creating cocktails with richer mouthfeel and more umami has widened in appeal. Fat-washing is a technique that involves infusing an oily ingredient, such as butter, bacon fat, or olive oil into alcohol, then freezing the liquid so the fat resolidifies and can be easily strained from the liquid, leaving behind a silky-smooth texture and a layer of additional flavor notes.
Milk is one of the most common ingredients used for fat-washing, but you can expect to see bartenders also use more uncommon cocktail ingredients such as peanut butter, coconut oil, and sesame oil to add richness and texture to their drinks.
- Switching
This technique is a bit more scientific and technique heavy than fat washing, but it's gaining momentum in cutting edge bars and restaurants around the world. Switching first appeared on the cocktail scene around 2019, and its origins are credited to master mixologist Iain McPherson and the cocktail pioneers at Panada & Sons in Edinburgh, Scotland.
‘Switching’ requires an ultra-low freezer, which is able to freeze the small amount of water in a spirit so it can be taken out and replaced by another liquid. For example, McPherson originally switched the water in a spirit with a mix of orange juice and clarified grapefruit juice. This process enables a mixologist to add additional layers of flavor complexity to a spirit, as it also makes it silkier and more concentrated.
- Spritzing
The Aperol Spritz, according to Forbes magazine, is the most popular cocktail in America (22 states ranked it #1 in a recent study) and the eighth most popular cocktail in the world. Although it seems "trendy" today, the spritz as a style of cocktail has been around for more than a century. Like many trends, what's old often becomes new again. Inspired by the enormous appeal of the Aperol Spritz, spirits producers, bars, and restaurants have started "spritzing" just about everything: St. Germain, Limoncello, Campari, Amaro—you name it. (Even Batch 22 has gotten into the act with the 22 Spritz. Ours is a highly flavorful, all natural, low-sugar alternative to the Aperol drink.) How do you make a 22 Spritz, did you say? Well, it's super easy:
22 Spritz
Fill a large glass with ice.Pour in:
- 2 oz. Batch 22
- 3 oz. Prosecco
- 1 oz. Pellegrino
Twist a strip of grapefruit peel over the top, rim the glass, and drop it in.
Add a dash of fresh grapefruit juice, if desired.
Stir gently and enjoy.
We've certainly come a long way since the days of the Grasshopper and the Harvey Wallbanger, but there's always a chance we'll see those classics from the '70s make a comeback someday. If and when they do, we'll be sure to give 'em a nod!