5 alcohol trends that will shape how we drink in the 2020s

Drink Baby Yoda cocktail, you will – but only for a little while longer, hopefully. The 2010s saw many ill-advised drinking trends, ones the average bar denizen will be happy to see the back of. Still, several are poised to influence the way we imbibe in the coming year and beyond. Over the last decade, radical shifts in collective taste, work habits, the way we consume information and even America’s hyper-polarised politics have driven our drinking style. The 2020s will be no different. Indeed, these six changes to alcohol culture may have a stronger impact on what, and how, we drink. Luckily, the Star Wars franchise isn’t one of them. Craft spirits According to data company Statista, there were 195 independent craft distilleries in the US in 2010. By 2018, that was up to 1,586. With the success of “handmade” and “artisanal” vodka, gin, rum and particularly whiskey, liquor conglomerates such as Proximo and Rémy Cointreau took the “if you can’t beat ’em, invest in ’em” strategy by purchasing majority stakes in small distilleries. “The benefit of a strategic partnership allows us to scale up in a meaningful way,” said Kaveh Zamanian, founder of Rabbit Hole Distillery in Louisville, in the US state of Kentucky. The distillery was bought last year by Pernod Ricard in a buying binge that also included Jefferson’s Bourbon in Kentucky, Smooth Ambler in West Virginia and Firestone & Robertson in Texas. Hong Kong’s booming craft beer scene goes ‘Insane’ with Heart of Darkness Rather than selling out, Zamanian said he sees the investment as a recognition of the value of his creative vision and potential for product innovation. Looking ahead: With US tariffs on European alcoholic products currently in place and more potentially coming, the next decade could be colossal for the country’s domestic spirits. Plus, the recent signing of a tax incentive bill included an extension of the US Craft Beverage Modernisation and Tax Reform Act, which provides distillers savings of US$10.80 per gallon of the first 100,000 gallons produced. Celebrity liquor The 2010s were the decade that gave us Born & Bred Vodka from Channing Tatum, Heaven’s Door Whiskey from Bob Dylan, Virginia Black Whiskey from Drake, Villa One Tequila from Nick Jonas, and even Ron de Jeremy Spirits from porn star Ron Jeremy, to name a few. Though not even director Steven Soderbergh (behind the spirit Singani 63) could have written the Hollywood ending for George Clooney, who sold his Casamigos tequila company to Diageo for a reported US$1 billion in 2017. As unseemly as celebrity partnerships can be to the more discerning, they do give niche spirits more attention. For example, actor Ryan Reynolds acquired part ownership of Aviation Gin in 2017. “Ryan is recruiting new fans to the gin category and to American gin in particular,” said Andrew Chrisomalis, CEO of Davos Brands, which owns Aviation. Though not an owner, actor Matthew McConaughey was named creative director for Wild Turkey whiskey in 2016 – presumably to help spread the word that bourbon is “all right, all right, all right” through TV spots, philanthropic efforts and Longbranch, a bourbon he co-created with master distiller Eddie Russell. “The decision to partner with Matthew was born out of a desire to share our rich, storied history with a younger bourbon consumer,” said Julka Villa, managing director at Campari Group, which owns Wild Turkey. Looking ahead: Last year, Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston co-founded Dos Hombres mescal and Kate Hudson announced the launch of her gluten-free, non-GMO, corn-based vodka King Street. Perhaps now mescal will get the big, bad break it’s been poised to have for decades, and maybe more female celebrities will head up spirits brands. Mixers The rise of premium gin and non-alcoholic cocktails silenced the bar soda gun in favour of higher quality bottled tonics and less sugary flavoured fizzy mixers. Category leader Fever Tree from the UK was valued at US$4.5 billion earlier this year, but there is rising competition from other mixer companies who came up through the decade. “When we launched over 10 years ago, consumers in the know wanted to make great drinks and they began investing in premium spirits,” said Jordan Silbert, founder of Q Mixers in Brooklyn, New York. “It only made sense that mixing those better spirits with mixers of comparable quality and sophistication would make better drinks.” Looking ahead: Even old school fizz companies like Schweppes have seen the need to launch premium mixer brand extensions to meet demand. Low alcohol The gig economy has no set working schedule – let alone traditional brunch days for day drinking – but no one wants to get too smashed on a Monday afternoon. “Spritzes and low-alcohol-session cocktails are a way for people to enhance a moment without the punch of a high-proof spirit,” said Lynn House, national spirits specialist and portfolio mixologist for Heaven Hill. She spearheaded the rebranding of the low-ABV, vermouth-like liqueur Dubonnet Rouge to jibe better with sophisticated palates in a less boozy cocktail culture. Looking ahead: If 2019’s “Summer of Spritz” was any indication, fizzy and highball-type drinks made with a wide range of flavourful, low-alcohol liqueurs aren’t going away any time soon, though tariffs might have an impact on the accessibility of imports in the US. Will high-end American drink venues avoid the rising costs of imported liqueurs in favour of hard soda water? According to data firm Nielsen, sales of hard soda water such as White Claw are up more than 208 per cent in 2019. Instagram drinking Cats and lunch weren’t the only stars of the decade’s social media firehose. So were cocktails, especially those with over-the-top garnishes, bright hues and outrageous drinking vessels such as snow globes. Liquor brands hired influencer cocktail stylists like Josue Romeo (@the_garnishguy) to post content or worked with consultants such as Alexandra Farrington, who said she was instructed to come up with eye-catching concepts no matter what the drink tasted like. Some bars now even have a budget for creative directors. Looking ahead: With constantly shifting algorithms and platforms such as Instagram experimenting with not posting “likes”, maybe we can all soon go back to sipping plain old glasses of wine – and not telling anyone about it.