The Experts

Michael Adasko is a native Brooklynite and catering manager at Shiraz , a boutique New York event company. He has designed cocktails for Versace, Crate & Barrel, Google, Tommy Hilfiger, Microsoft, Target, Diane Von Furstenberg as well as Belvedere Vodka, Chandon and Johnnie Walker.

Duane Fernandez is a 7-year industry veteran who competed on the second season of NBC’s On the Rocks: The Search For America’s Next Top Bartender.  Currently the head bartender at NYC’s Donatella and D Bar, his drinks have been featured in GQ and the New York Times.

Ori Geshury is based in Philadelphia, and serves as the Head of Development, Training, and Research for the Mixology Wine Institute, a division of the Professional Bartending Schools of America.

John Lermayer is a New Yorker based at The Florida Room at Delano Hotel in Miami. He has created beverage programs for multiple properties in the Morgans Hotel Group, and has received numerous awards including Canton’s 2009/2010 Bartender of the Year.

Dean Phillips is CEO of Phillips Distilling Company, a family owned, Minneapolis based spirits company that produces a full range of distilled alcohol including organic and flavored vodkas, rum, whiskey. The company introduced the luxury vodka category in 1995 with Belvedere and Chopin, and now produces 70 brands across various spirit categories.

The Trends

Salt and Brine Are Catching On

A bacon flavored mixer is definitely different, but is it unusual enough to become a trend? According to many of the experts we spoke with, it is.

“We are seeing a lot of requests for kimchi, smoked salts, and pickled vegetables – the savory cocktail is in,” says Adasko.

Fernandez  notes “I notice that people are going for some spice in their cocktails recently. I am already working with Chipotle infused alcohol as well as incorporating other spices and peppers to play along with this trend. I see this coinciding with spring cocktails.”

Geshury attributes the more experimental drinks to an increase in communication between the bar and the kitchen. “My friend lives in Brooklyn and reported a New York trend of homemade pickle brine chasing a shot [of whiskey].”

In Miami, Lermayer isn’t receiving the requests for peppery or pickled additions, but has seen people “going back to spirit on spirit cocktails with more bitters. Essentially variations of classic cocktails. They are looking for drinks where the flavor of the spirit breaks through.”

When it comes to the decision of which flavors spirit makers experiment with, Phillips crowdsources inspiration, taking recommendations from distillery guests. “Weâ€re constantly experimenting with unusual flavors – many of which are suggested by visitors on a whiteboard in our laboratory. From indigenous honeysuckle and prickly pear to exotic mangosteen, our master distiller, Jim Aune, always has some interesting concepts cooking,” he says. “I just tried a caramel sea salt spirit in our lab that is begging to be bottled.”

In Brief: Cocktails have taken cues from desserts for a while. If you’re in the kitchen and have considered an unlikely ingredient, go ahead and mix it up because the main course is the next inspiration for mixed drinks.

We're going to just say no to whisky in a can

We’ve seen single serving wine in a plastic glass, wine in a box and wine around your neck. Now whisky is getting in on the odd container action courtesy of Scottish Spirits’ whisky in a can. {Dlisted}

Maybe there’s an unanswered call for individual serving containers of more alcohols than just beer, but is a can really the best way to go about it? Even though we’d like to think we wouldn’t judge a drink by its container, there’s something about an aluminum can that removes a certain amount of class associated with anything in it.

Once the cheaper association is attached, it’s pretty difficult to shake off. We won’t say that the Four Loko outrage was all based on the packaging choice, but if it had been bottled and given different branding perhaps it wouldn’t have attracted the disdain that the can did. While there’s a certain demographic who wouldn’t mind hard liquor in a can, they’re not the people most companies want to be known for targeting.

Just our take though, if you’re a whisky drinker, would the convenience of a can tempt you to try this?