Summary: Barcadi Cocktail Trends Report 2023

Bacardi Cocktail Trends 2023 Report, conducted in association with The Future Laboratory, identifies five trends to watch this year.

BARCADI COCKTAIL TRENDS REPORT 2023 DECODED

Bacardi’s 2023 Cocktail Trends Report is into its fourth iteration. The research focuses on the UK, US, Indian and African markets. Respondents of the research include consumers and bartenders which generally refers to the off-trade and on-trade segments.

The report predicts five cocktail trends in 2023: Pleasure revolution, transformational tastes, virtual experimentation, sophisticated sips, and conscious cocktails.

It is hard to have a guess about what precisely these trends mean without reading the report. So, for everyone’s benefit, here’s a summary of what these five trend predictions are in 2023 and how each trend extrapolates from one to the other.

TREND 1: Pleasure Revolution

Barcadi notes in the report that the pandemic lockdowns may have spurred a boom in making cocktails at home.

According to its consumer survey, more people are making cocktails at home as compared to 3 years ago. Up to 40% of respondents in the U.S. and over 30% in the U.K. are making their drinks a home, and up to 30% have claimed to increase their knowledge of cocktails especially in the past two years. This also coincides with 59% increase of search term “cocktails” trended on Google between October 2021 and September 2022.

With greater cocktail knowledge in consumers, Bacardi foresees a ‘pleasure revolution’. It can be summarised as follows: Consumers are more knowledgeable and therefore more open to cocktail experimentations. The same goes for new bar and taste experiences.

TREND 2: Transformational Tastes

Reading the report, it is not hard to see that ‘transformational tastes’ is an expansion of pleasure revolution: With greater knowledge in cocktails (and more time from hybrid work-home arrangements) comes bolder palettes.

Barcadi predicts a move towards: Nostalgia with a twist, premiumization of aged rums, circadian cocktails (make a guess what this is) and carefree creations.

Forbes has succinctly described Barcadi’s prediction in layman’s term:

“… towards bolder flavors, with spicy, tequila, and vodka-based cocktails rising appeal (think ingredients like jalapeño and tabasco). Bitter flavors remain popular, with ingredients like coffee (heard of an espresso martini?) and aromatic bitters gaining popularity, alongside ferments: kombuchas, tepaches, and kefirs.”
Forbes

TREND 3: Virtual Experimentation

The research reports 31% of US respondents being inclined to order home delivery of cocktails.

Living post-pandemic, ecommerce and digital experience has entrenched in today’s daily lives. The virtual space will continue to see adoption and growth.

Bacardi predicts that the digital world will offer a new path to drinks education and experimentation. This includes the new metaverse which Gartner, technology research firm, predicts that 25% of consumers will spend a minimum of an hour a day in the metaverse in the next three years.

TREND 4: Sophisticated Sips

Straightforward and easy to understand, the category of premium spirits is a trend to watch.

According to the report, 72% of bartenders are seeing the increase in premium especially in Tequila. This is followed by single malts, aged rums and mezcals.

Still following and relevant to ‘pleasure revolution’, Barcadi predicts an uptake in premium minimalism – more quality of drink over dressing, and savoury cocktails in the coming year.

TREND 5: Conscious Cocktails

This comes as a surprise: 9 out of 10 respondents in the Indian market are more willing to spend more on a drinks brand that stands for sustainability, where respondents in the U.S and U.K. are less responsive to sustainability messages.

For detailed reading, go to Barcadi Cocktail Trend Report.