Mixology Trends 26/27
Published 03 October 2025
Cocktail culture has become a platform for culinary creativity, local storytelling and immersive sensory design. Mixologists globally are using ever-more innovative production techniques, ingredient blends and evocative presentations to delight today’s experience-chasing cocktail drinker.
The Ultra-Experimental Era
Hyper-Local Liquids
Extravagant, Evocative Sipping Experiences
Cocktail innovation is embracing culinary inventiveness via ultra-savoury ingredients, creamy, starch-driven textures and innovative fermentation techniques to provide new layers of sour and earthy flavours. For a further look at how brands can introduce these kinds of complex flavours, read Future Flavours Forecast 25/26: Sensory Cues.
Cocktail innovation is embracing culinary inventiveness via ultra-savoury ingredients, creamy, starch-driven textures and innovative fermentation techniques to provide new layers of sour and earthy flavours. For a further look at how brands can introduce these kinds of complex flavours, read Future Flavours Forecast 25/26: Sensory Cues.
Bars worldwide are swapping mainstream spirits for previously overlooked hyperlocal libations to create unique cocktails that reflect local cultural flavours. Meanwhile, others are using ingredients inspired by regional wellness rituals. Going further, some are even distilling their own spirits using home-grown, rare ingredients.
Cocktail programmes are evolving into immersive high-concept experiences that blend culinary precision and sensory storytelling, with mixologists creating premium omakase-style menus, synaesthesia-inspired monochromatic drinks and nostalgia-driven flavour profiles. Read Exploring New Coffee Culture for how immersive and luxury service is translating across categories.
Mixology Trends 26/27
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