Cocktail Trends That Took Over 2025

Cocktails in 2025 weren’t just about what was in the glass—they were about why it was there, how it tasted on a second sip, and whether it made you want to take a photo before drinking it. This was the year the bar caught up with the internet’s attention span and the diner’s evolving palate.

Across the drinking audience, cocktails started borrowing ideas from kitchens, cafés, fermentation labs, and even pickle jars, proving that the line between food and drink could never have been thinner.

​Coffee was more than just espresso martinis; matcha reigned over mugs and glasses, martinis multiplied, and savoury notes—salt, spice, and umami—replaced sweetness. These shifts weren’t gimmicks, but reflected mindful consumption: fewer drinks, chosen with intention, for those craving thoughtful cocktails.

​From pickle juice to dessert cocktails served with a spoon, and chilli heat to reimagined classics, 2025’s trends revealed broader shifts in taste, culture, and curiosity. Here’s a look at the drinks and ideas that defined the year’s bar scene.

Coffee In Your Cocktail? Yes, Please!

Coffee cocktails reached a turning point in 2025, and the collaboration between Baileys and Starbucks demonstrated the significant popularity of coffee-inspired spirits this year.

It wasn’t just about the espresso martini—though that perennial favourite still held its ground. Bars began to approach coffee more thoughtfully, valuing it like wine or tea by paying close attention to roast profiles, undertastes, and origin, rather than using it just for caffeine or bittersweetness.

Cold brew became the preferred base, loved for its smooth extraction and low acidity, and appeared in drinks featuring rum, whisky, and tequila. Coffee Negronis, cold brew highballs, and clarified milk punches found popularity for their balance and drinkability.

Bars spotlighted single-origin beans, collaborating with local roasters to highlight nutty, chocolatey, or fruity notes instead of masking them.

Matcha Refused to Stay in Cafés

This year belonged to matcha. So much so that this green-coloured tea refused to stay in cafes and crossed over to the bar. Its appeal lies in versatility: grassy without being sharp, creamy without needing dairy, and instantly recognisable in a glass.

Some bars even leaned into their wellness associations, highlighting matcha cocktails for their lower caffeine and antioxidant content, and positioning them as lower-alcohol or daytime-friendly options.​

What made matcha stick in 2025 wasn’t just its striking colour, but its unique, light flavour profile.

2025 Loved Dessert In Its Drinks

Looking for a cocktail that tastes just like dessert? This one’s for you.

Bars leaned into drinks with complex flavours over sweetness. Think tiramisu martinis, chocolate–coffee Negronis, salted caramel Old Fashioneds, and cheesecake sours.

The shift was balanced. Instead of sugar bombs, bartenders used elements like cold brew, cacao nibs, toasted spices, mascarpone-washed spirits, and nutty liqueurs to evoke desserts without overwhelming sweetness. These cocktails drew inspiration from pastry techniques and blurred the line between drink and dish, often served with cocoa, biscotti, or a spoon!

Salt Over Sugar Had A Very Good Year

In 2025, bars shifted focus from sweet to savoury cocktails, creating drinks meant to enhance the dining experience rather than serve as sugary appetisers. These new offerings, built on the foundation of salt, fat, acidity, and umami, were crafted to be savoured slowly and to complement a wide range of foods.

Miso- and mushroom-infused cocktails added depth to whisky and tequila. Olive oil–washed gin and vodka contributed a silky texture without masking savoury flavours. Bartenders also experimented with Parmesan-washed spirits or drinks finished with aged cheese rind.

Bartenders often used celery, bell pepper, beet, or carrot juice to build a savoury structure. They reworked classics by adding saline to Negronis, clarifying Bloody Marys, and making spritzes more herbaceous and briny.

The Martini, Reimagined

This year, the martini reclaimed its place as the bar’s most adaptable canvas. What was once a rigid, two-ingredient classic became a stage for flavour, technique, and personality. As a result, across bars, the question shifted from “dry or dirty?” to “which martini are you in the mood for?”

Bartenders began reworking the structure rather than just the garnish. Olive oil–washed vodka, tomato water martinis, mushroom-infused gin, and seaweed or kombu brines added savoury depth to the drink, while citrus-forward riffs, yuzu and bergamot infusions, and even berry-tinted martinis softened its sharp edges. My personal favourite is the pornstar martini: a vanilla-y martini infused with passion fruit. The dirty martini evolved, too, with brines from pickles, capers, jalapeños, and even kimchi stepping in for traditional olive juice.

Temperature, texture, and dilution mattered more than ever—ultra-cold serving, crystal-clear ice, and minimalist glassware became integral to the experience.

Turn Up the Heat

We all remember Dua Lipa’s viral Coke recipe, mixing Diet Coke, jalapenos and pickle juice!

This year, jalapeño, chilli, and pepper-driven drinks moved from trial to trend. Bars used heat as a flavour layer, adding warmth, aroma, and depth.

The jalapeño margarita became the year’s standout, gently infused to let the chilli’s green, vegetal notes shine with citrus and agave. Bartenders also experimented with chilli oil Negronis, pepper-infused Palomas, and cocktails topped with smoked or dried chillies.

Honey, citrus, and saline often balanced the spice, ensuring drinks stayed nuanced, not blunt.

The lasting appeal of spicy cocktails in 2025 showed their real strength: they redefined what a cocktail can be by adding dimension through heat. These drinks did more than trend—they changed the flavour landscape, showing that spice, balanced well, brings depth and excitement to cocktails.

The Year Of Briny Sips

In 2025, pickle juice became a staple ingredient in cocktails. Long valued by bartenders for its briny punch, it has moved past dirty martinis and into drinks that embrace its pungent sourness.

Pickle juice featured in picklebacks, dirty martinis, and new concoctions like pickle-brined margaritas and bloody marys. Some bars tweaked brine recipes for more control over acidity and salt.

The appeal was as practical as flavorful. Pickle juice adds complexity, balances sweetness, and suits the trend for savoury, less sugary, food-friendly cocktails.

Read more: Stack Your Bar Carts With These 6 Fruity Winter Spirits

Also read: These Are The Coffee Liqueurs Worth Buying for Your Winter Bar Cart