This year’s cocktail trends are a mixture of old and new, with various favourites promising delicious and gorgeous combinations in every bar. There’s a focus on minimalism, lower alcohol volumes, reverse recipes, savoury flavours and exotic ingredients everywhere.
Here’s more on each of these trends:
Minimalism is trending in all aspects of life and cocktails are no different. In 2025, AJ Durow, Bar Manager at Bascule Bar and owner of BL_NK, expects to see less garnish on cocktails. Furthermore, she anticipates cocktails to be served in more simple and elegant glassware.
Amori Burger, Executive Chef over at Upper Union, says that she has already begun simplifying garnish and hyper-focussing on stemware. She says: “It’s just a clean, beautiful cocktail with perhaps a herb, a dust, a leather or a foam.”
Durow also says there is a “big push in certain minimalist bars where everything is pre-batched for consistency.” So, what you order is what you get!
Essentially, ‘less is more’ and ‘consistency is key’ seem to be phrases aligning themselves with cocktails in 2025.
In line with 2024’s trend of building a more conscious mindset, cocktails are following in 2025. Matthew Cox at Queens Bar says: “We’ve been seeing lots of sustainability being promoted lately, and it’s at a stage where I feel that it is no longer a trend, but a standard.”
He says this cocktail trend applies to both low and no alcohol by volume (ABV) cocktails. Therefore, mocktails, or versions thereof, are no longer just for the designated driver, but for the whole group of mindfully-consuming friends.
You don’t have to be off your rocker to enjoy the night out anymore.
Classic cocktails will always have a place in our hearts. However, the latest trend is reversing the classic to make a whole new world of reversed cocktails.
Durow explains that “for a reverse margarita, you’ll use more liqueur and less spirits. That falls within the lower ABV trend as well. So, you’re highlighting more of the liqueur notes as a flavour profile rather than the spirits.”
We recommend carrying some UNO reverse cards up your sleeve to surprise your friends at the next bar outing. You might look slightly unhinged, but hey, its trending!
Savoury is the answer where 2025 cocktails are concerned. Burger has been on this savoury cocktail trend for a few years now and is delighted to see the world following suit. The point of this is to allow a conversation to occur between food and cocktails, wanting them to complement each other instead of just co-existing.
“We’ll play with ingredients like oregano, spekboom, chutney, lacto-fermented chili,” says Burger. Her favourite in this category is a martini made of lacto-fermented passion fruit, chili cordial, tomato water and lemon juice.
A little bit of both worlds is where the ultimate cocktail lies!
Durow also says that people are looking “at the old classic and [seeing] how people can twist them.”
Part of spicing things up is the Sanpellegrino Italian sparkling drink range which remains a staple in a bartenders’ workplace. One such cocktail is Durow’s Bascule Sunset: A double shot of vermouth with Sanpellegrino’s Pompelmo, topped with minimal garnish and served in a feather-light martini glass.
For the cocktail lovers out there, 2025 is promising to be a good one. Next time you are out and about, ask the bartenders about one of these cocktail trends and try them for yourself!
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