The margarita is the most popular cocktail of the year again.

When it comes to their favorite cocktails, drinkers in the U.S. are wasting away in Margaritaville.

The margarita was the best-selling cocktail of 2023, according to exclusive data from NielsenQ (NIQ). This isn’t a surprise, as the tequila-powered frozen (or shaken) concoction that helps us hang on has been the most popular cocktail in the U.S. since 2015, the first year NIQ began tracking this category.

The best-selling cocktails were determined based on data compiled from a representative sample of more than 10,000 restaurants and bars. “It is balanced with approximately 50% independent outlets and 50% chain outlets; 75% of which are dining-centric and 25% drinking-centric,” Andrew Hummel, the director of BevAl Vertical NIQ, told me via email.

Other cocktails in the top 10 for 2023 include classics such as the martini, mojito, old fashioned and Long Island iced tea, as well as the espresso martini, the current “it” cocktail. Another best-selling mixed drink, the spritz, saw the biggest increase in popularity year-over-year.

“The average (median) cocktail price rose to $13 in 2023 up from $12 in 2022,” Hummel noted, but despite that, the quantity of cocktail purchases was up 6% in the final three months of 2023 compared to 2022.

Here is a rundown of the best-selling cocktails in the fourth quarter of 2023. This gives the closest approximation of what drinkers are currently looking for, but there are some seasonal variations inspired by warm-weather drinking habits to consider. For instance, last summer, the mojito occupied the third instead of sixth slot in the ranking, and the Piña Colada was the 10th best-seller before being unseated by the Bellini once the weather cooled.

Alcoholic Lime Margarita with Tequila and Sea Salt

Jimmy Buffett can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this iconic cocktail still holds a special place in the hearts of Americans. Nonetheless, the surge in popularity of both tequila and mezcal indicates that this drink’s fame is far from waning.

Simple yet classic, the Martini has not lost any of its allure.

While the identity of the next James Bond remains a mystery, the absence of the iconic actor from the big screen has not affected the sales of Bond’s preferred drink. It is worth noting that making a martini with vodka instead of gin and shaking it is not the approved method of making a martini—at least according to most connoisseurs.

The Moscow Mule maintains its status as a crowd-pleaser amongst drinkers.

The Moscow Mule’s appealing mix of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice helped make vodka the most popular spirit in the U.S., so I’m always happy to see it continue to get some love.

The Espresso Martini is having a moment.

Espresso martini mania has not yet peaked. In 2023, it remained one of the most popular cocktails and also had some of the most significant increases in popularity, rising to occupy this impressive fourth spot in the cocktail rankings.

The Old Fashioned’s popularity isn’t growing old soon.

Call me old fashioned but it’s hard to beat this blend of whiskey, sugar and bitters. Whether you opt for bourbon or rye is up to your taste, and the old fashioned offers countless alterations.

The mojito never fails to impress and was one of the most beloved cocktails of the previous year.

Cuba’s traditional cocktail is favoured throughout the year but certainly sees a surge in demand during the warmer months in the U.S., as consumers are attracted to its refreshing quality.

If you desire a substantial amount of liquor in a short timespan, The Long Island Iced Tea is the pick for you.

The Long Island Iced Tea, though having ingredients like vodka, gin, rum and gin that may seem like a hangover in the making, continues to be an ever-present favorite.

Beyond the popular Aperol Spritz, the Spritz category expands further.

The Aperol spritz has its detractors, but they played a crucial role in introducing U.S. drinkers to the broader Spritz category. This category usually comprises an Amaro-like liqueur blended with sparking wine and soda water. This fresh entrant in the top 10 cocktail list is fast climbing the ladder. By 2024, expect these drinks to be even more ubiquitous.

In daytime drinking, the mimosa cocktail is the unofficial frontrunner.

You can’t spell “brunch” without mimosa—well, technically you can, but you get what I mean. This mix of orange juice and sparkling wine is the ruler of all drinking that takes place before noon.

Bellini is the peach-powered brunch alternative to a mimosa.

To make the second-most popular brunch or breakfast cocktail in the U.S., simply replace the orange juice with peach puree. You can also replace the words “orange juice” with “peach puree” in the previous entry and the statement still works, more or less.

In this welcome variation for Paloma lovers, swapping the tequila for rye whiskey helps transition this bright grapefruit-forward cocktail into the oft-dreary winter months. If you’ve never met before, allow us to introduce the Blinker: a classic cocktail with a low profile and high vibrancy. The Blinker could be considered a variation of the Whiskey Sour, as it follows a standard sour format: base spirit, sugar, and citrus, plus a small yet crucial dilution from the wet shake.

Proto-Blinkers were made with rye whiskey, grapefruit juice, and grenadine. Call it evolution, or call it “keeping with the times,” but nowadays, modern mixologists are swapping the pomegranate-forward syrup for raspberry syrup, yielding a drink with less depth and intensity and a sweeter, brighter profile. Whichever ingredients lineup you prefer, the assembly is the same: The three ingredients get shaken over ice and, like Whiskey Sours, are double-strained before being poured into a chilled coupe glass to serve.

The first recorded recipe for the drink appeared in Patrick Gavin Duffy’s “The Official Mixer’s Manual” in 1934, and while it broke onto the scene and lasted, it wasn’t immediately popular. In his 1940s bartender’s handbook “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks” (via Difford’s Guide), David Embury called the Blinker “One of a few cocktails using grapefruit juice. Not particularly good but not too bad.” Still, the bevy is not to be overlooked. It’s mature, timeless, and avoids being hyper-sweet like many citrusy cocktails. Plus, even with the 100-proof rye, the Blinker is smooth and accessible at 15.13% alcohol by volume (ABV) or 30.26-proof.

Read more: 13 Liquors Your Home Bar Should Have

The Blinker was brought back to mainstream awareness in 2009 by Ted Haigh’s nostalgic libations graveyard guidebook, “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.” Haigh’s recipe altered Patrick Gavin Duffy’s version, calling for more rye and introducing the raspberry-grenadine swap. Making flavorful, homemade raspberry-infused simple syrup yourself is a killer way to take your home mixology game to the next level, and you can also use it to make the Clover Club, another vintage cocktail that’s been enjoying a 21st-century comeback.

Or, keep the grenadine and add rose water for a sophisticated floral facelift. Lemon syrup would also steer this cocktail more punchy and mature than the red berry flavor. (Sidecar fans, rise up.) On the note of ingredients, opt for freshly squeezed yellow grapefruit juice, which is more tart than that of the sugary pink and red grapefruits (which are the sweetest of them all).

If you can’t track down yellow grapefruit in your local produce section, a few drops of grapefruit bitters can help counterbalance the sweetness of pink grapefruit juice. Scrappy’s and Fee Brothers both make great versions of the ingredient, available for purchase online, or intrepid home bartenders can make flavorful bitters themselves. Depending on whether you want to steer your Blinker more sweet or more tangy, you could garnish with a raspberry trio skewer, grapefruit twist, or lemon peel after expressing the fruit’s oils around the rim of the glass.

Read the original article on Tasting Table

A woman who stole three bottles of vodka from a shop has been placed on a community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement.

Jade Cambridge admitted taking the alcohol from the Spar shop on High Street in Presteigne on October 15, 2023, when she appeared at Llandrindod Wells Magistrates Court on Wednesday last week.

The 38-year-old, formerly of Lower Cross, Kington, and now of Mill Bank, Presteigne was seen on CCTV.

If you’re familiar with the brand Cutwater, it’s likely because of theircanned cocktails, a product category that saw an unexpected boon during the global pandemic in 2020. I’m not an expert on the topic, and during the Covid lockdown, I spent time making cocktails from scratch with freshly sanitized ingredients. However, among the ones I sampled, Cutwater’s stuck out as being top-tier. It’s a challenge to make a well-crafted mai tai from fresh ingredients, let alone one that retains its flavor after weeks or even months in a can, but their mai tai was impressively tasty. Later, I tried Cutwater’s canned White Russian which was equally enjoyable.

However, Cutwater’s history extends beyond canned cocktails. The San Diego-based company was established in 2017, but its roots go back another ten years as the spirits component of the Ballast Point Brewery. In 2015, when Ballast Point was acquired by Constellation Brands, the spirits division was split off and later revived as Cutwater Spirits. Today, the company operates a largedistillery/bar/restaurant in San Diego’s Miramar area.

Wait a minute, Cutwater has a distillery? So this company producing canned cocktails creates its own spirits? And co-founder Yuseff Cherney is the master distiller? For a New Yorker like myself, this was a surprising discovery. Not only do they use their spirits in the canned cocktails (and their frozen cocktail pops), they also bottle and sell it in varieties ranging from rum, gin to herbal liqueur. They take pride in the many awards won by their spirits, and to my surprise, I realized I’ve tasted and scored their products in various contests. I particularly liked their unaged rum, their tequilas were respectable, but their rye didn’t win me over.

Indeed, Cutwater Spirits is a major player in the world of spirits, coming right out of San Diego.

I had never tried Cutwater Devil’s Share Bourbon, their highest-end expression, with a suggested retail price of $115. If you can find it, that is, as availability is said to be limited even in California. The mashbill is an interesting one — 75% non-GMO corn, 15% malted barley, and 10% malted wheat. Usually a wheated bourbon uses wheat as the secondary grain. To use it as a tertiary grain after the barley… that’s different. Aged for at least four years in new American oak barrels, it’s bottled at 46% ABV.

On the nose it’s a little hot, with notes of brown sugar, cinnamon, and rubbing alcohol. On the palate the cinnamon comes through again, accompanied by butterscotch, vanilla and oak. It drinks a tad hotter than its proof; a little water tamps down the heat but also dulls the flavor profile a bit, so I preferred it neat. It makes a pleasant, lightly astringent Manhattan, and a perfectly fine whiskey sour.

“This bourbon is not defined by geography, but by taste,” says the Cutwater website, and I suppose that makes sense, since as far as I know there’s no distinctive San Diego style of whiskey. Although, with 18 distilleries and counting in the city, according to the San Diego Guild of Distillers, one may be emerging as I write this. News travels slowly to us East Coast craft spirits connoisseurs. Can you procure better bourbons for significantly less money? Absolutely. But for the time being, Cutwater reigns supreme in San Diego whiskey. On my next visit, I’ll certainly be visiting the distillery and savoring a Devil’s Share whiskey sour — if they aren’t only selling canned cocktails at the bar.