2020 is FINALLY over, and although the new year didnt just turn on a switch and instantly everything was back to normal, we are on our way hopefully to a better year. As always, we’re looking at the trends and making our 2021 drinking trends we expect to start, continue, or stop. But don’t just listen to us, tell us what YOU think as well.
- Hard to find spirits.
- If you thought bourbon hunting was obnoxious, its only going to get worse, and maybe for several other types of spirits. Brands, depending on how cautious they were and what local restrictions they had, distilleries were closed, or working on a limited capacity. I’ve made it known I HATE the effort I have to go through to get bourbons that use to be plentiful on the shelf. If I gotta fight to find my favorite rums and gins…. we got problems.
- Cocktail Kits Explosion
- First they closed our bars, then we started spending more at the liquor store, but we can’t quite make them like our bartenders could, enter carefully curated cocktail kits. Cocktail kits aren’t new, but the new brands popping up + the increase in advertising of existing brands tells me we’ll see these used a lot more in 2021. F
- Pop Ups and Mobile Bar Business Spike
- So reality is some of our favorite bars and restaurants have closed their doors, or will be. But what we know is those talented and creative people will figure out their next move. A great way we could see that happen is the re emergence of pop ups like the old days. And mobile bartending has always been a thing, we see it becoming huge this year. They’ll be back on their feet in no time.
- Seltzer continues its massive sales spike.
- I know, we don’t cover seltzer much here, but we do think about it a lot. What I thought was a fad in 2019 turned into a monster in 2020 and things aren’t slowing down. New brands are popping up daily. We just got some samples from Michelob Ultra for their new seltzer hitting stores this week.
- Drinks To Go
-
- Drinks to go became a thing, and not just in the cities like Vegas and New Orleans where taking drinks to go is the norm. But we saw bars that struggled with stay at home orders and serious capacity restrictions get creative and keep the pours coming with to-go cocktail programs. This one’s a trend that isn’t going anywhere…
-
Check back in 6 months and then again in December 2021 and we’ll see how we did.
Cheers,
Alex
