Broadly speaking, there was an east-west divide, with the more proactive governments, typically in the eastern hemisphere, reacting faster and enforcing intense lockdowns that ultimately allowed for longer periods of relative normality throughout the year.

Some things were global. Many bars, unable to serve guests on-premise, took to selling bottled cocktails. Where local restrictions prohibited the sale of pre-batched alcoholic drinks, cocktail kits enabled customers to recreate drinks from their favourite menus at home. Whichever creative pivot was taken, most bars had to streamline or simplify their offer in some way to keep the lights on.

The result has been an avalanche of innovation, born out of necessity, and manifested differently based on circumstance and environment.

As anyone who tried to buy toilet roll in the spring of 2020 will remember, the reliability of the supply chain came undone spectacularly in the panic of the initial lockdowns. The solution for many bar owners, faced with uncertainty around sourcing ingredients, was to look closer to home for produce and inspiration.

“People have started to think inwards,” says Vijay Mudaliar, co-owner of Native in Singapore. “All of our clientele is local now, so they appreciate what we’re doing with local and regional produce.” 

In Hong Kong, a city that reacted quickly to the pandemic, bars responded in a similar way.

“There’s been more of a focus on local ingredients, not necessarily because of sustainability,” says Holly Graham, managing editor of Drink Magazine, based in Hong Kong. “The coronavirus has really forced everyone to look at the doorstep and see how they can support their people, their farmers, their needs, their local clientele.”

For Luke Whearty, who opened his Melbourne bar, Byrdi, just six months before the pandemic hit, local and seasonal was always the mantra, but the lockdowns cemented that strategy. “Our whole ethos is local and |seasonal and really zeroing in on producers that we’re using,” says Whearty. “I took that model from the restaurant world.

“I’ve always seen the restaurant world as being ahead of the drinks world. You see what trends are going through the restaurant world and the food world and nine times out of 10, a couple of years later or five or 10 years later, that’s what the drinks are doing.

“Everyone likes to think that they’re eating or drinking or purchasing ethically these days, so it just makes it a much easier decision for them. If they’re going to part ways with their money, they want to make sure first that it’s quality, but second, they know where that money is going. Covid really highlighted that. People are even looking in their own backyard for their next holiday.”

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SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES

While this trend towards local produce may have been artificially accelerated by the pandemic, it has long been a factor in the wider thrust towards sustainability. And as the world slowed down, many bar owners took time to reflect on their impact upon it. Byrdi incorporates leftover materials into drinks. On the menu, offcuts of rhubarb become a smoked rhubarb tonic, and a drink made using leftover sake leaves from a local sake producer became so popular with guests that the bar’s demand for the discarded leaves outstripped what the producer could supply.

“By default, people are becoming more sustainable because you literally have to,” says Whearty. “Everyone at home is making more efforts to be sustainable, especially after lockdown. Everyone is pushing forward and eventually we’ll get to a point where it’s the new normal. I can’t remember the last time I went to a bar and saw a plastic straw in a drink. You even go to McDonald’s and it uses paper straws. People are building their whole business models now around sustainability.”

Another example comes from Matt Whiley and Maurice Terzini, whose new Sydney bar, RE, aims to be 100% waste-free. “A concept like that, 10 or 15 years ago, no one would have even dreamed of,” says Whearty. “Now it’s right on trend. Everyone gets it and wants to get on board with something like that.” It’s a trend that is carrying over into the off-trade. With the rise of the home-bartender comes a homespun push for more sustainable practices.

“Consumers will be looking for ways to use all elements of ingredients to further the sustainability of their cocktails,” says Louise Hammond, mixologist at Spirit of Harrogate in the UK. “Making cocktails frequently requires the use of citrus fruits such as oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes and the spent husks are usually thrown away after juicing. Often these fruits are imported from all over the globe, leaving a massive carbon footprint behind for a relatively small amount of juice. Consumers can make the most out of the citrus fruits by creating shrubs and cordials from the leftovers.”

The innovating force of sustainable practice can be felt beyond the potable. By necessity, paper menus were often removed from bars, replaced by digital versions, which in themselves opened possibilities to rethink the traditional, two-dimensional cocktail list.

“The implementation of technology in the display of menus or point-of-purchase material in bars and restaurants eliminated almost 100% of the use of paper in the development of a menu,” says Jean Trinh, owner of Alquímico in Cartagena, Colombia. “The consumer experience can be supported by augmented reality, or the 3D visualisation of menus and other materials that allow us to interact with customers.”

CUSTOMER EDUCATION

While a focus on traceability and its impact can be seen in countries where lockdowns were briefer, elsewhere customers spent more time at home, where many learnt to make the classics themselves. Here, when the bars reopen, these cocktail hobbyists will want to taste what they’ve been doing at home done by the pros.

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“Guests have been starting to educate themselves more in the last six to eight months than in the previous 80 years,” says Robin Goodfellow, co-owner of Bar Raval in Toronto, who was forced to close the doors from March to August 2020, then again in November and again in April 2021.

“When everything’s done, I think the revisitation of classic cocktails is going to be a huge thing, because finally in Canada people are recognising that they exist.”

It’s an education that Goodfellow thinks shouldn’t be limited to customers. “Being able to make a drink should be like being able to make food or build a chair – it’s a trade. That’s why the revisitation of classics is huge, not because it’s easy and simple, but because we need to start mentoring our staff and our guests who have gone through a renaissance themselves.”

With a more discerning consumer comes an onus on bars to be able to offer a point of difference.

“Lockdown has provided guests with a plethora of knowledge through online training sessions and cocktail-making sessions,” says Cameron Bell, UK brand ambassador for Don Papa rum. “No longer do customers just expect the drink; what venues are going to need are events to maintain consumer interest.

“Cocktail bars are going to have to up their game or rather maintain a standard of quality for guests. Many people have had the time to make their own classics and simple serves at home, and will be expecting much more when visiting venues that rings well with the price point.”

RAISING STANDARDS

While the promise of more demanding customers might sound a bit intimidating to mixologists returning behind the bar after extended leave, it could be the rising tide that lifts all boats.

“It may well make consumers more discerning and more demanding, which will force up standards at the lower end,” says Steve Drawbell, founder of Azaline Vermouth. “But it may also have created a whole new cohort of cocktail drinkers willing to pay a premium for a rewarding cocktail experience.”

Other habits collectively picked up during lockdown have also begun to spread to cocktail lists. Health has never been so important for consumers. According to Accenture Covid-19 Consumer Research of more than 3,000 consumers across 15 countries, more than half “are making more health conscious decisions when grocery shopping and will likely continue to do so going forward”. 

Trinh says: “I believe this year has left us many lessons as professionals and as human beings. It made us more aware of what we consume and the impact that this can have on us and on others as a society. An important trend will be the reduction or elimination of refined sugars, and the implementation of new natural sweeteners such as coconut nectar, honey, panela or cane honey. This is not only good for our health, but most of these products are made by small producers who can benefit in a positive way.”

This too is true of alcohol, with more consumers limiting intake.

“With up to 40% now claiming to be teetotal and many more looking to reduce their consumption of alcohol, at-home and on-trade mixologists should offer a range of high-quality non-alcoholic drinks for these guests, so they don’t feel like they’re missing out,” says James Morgan, head of business development at non-alcoholic drinks brand Nine Elms.

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With the loss of social intimacy, people’s mental health suffered. Bars have long served a place in society as hubs of interaction and have been sorely missed through lockdowns.

“There’s a lot of pressure on society because of the global situation. There’s a change in mood,” says Mudaliar. “People are a little bit more stressed out. When they go to the bar, they’re not looking for the really experimental drinks that they were before lockdown. Now people are looking for good, fun, light, fresh drinks and they want to have two or three with friends while catching up. People want to take themselves a little less seriously. People are looking for comfort drinks.”

As the trade re-opens, comfort drinks could be on the agenda for patrons and proprietors alike. The pandemic put previously unimaginable stresses on cocktail bars. It forced businesses to pivot and changed how the world operates, in some cases permanently. And in that hardship, innovation was necessary for survival.

“It’s put a lot of things into perspective,” says Goodfellow. “Every decision and every move is going to be about emotional, psychological and financial sustainability with environmental fourth on the list.

“Going through hell really helps you understand what is worth going through hell for.”