Drink Trends That Are Going To Take Over In 2025

When it comes to cocktails and other alcoholic beverages, 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for discerning imbibers. While there are quite a few classic cocktails that everyone should try at least once, such as the pisco sour and the mai tai, life would be a whole lot duller without experimentation courtesy of novel flavors and ingredients. 

Fortunately, there are lots of fun drink trends on the horizon in 2025. You're bound to see more cocktails featuring savory ingredients like jalapeños, seaweed, and even parmesan cheese, as well as rustic concoctions that aren't strained after mixing. Shots and shooters are anticipated to become a lot more sophisticated this year, and fans of tropical drinks will get their fill of tasty fruit juices and fresh garnishes. Finally, tiny versions of your favorite cocktails may be popping up on drink menus in 2025, which is ideal for people who love the taste of mixed drinks but don't want to overdo the alcohol content. A new year means new food and culinary trends to satisfy your palate over the next 365 days.

Cocktails featuring sweet ingredients like fruit juices and sodas are pretty commonplace, and savory elements are often relegated to garnishes. While classic bloody mary recipes with ingredients like pickle juice, black pepper, and Worcestershire sauce perfectly exemplify the concept of savory cocktails, there are a lot more options to choose from. If you're a fan of the tomato-forward flavor of bloody marys, the tomatini might just be in your wheelhouse. While recipes can vary, this cocktail typically includes muddled cherry tomatoes, vermouth, gin, lemon juice, and champagne vinegar, which is vinegar created with the same grapes used to make pinot noir and chardonnay wines. 

There are also some non-tomato savory drinks to enjoy, such as the Tom Kha-llins, which combines elements of a Tom Collins with tom kha soup, a Thai soup made with coconut milk. Another cocktail, cleverly dubbed the Celine Dijon, contains an infusion of Dijon mustard and passionfruit added to ingredients like tequila, sauvignon blanc, and lime juice. Savory cocktails aren't for everyone, but it's nice to have a little variety that goes beyond sweet ingredients. 

Many cocktails are made by incorporating ingredients in a shaker and straining the liquid once all elements have been thoroughly mixed. However, the "dirty dump" method of cocktail creation eliminates the straining step, which results in small bits of herbs and fruits making their way into the finished drink. These bits can create a more potent flavor and interesting textures as they float around the liquid. The classic mojito recipe is a great example of the dirty dump philosophy, as the lime wedges and mint included in the cocktail are muddled in the glass without straining. 

While dirty dump cocktails are quite captivating, they do come with some potential downsides. The added elements can disrupt the flavor balance of the drink, and free-floating pieces can make drinking these cocktails a bit of a chore. That doesn't mean that this trend isn't worth pursuing, it's just better paired with drinks like mojitos or zombies, a rum-based tiki drink that also includes lime juice, bitters, grenadine, and other ingredients. 

For the uninitiated, the difference between shots and shooters is that a shot is straight liquor, while a shooter contains multiple ingredients, including some non-alcoholic elements. Despite this key difference, shots and shooters were once relegated to divey bars and hole-in-the-wall establishments where the goal is to expedite the journey from sober to inebriated. This is not so much the case anymore, as a selection of high-end establishments have been offering upscale shots and shooters on their menus as of late. 

In case you're wondering just how a person may differentiate between a run-of-the-mill shot and something fancier, the number of ingredients used can be a good indicator. Shots are about as basic as one can get, while a shooter like the fiery Flaming Dr. Pepper includes just three ingredients: 151-proof rum, amaretto, and beer. On the other hand, a fancier cognac-almond shooter exhibits a bit more flair thanks to ingredients like cognac, orgeat syrup (a sweetener made with orange flower water and almonds), bitters, orange liqueur, and freshly squeezed orange juice. 

If you like piña coladas, 2025 is your year to shine for drink selections. Tropical drinks like this classic cocktail are anticipated to make a huge splash over the coming year as imbibers seek out concoctions containing tropical fruit bases. From frozen Daiquiris and palomas to rum punches and Bahama Mamas, there's a seemingly endless selection of tropical cocktails to satisfy your tastebuds all year long. 

Along with these classic drinks, there are also some less-common tropical recipes to consider. The aptly named Miami Vice features two tropical drinks in one (piña colada and strawberry Daiquiri) plus an enhancement courtesy of bitters-infused strawberries. Then there's the vibrantly hued halo-halo cocktail, which gets its notable purple color from the ube milk that's added to ingredients like light rum, Brazilian rum, pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, and garnishes like dehydrated mango and pineapple. If you want something brimming with tropical flavors but less fussy, the Away Colors includes añejo rum, banana-flavored liqueur, and Fernet-Branca, a potent type of bitters. 

Miniature or micro cocktails are just what they sound like: diminutive versions of your favorite alcoholic concoctions. Tiny-sized alcoholic beverages are expected to hit it big among drinkers in 2025, who are captivated by the aesthetics of these adorable mini cocktails. Micro cocktails are also great for sampling, as you can enjoy the flavors of different mixed drinks without incurring the surely massive hangover one would experience after imbibing several cocktails in one sitting.

These drinks are already big on social media, and it's claimed that miniature versions of regular-sized things have a psychological pull due to the satisfaction and fulfillment that miniature items seem to trigger in people's psyches. Virtually any cocktail can be converted into a miniature form with the right drinkware, but one-sip martinis are particularly tempting, as they combine the efficiency of a shot with the quality of a cocktail. There's also the snaquiri, which as you might imagine is a pared-down version of the classic Daiquiri, or the mini Manhattan, which packs a lot of sophisticated flavors into one cute glass.