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Campari dominates venue presence in US
Analysis by business intelligence platform Overproof has found Campari to be the most dominant supplier to this year’s US-based top 10 Spirited Awards nominees.
The AI-driven business intelligence solution analysed the menus of the Spirited Awards top 10 US nominees across five categories to determine the brands and suppliers that are dominating the on-trade.
It looked at the nominees in the categories for Best US Hotel Bar, Best US Cocktail Bar, Best US Restaurant Bar, Best US Bar Team and Best US New Cocktail Bar to determine the results, with menus from July 2023 to June 2024 successfully sourced for a majority of the venues nominated.
The report looks at data from across 135 venues, 261 suppliers, 968 brands, and 1,068 cocktails.
By share of mentions in cocktails across all menus analysed, Campari comes out on top with an 11.1% share, leading the suppliers in three of the five categories: Best US Restaurant Bar, Best US Cocktail Bar and Best US Bar Team. It places second in the remaining two categories.
Meanwhile Bacardi leads in the Best US Hotel Bar category, with brands including Patrón, Grey Goose (the most-popular brand for the third consecutive year, taking 4.4% in 2024) and Bombay Sapphire maintaining their prominence as consumer and bartender favourites.
Brown-Forman’s Fords Gin is the second most-popular brand, with 3.4%. Overproof notes that this is an indication of a “strong industry endorsement for quality and versatility” which makes it “a bartender favourite for a wide range of cocktails”.
Amaro is the most popular product category with a 13.6% share of mentions in cocktails, with liqueurs and gin coming in second and third, with a 11.7% and 8.8% share respectively.
Within the amaro category, Campari and Aperol emerge as the dominant brands by venue presence tied for first (55.4%), total menu mentions (14.4%, 10.2%), and amaro cocktail mentions (22.2%, 18.2%). These rankings align with the last two years, where Campari and Aperol also led in amaro.
By share of modifiers mentioned in cocktails, Angostura Bitters dominates by securing three of the five US award categories, highlighting its role in both classic and contemporary serves.
It holds the second-place ranking in both hotel and restaurant bars, affirming its widespread appeal among professional bartenders.
However, Angostura Bitters has seen a decline over the past three years across mentions in all categories, dropping from 7.1% in 2022 to 6.6% in 2023, and further to 5.4% in 2024. This, Overproof says, indicates a decrease in classic cocktails and a further shift towards signature serves using other modifiers, such as Chartreuse, which follows with a 3.4% share.
In terms of venue presence, in which at least one portfolio product is present in a venue, Campari takes the top spot again, with 86.7% of venues featuring one product from the firm’s catalogue.
Campari’s most popular base spirit found in venues is Wild Turkey Bourbon (35.8%).
Meanwhile, Pernod Ricard is found to be the second most-common supplier, with a 76.5% share, despite none of its brands making it into the top 11 base spirits present in venues.
However across all menus considered, the French firm is listed as the top supplier with a 7.7% share of total mentions. This is closely followed by Campari with 7.5%, and Bacardi with 7%.
Product categories
Bourbon is the most common product category mentioned across all menus (11.4%), followed by Tequila (9.6%) and amaro (9.6%).
Suntory Global Spirits-owned Maker’s Mark holds the top position for the second year among award nominees.
Of all Bourbon mentions in cocktails, Brown-Forman’s Woodford Reserve (10.6%) comes in second, followed by a two-way tie between Heaven Hill’s Elijah Craig (9.1%) and Brown-Forman’s Old Forester (9.1%).
Rum ranks in the top five by share of cocktail mentions in nearly all award categories, except Best Hotel Bar, highlighting its essential role in the cocktail scene.
Bacardí is the leading rum brand by venue presence, found in 41.3% of venues. It is followed by Maison Ferrand’s Planteray (38.1%) and Campari-owned Appleton Estate (33.3%).
Tequila only ranks in the top five of one category, Best US Cocktail Bar, where it has placed fifth by cocktail mentions.
Bacardi-owned Patrón and Tequila Ocho alternate in the number one spot, with Patrón having the most venue presence (36.7%) and Tequila Ocho leading in overall mentions (7.9%).
Meanwhile, by number of mentions in cocktails, vodka does not rank among the top five for any of the award categories.
Gin, however, maintains a strong and consistent presence, ranking high in multiple categories, including Best Cocktail Bar and Best Bar Team.
Liqueurs leads the Best Bar Team category and ranks highly in Best Restaurant Bar and Best New Cocktail Bar.
The Spirited Awards final will be held this Thursday (25 July) at the Tales Of The Cocktail conference in New Orleans. The Spirits Business is a top four nominee for the category of Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication.
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