All that glitters is not gold, they say, but a cocktail carefully prepared by a well-know bartender in a bar ranked as one of the best in the world surely makes all the difference. In London and New York, obviously, but even more so in cities that until now have not exactly been renowned for their nightlife. So to find out what trends we can expect in the coming months, we chose four cities whose locales embody the big trends of the moment: Athens, Mexico City, Barcelona and Milan.

One of the top trends right now is one that we could call Cocktail Tourism. Remember the times when journeys were planned specifically in order to dine in a particular restaurant? Well now bars too are becoming destinations worth booking a holiday for. In cities like Athens you can sip a cocktail at Couleur Locale or A for Athens in the shadow of the floodlit Parthenon, or else wander down streets that used to be off limits in the once ill-famed Psyrri district to sample an Aegean Negroni at Clumsies, which is one of the best bars in the world. Not least of all because you spend a lot less money there than in a star-rated restaurant and you socialise more, something we all need more of right now.

As a consequence, new cities have come onto the radar. The pandemic and the opportunities for remote working that came with it have prompted many professionals to move away from the big cities to go and work in more liveable places, where life costs less and things move at a steadier pace. This might also mean having extended hotel stays, as part of the staycation trend.

So what do these bars have on their menus? So-called Nostalgic Drinks that offer familiar flavours and forgotten combinations, brought back in a way that satisfies the new need for sustainability, using local ingredients and with a healthier, lower alcohol content. An example of this would be the Giostra d’Alcol, a bizarre futurist cocktail, revised and corrected at the 10_11, the bar at the Portrait hotel in Milan.

Alcohol-free cocktails are no longer something people make fun of (the term ‘mocktail’ is going out of fashion in fact). They are now a respected choice, thanks among other things to a plethora of new distillates with zero alcohol or a low ABV (Alcohol by Volume) level. People want fewer calories and less alcohol, in order to better enjoy ‘the moment’, as well as being able to choose when, where and how to drink.

As has already happened in the kitchen, bars are now tending to use local ingredients and spirits to create unique cocktails, ones that say something about the history and culture of the local area. This is something that is happening in Mexico City, as our HostAmbassador tells us in the article The Mexico Mixology Scene Focuses on Identity.

Finally, lasers, distillers, driers and sous-vide, i.e. the equipment that has revolutionised haute cuisine, is now also to be found in bars together with advanced processing techniques, as happens at the Paradiso, which recently earned itself the accolade of the world’s best bar. And where is it? For the first time it is not in London or New York, but in Barcelona. In other words, creativity today knows no bounds.