In his inaugural column for Drinks International, Branson takes a wider look at the overall non-alcoholic spirits sector to identify which brands will thrive and which won’t survive.

La’Mel Clarke, front of house at London’s Seed Library, looks at the forgotten art of hosting and why it deserves the same respect as bartending.

Tess Posthumus hates to be a doom-monger, but the reality is that many bars are facing a decidedly tough time.

Tess Posthumus reports from the recent tales of the cocktail – and finds it’s becoming so much more than just a cocktail festival.

The pandemic has thrown many challenges at bar owners over the past couple of years and the ones that survived the various lockdowns and restrictions deserve a pat on the back. However, while revenues are returning and bars are beginning to recruit once more, we’ve come up against a whole new set of problems, one of which is a global starring crisis.

Having recently returned from the US visiting both Oakland and Arizona Cocktail Weeks I was amazed by the differences in approach. In Oakland there was a much bigger trade focus and it felt more relaxed, whereas in Arizona it was one massive party for consumers.

Tipping can be a difficult subject in the bar industry. As a bar owner, bartender and regular consumer, I see it from every perspective and it can be tricky to get right.

The world’s eyes have bee on Ukraine the past month following the devastating military invasion from Russia. But, while it’s been upsetting to see the horrors of war, it’s also heartwarming to see our industry come together for those in need.

The Scandinavian chic approach has had a huge influence on the modern bar scene. Thin glassware, no garnishes and plain interiors have become the norm for a lot of top bars around the world and to fit this aesthetic many have reduced their spirits offering.

The World’s 50 Best Bars reflects travel restrictions and spotlights neighbourhood bars, says Nick Strangeway.

COP26 littered newspaper headlines throughout November. The focus was supposed to be on resolving the climate change crisis, but predictably turned into a game of political chess. In the absence of any authoritative leadership, our industry needs to set an example.

For about six hours in early October the world was brought to a standstill. However, it wasn’t the outbreak of a global pandemic that spread panic, but the simultaneous crash of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Once upon a time pubs and bars were somewhere you went with the sole purpose of getting pissed and there wasn’t a knife and fork in sight, just a packet of dry roasted nuts.

The recent launch of Martinez members’ cocktail bar on Soho’s Greek Street struck a chord with me.

Back in 2002 celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launched Fifteen, a restaurant made up of a team of trainee chefs from underprivileged backgrounds.

Nick Strangeway on the pros and cons for bartenders taking on an ambassadorial role in post-Covid times.

Nick Strangeway looks at how travel restrictions have left a permanent impression on the global bar trade.

Nick Strangeway on how bars must adapt to a new and improved hospitality sector as we emerge from lockdown.

Nick Strangeway on the duty of care which bars must have to their female staff and customers.

Trade shows – remember them? Before the world stopped we’d have attended a number of them throughout the year and be able to look down the list of recognisable guest speakers with their seminar titles. They were a source of great education which had been curated by the organisers to provide a spread of credible, engaging information.

Pre-made cocktails have always carried a stigma, which I find odd. The romance of watching bartenders make drinks from scratch left pre-batched cocktails feeling cheap to many consumers, but lockdowns have forced this attitude to change.

Happy customers across the UK enjoyed their first pints and non-homemade cocktails at the start of July as its hospitality sector reopened after months of lockdown. But normal service has hardly resumed.

As the weather gets bleak Philip Duff turns to the warming notes of rum for comfort. But there are currently several elements unsettling the category

Philip Duff sits down 100 years after the start of American prohibition to ponder what may – or may not – have been learned

There are lies, damn lies, statistics – and then there are statistics about cocktails. It emerged recently that a UK firm named Travel Republic surveyed punters, and apparently 29% of them disapprove of sexually suggestive cocktail names.

Gender equality is a hot topic of debate in today's society and La'Mel Clarke from London's Lyaness gives us his thoughts on where the hospitality sector lies with the issue.

It was the Worshipful Company of Distillers’ annual dinner at the Lord Mayor of London’s residence Mansion House a few weeks ago, and as a junior member of the Gin Guild I was permitted to attend, provided I promised not to pinch any silverware and did a little light sweeping afterwards.

I know how wierd this might seem but I often think that the opening of a new distillery is like the launch of a new submarine. It is unveiled in all its pristine glory in a blaze of publicity and fanfare.

I’ve always maintained that the cards are stacked against craft spirits brands wanting to build a meaningful travel retail presence.

Here is, as usual, a feast of arresting facts and figures in Silicon Valley Bank’s annual study of the US wine market.

The wine trade can be divided into two fundamentally opposed camps. on one side, you have the romantic idealists who believe that wine is – or can be – something special, bordering on mystical: an elixir like no other, comparable to the greatest works of art.

Don’t know about you, but I can’t help feeling that the year has not started well.

At this time of year my inbox invariably gets flooded with press releases from wine and spirit producers trumpeting their latest Chinese new year special-edition gift boxes and travel retail exclusives.

There is a new man at the helm of Diageo Global Travel, the largest drinks supplier to the duty free industry.

This is the time of year to resolve to do something about our bad habits.

One of the main attractions of social media is that it allows individuals and small businesses a platform from which they can shout loudly, without the need for the big-buck budgets that the global companies can call on.

Recently someone described me as a ‘lefty communist’, which is a bit weird really. What, as opposed to a ‘righty communist’?

Now that my christmas decorations have been packed away for another year, it’s time to dust off my crystal ball and try to predict what 2019 has in store for the travel retail liquor business.

What does the sommelier stand for today?

If you could consign something to history, what would it be?

When people make predictions about the next big grape variety, what they’re usually trying to anticipate is the next big switch in consumer taste.

I am writing this on my birthday, and being an (increasingly) old heavy rock fan, I’ve got british rock station planet rock on at full volume.

The cult 1980s British film withnail & I has many quotable lines.

Over the past 12 months I have had the pleasure of spending a considerable amount of time in three of my favourite cities – Glasgow, Dublin, and Louisville.

In the middle of a europe-wide heatwave Geneva airport is not the place to kill a couple of hours before catching a flight home.

Who would have thought it? After decades of dabbling on the margins of the fashionable bar trade, rum is enjoying its most successful spell in the limelight since the early ’90s, when spiced rums swept all before them.

Here we go again. when japanese specialist retailer dekanta released a special bottle of Japanese whisky to mark its third birthday in June, the twittersphere predictably rose up in anger and indignation.

Few days before writing this article, i came across an old piece by Robert Parker, written in 2004, in which he made 12 bold assertions about how wine would look by 2015.

About 15 years ago, while I was the editor of Whisky Magazine, we teamed up with cutting-edge bartender Nick sSrangeway to hold a whisky cocktail competition, encouraging the use of Scottish single malt whisky.

How do you market a region? it’s hard enough getting a message right if you’re a one-man band or family firm processing a single or handful of opinions.