We are the company that people turn to if they want to hire a mobile bar in Manchester, or a festival bar in Liverpool. We are well known for our outstanding customer service, but another reason why so many of our customers keep on coming back to us is our great knowledge of the cocktail scene. This is one of the trickiest parts of our job as it is constantly changing and evolving, due to it being such a diverse and complicated sector. Social Media has had a big part to play in the creation of trends, for example, with drinkers in New York being able to see digitally what fellow drinkers in Singapore are enjoying and vice versa. Therefore, cocktail trends tend to be borderless and can spread across the world like wildfire. Some of the cocktail trends we have already started seeing this year include: the huge rise in interest in health and well-being starting to affect what we drink, a rise in the sales of premium spirits, and a rise in casual dining amongst 19 to 34 year olds seeing more occasions where cocktail drinking is seen as acceptable opening up. Read the rest of this article to discover more about these and other trends that we see happening in 2018:

Super Tonics

Gin and tonic seems to be the drink of choice now, and the past couple of years has seen a rise in the number of premium gins on sale and so the attention now seems to have turned to tonic. A rising number of quirky tonic brands have entered the market over the last twelve months, including 1724 from the Andes, Fever Tree from east Congo and BTW which is handcrafted in London to a traditional Victorian recipe. We are also seeing more and more people pairing their tonics with more unusual spirits to make them into long drinks such as whisky, tequila and mescal. Part of the reason for the success of drinks with tonic is that they are easy for people to recreate at home.

Sugar or Sweetener?

There has been a huge focus in the UK recently on sugar as it is being blamed for rising obesity rates, and many people have cut it out of their diet in an effort to lose weight. When it comes to cocktails and sugar though, the debate is not about how to avoid it but rather whether natural sugar should be used in drinks or artificial sweetener instead. For example, some of the new natural alcohol companies are trying out plant based sweeteners such as stevia to complement their 100% natural taste. Whereas other companies are less concerned about the amount of sugar used and are instead focussing on ensuring the taste is there.

Healthy Cocktails

No, this is not an oxymoron! There has been a huge rise in interest in health and fitness over recent years, driven by fitness gurus such as The Body Coach, and this has led to a rise in the number of people juicing fruit and vegetables, and this will inevitably have an impact on what we drink when we go out. We are starting to see cocktails being made with vegetable juices and having vegetable garnishes, and although this is only on a small scale now, we can see it gaining traction in the future.

Natural Flavours

Alongside this interest in health and wellness, we have also seen a move away from more weird and wonderful flavours of cocktails towards more natural ingredients, such as coconut water, aloe and pressed cold juices. People are coming around to the idea that using local, freshly sourced ingredients shouldn’t just be limited to food but should be applied to what we drink as well.

Low/No Alcohol Cocktails

The heightened health awareness that we all seem to have these days is also influencing our choice of drinks in that the requests for low alcohol or non-alcoholic cocktails have started to rise dramatically over recent months. Some of the larger spirit companies are already starting to pick up on this and are developing alcohol-free spirits that have similar tastes to normal spirits such as gin.

Theatrical Service

Many customers now expect a theatrical bar-tending experience with personally tailored drinks that leave them feeling like they have partaken in a special, unique experience. It is reassuring to see that in this high-tech age that we live in customers still want to be able to establish a personal connection with the bar-tender to enhance their drinking experience. Time is still of the essence though, and we don't see there being much of a move away from pre-mixed and ready-made bottled cocktails for ease of use.

These are just some of the trends we are expecting to see more of this year. If you would like more information about our bar hire service in Manchester, for both commercial and domestic use, then please call us on 01925 633 131 send us an email to enquiries@bars2you.co.uk.