The two brands have almost identical records over the 11 years we’ve been polling elite bars, making it almost impossible to say one is dominant over the other in this channel. But this year, Tanqueray was found to be the top seller in more than a quarter of bars polled, and a top-three seller in two thirds. The brand has its standard edition for volume, Tanqueray Ten for the up-sell and a supporting cast of interesting flavour editions. Somehow the brand’s spin-offs don’t say ‘sell out’, yet do sell out – as was the case with Tanqueray Malacca, which came back due to popular demand.
While Gordon's has been sacraficed on the pink alter, Tanqueray was preserved. Beefeater wasn’t so fortunate. Bartenders may roll their inner eyes at the pink gin bar call, but they won’t deny it’s big business. Beefeater can pride itself on having one of the best London Drys around, but its pink variety certainly hasn’t hurt its sales. It was the house pour in a quarter of bars, but was much less likely to be in the supporting cast, our poll suggests.
Hendrick’s has the opposite role in the world’s best bars – it’s rarely the go-to, but is a regular on the top-three roster. Essentially, its distinctive cucumber and rose avour pro le has carved out a niche but needed role. As Bacardi’s front row gin, Bombay takes its share of house pours in our pool of bars - around 10% - and fails to threaten its main competition, Tanqueray and Beefeater.
Beyond the big four - each of which sells more than a million 9-litre cases globally - there are the craft and bartender brands. Pernod's second gin brand, Monkey 47, was a popular one outside of the speed rail, while Rémy Cointreau's Botanist was found to have slightly less footprint but was more likely to be a house pour. Monkey 47 is the hot gin brand of the world's best bars, as evidence by our trending list.
Methodology
The results of this report are the culmination of a questionnaire of 106 bars around the world, each cherry-picked to take part based on their performance in global bar awards. We aim to find out not only which brands sell best but also what’s trending. These two data sets give us an insight into the brands that are doing the most volume and the brands that are hot right now.
To read more on the methodology of the Brands Report click here.
