How feasible is the seasonal cocktail trend?

Should bars create seasonal cocktails, using ingredients that are plentiful for the time of year, or are there drawbacks to this approach? Two bartenders give opposing views.

Should bartenders create seasonal cocktails menus? SB speaks to two bartenders with opposing views

The ability to trace food right back to its source has gained popularity, with ‘organic’ becoming the new buzzword by which the informed consumer makes their purchasing decisions.

The potential for a bar to associate its surroundings with the ingredients listed within its menu creates authenticity and attention to detail.

It creates an association between the drink and the guest whereby they can visualise its origins – but is the trend for seasonal drinks worth creating a whole cocktail menu from?

Click through the following pages to see two opposing opinions on the trend.

Elliot Ball, co-founder of The Cocktail Trading Company, London

Elliot Ball, co-founder of The Cocktail Trading Company, London

I always want to keep the team on their toes creatively, so we come up with new stuff all the time. If seasonality fits in with the concept, then we’ll work towards it, but it’s also good to be able to put ideas on the back burner and come back to them when a more fitting venue/project needs drinks. Here, seasonality can cause problems. As for when our menus change, we get them printed in giant quantities and they are treated as souvenirs for guests. We’ll begin work on the next menu immediately, but won’t put it into production until we have exhausted the previous run. Sometimes this is just a few short months; once it was closer to a year.

Seasonality is a concept as well as an approach; one of the great things about cocktails is that bottled produce and basic fresh ingredients are, in the UK, effectively free of seasonality. Thus your classics and twists are naturally not seasonal. So to adopt a seasonal model is itself a different approach. I can see the ethical benefits behind this, which I hugely respect, and a stellar example is Shrub & Shutter in London. Mostly, I’ll respect any venue that nails a concept well.

At CTC, we’re not hugely seasonally­-driven; our menus often last too long and serious supply issues can ensue (plus ecological backfires). That said, we frequently liaise with our suppliers to ensure that fresh produce is sourced as locally as possible. Let’s face it, though – avoiding air miles in citrus is not easy. We actually use a lot of citric acid to get around that.

Inconsistency is a big problem, both in individual drinks (the acidity in certain fresh citrus fruits is notorious here) and throughout a seasonal menu. When locally grown rhubarb is no longer available, the drink that requires it either needs to be altered or needs to come off the menu. We use a professional printer at a large scale to make printing our menus affordable. So everything has to be reliable for the foreseeable future.

First off, quality is always king. It doesn’t matter how locally-produced or seasonal your ingredients are if they don’t taste good as the final product. Nothing is suited to all venues, especially seasonal menus. Equally, it’s very easy to say a venue or menu is seasonal when it’s really not.

Johnny Swet, consulting mixologist at The Skylark, New York

Johnny Swet, consulting mixologist at The Skylark, New York

I am very influenced by the seasons. Most of my best buddies are chefs, so I tend to believe that cocktails, like food, should follow a seasonal approach. At The Skylark, we try to change our menu four times a year.

When coming up with new cocktails, I try to think about what I would enjoy at the time of year and what’s seasonably available. Inspirations come from many different angles. In the summer, I lean towards refreshing, fruit­-forward cocktails, using watermelon and gins, or peaches and stone fruits with light ryes. In the fall, I like to use warming spices and darker spirits.

I don’t really think there are challenges with having seasonal menus, but I do think it’s important to grow and learn each year to translate these seasonal ingredients into cocktail formats that are new and refreshing.

The benefit to having seasonal menus is that, as the mixologist, you actively get to curate these menus every few months. It definitely keeps the creative juices flowing and makes the job enjoyable.

Customers nowadays almost expect seasonal menus, especially since it can really enhance the experience. I will often bring back really popular cocktails from seasons past, just because they’ve been proven to be a good damn drink. Our regular customers love to see them return to our menu.

You can manage dead stock in the bar from seasonal ingredients by actively communicating with your staff based on demand and not over­-ordering. We’re lucky at The Skylark – the team does an awesome job managing the bar, so we don’t usually run into a lot of dead stock.

My best advice is don’t overreach. Less is more; doing 10 great seasonal cocktails well is way better than having 20 so­-so seasonal cocktails.

A good example of a classic cocktail that can be tweaked seasonally for year­-round enjoyment is an Old Fashioned. In the summer, I like muddling grilled peaches into the cocktail, and in the fall, I like using walnut liqueur.

If it’s feasible for the venue, there is no reason not to do seasonal menus anywhere.