Bartenders encouraged to experiment with flavoured vodka

Bartenders have been advised to embrace “crazy” flavoured vodkas such as whipped cream, rather than take the category too seriously.

“Crazy” vodka flavours like cake and whipped cream are a “fun” way to innovate in cocktails

In a panel debate at last week’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, several leading bartenders and brand ambassadors unanimously agreed that flavoured vodkas could create a world of new cocktail variations, so long as bartenders opened their minds.

“Instead of ruling out crazy flavours, take them and make them work in drinks like a Red Velvet Negroni,” said Ryan Magerian of Liquid Relations. “Don’t be so serious; have a little fun with them.”

The debate, titled Behind the Trojan Horse, was led by William Grant & Sons’ US portfolio ambassador Charlotte Voisey, who claimed flavoured vodkas fit into a new focus on fun within bartending.

“There has been a whole serious trend in the industry and now we’re coming back around to injecting fun into drinks,” she said, adding that bartenders should be more open-minded about what they serve their customers.

“There’s no reason to tell customers what they should be drinking, and how to behave. The backlash against vodka has had its day.”

Bacardi’s global brand advocacy director, Jacob Briars, added that utilising flavoured vodka could even have financial benefits for the bar. “Whipped Cream vodka is a flash in the pan and will be gone in a few years, so train staff to see it as an opportunity to sell a drink,” he said.

The category grew 19% in the States in 2012 to 153 million litres, while neutral vodka was down 2% to 460m litres according to Euromonitor.

Just last week Diageo and rap star P. Diddy caused a stir when they launched Ciroc Pineapple on Instagram.

In the same debate, the panel argued that bars that refuse to stock vodka altogether in a bid to be “trendy” are only failing their customers.