Mixing up mixology: The year ahead in cocktail and bar trends

Flavor meanderings. Genre reconsiderations. Health on the rocks. 2026’s predicted cocktail trends move from the world of ingredients to a thoughtful appraisal of what precisely comprises an Irish pub. Right this way to what’s ahead in the drinking world this year.

Fermentation is in it for the long game

A process that is no newbie, fermentation has been around for eons. Its presence, though, in the cocktail world, keeps bubbling in the interest of “pushing flavor boundaries,” said Lindsay Parrill in The Manual. “I’m not sure if it’s ‘the next big thing’ or just my personal obsession, but fermentation is king,” said Chad Austin, the beverage director of Bar Benjamin in Los Angeles, to Vine Pair. It brings “layers of depth, acidity, funk, brightness — all the things that make cocktails more compelling.”

That might mean miso syrups or the use of fermented citrus like spicy Japanese yuzu kosho. “Our guests are increasingly drawn to drinks that balance citrus, salinity and light heat,” said Tana Kokanot, the head bartender of Jeong Yuk Jeom in New York City, to Vine Pair. And fermented citrus “delivers that balance.”

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Hojicha and matcha say it’s tea time

The roasty-toasty hojicha is the tea that is “going to define 2026,” said Chris Figueroa, the beverage director at Markette and The Argyle in New York City, to Vine Pair. It is an ingredient that is “truly versatile.” It “deepens the base, rounds the edges and adds a quiet complexity that elevates an entire drink.”

Matcha may beg to differ about hojicha winning the 2026 Steeping Olympics. When the green tea’s verdancy appears in a bar, it is “hard to overlook what some bartenders have called the ‘sizzling fajita effect’ — a head-turning item that prompts more order,” said Liz Provencher at Food & Wine. With its “combination of herbaceous, earthy notes and slight sweetness,” matcha has “great tannin structure that helps it hold up against a variety of other drink components.” The internecine Camellia sinensis battle begins.

Irish pubs are back — albeit maybe better?

“When I first came to America, they were actually writing articles on the death of the Irish pub,” said Jack McGarry, the co-founder of New York’s The Dead Rabbit, to the drink magazine Punch. “The Irish pub is never going to die. But it has to be done right.”

“Done right” these days entails an Irish pub that bests the simulacrum approach that has existed in the States. Gone is the American idea of an Irish pub; in arrives a new wave of bars that lock on the beating heart of an Irish drinking establishment. Guinness with oysters on the half shell at Manhattan’s Banshee. Wild ox pie with live music at The Harp in Washington, D.C. A pour of Skellig Irish whiskey alongside fish cakes with tartar sauce and an analog listening party at Baltimore’s The Wren. All proving the truism, said Hannah Walhout at Punch, that a “pub is not just a place to get a drink, but a place where life happens.”

Pandan clocks in

Tiki took over. Tropical continues to have its beachy day in the sun. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that pandan would stretch its pointed leaves into the cocktailsphere. The plant is sometimes called the “‘vanilla of the East,’” said Richard Luong, a bartender at Cure in New Orleans, to Vine Pair. “The leaves have sweet, nutty and vanilla aromatics that are very pleasant — my family always had some growing in the backyard.”

Pandan is so on the trend move that it is even being captured in bottled form. Bar owner and mixologist Nico de Soto of Mace in New York City and Paris’ Danico created KOTA Pandan Liqueur with the French distiller Gabriel Boudier. The “resulting liqueur is beautifully aromatic with notes of vanilla, toasted rice and buttery sugar cookie,” said Penelope Bass at Imbibe.

Protein strongarms its way into the glass

Everyone can’t stop yapping about protein, and the growth of Mate! Vodka Protein Water, a canned 4.5% ABV beverage with eight grams of protein, is muscle-bound evidence. Sales keep increasing, and the protein surge has also entered the high-end cocktail space.

Drinkers now “want satiety, recovery support or wellness alignment while still honoring the ritual of cocktail hour,” said Ahu Hettema, the owner of the craft cocktail bar Istanbul Hawai’i in Honolulu, to Wine Enthusiast. “Clear whey isolates,” a type of protein powder, can be “seamlessly incorporated in bright, transparent cocktails like gin and tonics, spritzes and margaritas.”