drinksint.com JANUARY 2016 DRINKS INTERNATIONAL 11


Gin’s the thing this year but it’s rum that has wheedled its way to the top of our trending list


TOP TRENDING BRANDS


1 PLANTATION


3 NIKKA


4 TANQUERAY S5IPSMITH


6 DEL MAGUEY 7


MONKEY 47


8 BULLEIT 9


HERNÖ GIN


10 GIN MARE


2 ANCHO REYES


t won’t surprise anyone that gin brands make up half of our top 10 trending brands in the world’s best bars. But before we take a jaunt down juniper way, let us talk about the Top Trending brand, Plantation rum. Made by Cognac Ferrand, this is a rum drinker’s elixir and its new pineapple flavour (what is it about pineapples in the bar business?), developed by founder Alexandre Gabriel and The World’s 50 Best Bars’ own David Wondrich, has accelerated interest. Plantation was the hot brand in more bars than any other, not least rum cathedrals Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco and Lobo Plantation in Sydney. With its vintage and single island expressions, it is doing a lot right. Up from fourth last year


to second is Ancho Reyes, the Mexian liqueur. The smoky, ancho chilli-based drink is going great guns, with US bars Canon from Seattle, Trick Dog in San Francisco and Herbs & Rye in Las Vegas attesting to its recent popularity, along with Maison Artemisia in Mexico City. The liqueur works well in cocktails with agave spirits, so the US and Mexico are its best feeding grounds. Nikka, as Japanese whisky generally, has had a good year. London’s Nightjar and L’Antiquaire


in Lyon both attested to the buzz around the brand, which has a stable of expressions to offer under one roof.


If Tanqueray in fourth doesn’t speak for itself, we certainly have in the last few pages, so on to the UK gin Sipsmith, which was a forerunner of the craft gin movement and is trending right now in the Gin Joint in Athens, The Jerry Thomas Project in Rome and Duke’s in London.


Meanwhile, cult brands Del Maguey and Monkey 47 you might have expected in the cool charts, and Bulleit is the bourbon we were expecting to see here too. It is on everyone’s lips, in more ways than one.


The list is completed by Gin Mare, which is spreading its Mediterranean doctrine far


beyond southern Europe, and Hernö – a Swedish newcomer that is hot property in Scandinavia.


The test for trending brands, though, is staying power. Can they turn bar calls into best sellers? We’ll have to wait for next year to find out.


TOP TRENDING I


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