While Picasso was revolutionizing art with cubism, Europe’s well-to-do hung hyper-realistic bucolic landscapes in their parlours. Sometimes, though, what someone consider commonplace is nothing short of revolutionary to the broader public.
Take the rise of agave spirits, an indisputable trend within industry experts. But ask your former classmates or your accountant, and you’ll find that mezcal — not to mention its taste — is less familiar than you might think. Numbers, after all, can be deceptive: double-digit growth in niche products can be easy to trumpet. If a product jumps from 1% to 2% market share, that’s technically a 100% increase.
Vodka in High-End Mixology
Likewise, in the realm of high-end mixology, many will tell you vodka is on the decline — but perhaps we’re measuring its popularity with the wrong scale. While vodka may have been overtaken by other spirits in top-tier cocktail bars, its story doesn’t end there. In bars and clubs worldwide, vodka bottles are cracked open night after night, serving a different kind of drinking moment, one deeply rooted in the essence of night itself.
In this decade, vodka has reemerged as the ultimate hedonistic spirit, stripped of pretension and attuned to its role as a social catalyst. The numbers alone speak volumes — globally, vodka is projected to grow by 5.6% by 2030, with its market value set to climb from $25.95 billion to an impressive $40.25 billion.
Professionals and Budding Bartenders
Vodka’s charm lies, paradoxically, in its simplicity; for many drinkers who are taking their first steps into the world of cocktails, its neutrality provides a blank canvas upon which the nuanced flavors of a drink can be savored without distraction. Its purity makes vodka a favorite not just for novices but for budding bartenders as well, those mixing drinks at the bustling bars where creativity often takes a backseat to speed. In such settings, vodka offers them the ideal base — an unobtrusive spirit that allows secondary flavors to shine.
It’s no wonder then that the industry itself is increasingly embracing vodka, selecting it as the spirit of choice for ready-to-drink cocktails, premixed liquors, and particularly the fast-growing hard seltzer category.
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Images credits Julie Couder for Coqtail, location Casa Tobago, all rights reserved
