Following from the Top 10 Cocktail Trends 2018, in the second part of our cocktail trends 2018 series, we asked bartenders from around Australia to share their best and worst cocktail trends of 2018.
Bartenders’ Best and Worst Cocktail Trends 2018:
Chau Tran – Co-owner and Chief Hug Officer, Burrow Bar, Sydney
Best cocktail trend: Bartenders really flexing in the fermentation area of cocktails and fermenting ingredients themselves. I’ve tried some very tasty fruit wines.
The one to go: Garnish that serves no purpose / adding nothing to the drink and glassware that is more complex than the drink that’s in it.
Noriel Calub – Venue Manager, The Highball Express, Canberra
Best cocktail trend: Canberra turns on Fri/Sat but generally is a conservative market mid-week, so the culture has embraced Spritz style and aperitif/digestif, low abv options; Aperol, Campari, Lillet, sherry, vermouth and Amaro driven lists are popping up catering for the afterwork, pre/post dinner crowds. The use of Pisco in cocktails: Aromatic, with many varieties and versatile in application. Try replacing the gin in a Corpse Reviver, or the vodka in a East 8 hold up.
The one to go: I got love for all trends…although if it takes more than 3 minutes to get a cocktail, I hope the bartender is good to look at and/or they got strong banter, while they multi-serve 1-2 other customers.
Abby Wegener – Owner/Tin Shaker, Hades Hula House, South Australia
Best cocktail trend: The global resurgence of Tiki culture has seen rum, its provenance and the foundation cocktails gather some momentum this year. I may be biased, but a Mai Tai or Don Beach’s 1934 Zombie should have a space on any classics menu! As a tiki bartender, it is exciting to see cocktail bars around the globe pay homage to these drinks and the respective history within the industry.
The one to go: Minimalist garnish held on with tiny pegs. Less is never more, I want my customers to feast with their eyes before enjoying their drink! If someone says a cocktail has too much garnish, get rid of them… You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life!
Ryan Gavin – National Bar Manager, Rockpool Dining Group
Best cocktail trend: Simple drinks done well. We are finally starting to swing back towards drinks that include good fresh produce and quality spirits. Glad to see the back of 12 ingredient molecular drinks.
The one to go: Not necessarily a trend but an observation. Training and development of young bartenders is the lifeblood of this industry. What I hate seeing is young and impressionable people being taken advantage of and being offered management or senior positions without an in-depth understanding of the industry, people or personal management skills. These people will often progress very quickly in their careers but without any long term training beneath experienced trainers and mentors they often miss out on the finer points of hospitality.
David Robinson – Owner, Hot Tamale, Darwin
Best cocktail trend: For me, the best cocktail trend for 2018, which isn’t really a trend, it’s just logical, is sourcing of fresh, seasonal, local ingredients for use in our drinks. It just makes sense, both a bartending and business perspective to be using ingredients, when they are at their peak flavour wise and for the business, when their pricing is low. For us, it just means we are changing out lists more frequently, which I think keep it a bit more fun and interesting.
The one to go: Oh, I have a few here.
- Needlessly complicated drinks. At this point in time, I have to be honest and confess that I have often been found guilty of making these needlessly complicated drinks. From the stand point of being on the other side of the bar, I really am only interested in having a really good tasting drink. Well balanced, something I can taste the spirit in, something that will make me smile. I know Tim Philips wrote a pretty awesome opinion piece not long ago, which covered a large range of topics which was bang on.
- Competition wise, just going to throw it out there, any chance we can have a few more competitions that aren’t:
- create a drink inspired by your region
- about sustainability. Don’t get me wrong, we focus as a business on reducing our waste and doing what we can, wherever we can, but for the competitions, it gets really repetitive.
Claudia (Beryl) Morgan – Bartender, Mechanics’ Institute Small Bar, Perth
Best cocktail trend: I am really enjoying ‘umami’ rich flavours becoming more popular with the general public and savoury style cocktails being on more and more cocktail lists. Unexpected ingredients that are still easy to obtain, used in different ways, keeps me excited. I am also excited about tropical flavours paired with mezcal or peated whisky.
The one to go: As the weather gets warmer, one flavour for certain always makes a return – elderflower. I feel like it has become overdone, tends to heavy-handedly used and therefore overpowers the rest of the ingredients and has become uninspiring.
Daniel Monk – Head of Spiced Rum, Rum Diary, Melbourne
Best cocktail trend: I have really gotten behind the acid trend of 2018, whether it was pH correcting, acidulating juices or tinctures, or even concocting lime alternatives for cocktails. Just the other day I had someone make me a Mai Tai twist with an orange reduction citric solution. One of the best tiki twists I’ve had in ages.
The one to go: Not just a trend of 2018, but something I’ve seen a lot of bars get behind: Batching absolutely EVERYTHING. I get it saves time but I’m sick of seeing drinks like the Negroni coming out of a single bottle, especially if it’s a generic, unlabelled bottle with a ring of tape around it saying how much to pour in the glass. The magic of the show is now gone, the drink will only be as good as to how precise the staff was on batching day, and I’m guessing half the staff wouldn’t be able to make some drinks if they ran out of batch. Nothing beats the taste of fresh-made.
Jack Stacey – Bartender, The Gresham, Brisbane
Best cocktail trend: The whole low ABV movement is one of the best trends I have seen this year. With a giant refocus this year on the health and well-being of the actual bartender, it’s great to see a drink that follows suit. Turns out there are delicious options that help save us from the horrible headache the next day… who knew!
The one to go: Ice cubes in stemware! We have all seen it happen, and don’t get me wrong, in a perfectly primed, hand-carved diamond photoshoot, it can look great. But that is pretty much where it ends. Over any service bar, the addition of ice in stemware is redundant and 9 out of 10 times just looks sloppy. Not to mention the pain and hassle it is if you have to carry that drink anywhere. Let’s all be smarter about this, if you want ice, pick a better glass.
Trish Brew – General Manager, Gin Palace, Melbourne
Best cocktail trend: The best cocktail trend of 2018 is legitimately getting back to basics! No more 27 ingredient-structural- integrity-recycled-garbage-shrub-sherbet-foam-smoked-dry-ice-spherical-pickle-baloney… Watching young bartenders making ‘balanced’ classic cocktails and connecting to the subtle nuances, however abounding in simplicity, is unfathomably beautiful.
The one to go: I really hate to say this… But the ‘Spanish style’ G&T… Bastardised glassware endowed with corporate logo’s and limp garnishes that would make a soggy sandwich look crisp in comparison. Bars fangin’ gin drinks on the menu with no real direction ‘coz it’s obligatory makes my skin crawl.
Daniel Gregory – Bar Manager, Evolve Spirits Bar, Hobart
Best cocktail trend: For what I’m hoping to see come back is mastering of the classics, I think a lot of the new bartenders, and some of the old, are forgetting the fundamentals. I started bartending when the resurgents of the old ways of drink-making was hitting its stride. I still love what’s happening right now in bars with sustainability, local produce, funky and weird ways of using ingredients but don’t forget where it all came from. Pick up The Bon Vivant Companion or Around The World With Jigger, Beaker & Flask and even more recent Joy Of Mixology. The simplicity of a classic will definitely show the true colours of a skilled bartender, this should always be a trend in our industry.
The one to go: As for what I would like to see disappear is the disapproval of a customer’s order. I know most bars would have lost count of how many Espresso Martinis they make. But when someone asks for this Dick Bradsell classic, a Cosmopolitan, or something you would turn your nose up at, you should stop right there and start thinking differently. We are here for the guest not the other way around, make the best French Martini you can if someone asks for it. Use the freshest and best ingredients and perfect the balance, don’t half ass these drink, make everyone the best you can and enjoy what you do for a living.
Also in the cocktail trends 2018 series…. Cocktail Trend Predictions for 2019 by Bar Industry Professionals, Top 10 Cocktail Trends 2018
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