With spring eagerly anticipated, our minds are abuzz with thoughts of the tantalizing flavors that will adorn the menus of New York’s premier bars this season.
To quench your curiosity, we’ve gathered insights from top-notch bartenders in the city to predict the spring’s palate-pleasing trends. Expect an influx of tropical and tiki-inspired concoctions, alongside innovative additions like Ube-infused drinks, according to Renato Tonelli, Beverage Training Director at Dante West Village.
“The summer of 2025 will see a rising trend of Ube, the purple yam typical of the Philippines. With its bright purple natural color, it will surely be a showstopper in bars and restaurants, rapidly becoming more available in different forms like extracts, powders, jams, and syrups. It can be easily integrated into tropical-inspired drinks like coladas, tiki, and drinks served on crushed ice.”
The enduring popularity of non-alcoholic and agave-based cocktails continues to hold firm, and Alex Dominguez of Bar Calico agrees. “We’ve been seeing N/A and low abv cocktails really gain popularity over the past couple of years, and this spring, I think they are going to get more creative and more prevalent. For years, they’ve been an afterthought in menus and the choices were limited, but now there’s been an influx of zero-proof offerings and plenty of demand from guests. Of course, agave-based drinks like the Margaritas and Palomas continue to do well, but as we’ve seen with our Cut Above Margarita, it’s not necessarily tequila what people are looking for.”
In addition, Evan Hawkins, Co-Founder and Beverage Director of Romeo’s, rounds off the insights with a forecast of a refreshing and cool theme to further enhance the spring vibes.
“The flavor of spring is going to be cool, refreshing drinks; something easy on that palate that is also delicious. Cucumber, passionfruit, fresh grapefruit (really, any fresh citrus), and pineapple.”
