Fancy Ice, Nostalgia, Savory Cocktails, and 10 Other Drinks Trends That Dominated 2023

Don't worry — you still have time to order a fancy Jell-o shot or make an espresso tonic.

From Caprese salad-inspired Martinis to Espresso Tonics with lunch (or breakfast), Food & Wine editors drank particularly well this year. We’ve found that there’s something especially exciting about realizing that an ingredient or menu item that feels like a happy coincidence is actually a trend. That feeling is  especially when that trend (looking at you, savory drinks) extends to bars and restaurants in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, London, and beyond. While 2023 is almost behind us, you still can still pick up a boxed wine that we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by, or call for a fancy bucket of ice when you check into a hotel for the holidays.

Carajillos

If 2022 was a big year for the Espresso Martini (as well as variations on it, like this fan favorite Espresso Martini Affogato, or the Espresso Martiki), 2023 was all about the Carajillo. This classic Mexican coffee cocktail captured the attention of Food & Wine’s former restaurant editor Khushbu Shah while she traveled around the country to scout this year’s class of Best New Chefs, and it's easy to see why. With a bittersweet blend of Licor 43, cold brew, and vodka, this is the kind of drink that keeps us going into the evening, and we’re excited every time we come across it on a menu.

Better boxed wine

It’s been a banner year for one of the most maligned sections of your local bottle shop and grocery store alike. We tried (and loved) boxed wine from buzzy new brands like Ami Ami, which sources its grapes from the south of France, as well as Alileo, which carries boxed natural wines from Sicily. There’s also Juliet, with its chic, highly giftable packaging, as well as From the Tank, the infinitely drinkable, picnic-ready offering from one of our favorite natural wine importers, Jenny & Francois. Call it a renaissance, or just take a moment of silence to honor all of the terrible boxed blends you may have encountered in your misspent youth, but we’re excited to keep bringing these boxes to our park hangs and holiday parties.

Specialty ice service

Sometimes the most luxurious experiences are those you never even knew you really wanted. Case in point: hotels that offer specialty ice service. At the Lafayette Hotel in San Diego, F&W contributor Stacey Lastoe reports on the option to order ice depending on the cocktail you’re planning to make in your room. At Sea Island in Georgia, you can get crystal clear ice cubes custom stamped with the hotel’s logo.

Savory cocktails

Even if you’re not keen on the idea of grating Parmesan cheese on top of your Espresso Martini, it’s impossible to deny the trend of savory cocktails taking up significant real estate on Instagram. “A quick glance at the World’s 50 Best Bars list for the past year confirms this hunch,” writes F&W contributor Kate Dingwall. “Barcelona’s Paradiso took top honors, boasting fermentation-focused drinks like On Fire (a smoky Calvados and bourbon cocktail accented with tahini, sweet potato, and smoked milk), and Cronos (inspired by time and highlighting tequila, mushrooms, and spicy corn). NYC bar Double Chicken Please (home of a ‘Cold Pizza’ cocktail) and Two Schmucks (a melon, cheese, and pepper drink) also made the top 10 with their firmly food-focused menu.”

Want to try your hand at making a savory cocktail at home? We’d recommend starting with the Caprese Martini from New York City’s Jac’s on Bond.

Related: Our Top 25 Recipes of the Year Are Ones You'll Make Again and Again

Fancy Jell-O shots

“While yesterday’s Jell-O shots were designed for heavy drinking, today’s reincarnated Jell-O shots are culinary-focused conversation pieces,” writes Dingwall. “Across the country, Silver Lyan in D.C. makes jellied Bombay Sapphire Grand Cru Sours, served with a Champagne chaser. Twelve in Portland makes a gelatinized shot from house-made limoncello, bergamot, and orange Curaçao and tops it up with a classy splash of bubbles,” she adds.

Did we need fancy Jell-O shots? Maybe not. Are we having fun with them now that they’re here? Absolutely.

Fewer garnishes, less food waste

After what feels like years of over-the-top garnishes, many bartenders are starting to embrace minimalism. These pared-back cocktails come in all shapes and sizes: slender highballs of flavored liqueur and club soda with a long block of clear ice, a Martini served alongside a single olive and lemon peel, or a Margarita topped with a citrus salt in lieu of a hunk of lime balanced atop the rim. Bartenders are turning away from overly ornate cocktail garnishes like gold leaf, but also because citrus peels, pineapple fronds, and other inedible accouterments are expensive and contribute more than their fair share to food waste.

Alternative agave spirits

Distilling alcohol from agave and other desert plants is a tradition that has deep roots in Mexico. While tequila and mezcal are best known, the category encompasses a range of other spirits, which are increasingly appearing on liquor store shelves and cocktail menus at places like Pescador in Boston, Julep in Houston, Aldama in Brooklyn, and Nativo in Highland Park, CA. Look for bacanora, the fruity agave spirit of Sonora; sotol, a grassy and herbaceous spirit distilled from a non-agave desert plant; and raicilla, the citrusy and smoky spirit made from roasted agave cores.

House wine at restaurants

Even as editors who drink (and write about drinking) for a living, choosing from a bottle from a wine list can feel like a tall task. This year we saw a resurgence of drink lists that featured house wine. At Mel’s, an excellent new pizza restaurant in New York’s Meatpacking District, I was immediately drawn to the $30 500-milliliter carafe of house red. It held just enough for my dining companion and me and contained a delightful light red blend from Southern Italy that paired perfectly with everything on the table. Kiki’s, a Greek spot in the Lower East Side serves their house wine in chic copper pitchers.

Nostalgia-inspired hospitality

The joy of slowly ladling a ruby-hued punch into a petite mug is a centuries-old experience, but this year we saw an embrace of theclassics. With entertaining at home on the rise, punches are the perfect way to serve a cocktail to a crowd. Use a Bundt pan to make a festive, garnish-studded ice ring and fill the bowl with a top-notch punch.

Pairing Sauternes with savory food

Sweet wine is moving off the dessert menu and into the main event. At a recent meal at Massimo Bottura’s legendary Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, an experience that was a part of American Express Platinum's By Invitation Only program, Bottura curated a life-changing pairing. We were served an unctuous foie gras ravioli covered in shaved white truffles. The dish was truly flawless, but it was sent into another dimension when paired with a rich, honeyed 2009 Sauternes from Château d’Yquem. Bottura shared his passion for pushing the boundary of sweet wine with writer Céline Bossatt: “You know, people really don’t understand [it] — people think Château d’Yquem is for dessert and it’s like, what?” Foie gras not your thing? After a multi-course dinner at NYC's LeCoucou, in which every single dish was paired with the iconic Sauternes Château Yquem, F&W executive wine editor Ray Isle felt similarly - in fact, the sweet wine paired excellently even with artichokes—a notorious wine killer—sautéed with a little French ham.

Shrubs

Between the skyrocketing prices of lemons and limes and a general interest in strong, tart flavors, it’s not exactly surprising that 2023 was a big year for the humble shrub, which is a concentrated, vinegar-based syrup. “Shrubs can be flavored with just about anything, from chile and strawberry to vegetables, like the celery-flavored shrub below from NYC bar Katana Kitten’s owner and self-proclaimed ‘director of deliciousness’ Masahiro Urushido,” writes Assistant Editor Lucy Simon. “Shrubs are enjoying a renaissance on cocktail menus around the country, as bartenders use them to bring brightness and acidity to boozy drinks.”

Espresso Tonics

We couldn’t stop ourselves from gushing about the Espresso Tonic, a drink that F&W social media editor, Merlyn Miller, aptly deemed the drink of the summer. “With the espresso floating on top of bubbly tonic, and an orange peel to make it look like you put forth a lot of effort, it’s a buzzy little nonalcoholic cocktail that works well for a picnic or other daytime gatherings — and your guests will thank you for their new favorite bittersweet coffee beverage,” she writes. “The natural sugars in orange juice help balance out the bitterness of coffee, and it’s not a surprise that people want a more refreshing, tart alternative to an iced latte.”

Herbaceous gin drinks

As dedicated drinkers of gin, we’re always curious to see how bartenders are using one of our favorite spirits. This year, gin served as a canvas for herbaceous cocktails. We loved the Hidden Valley Ranch Water from Yacht Club in Denver, which channels the joys of ranch dressing into a coupe glass, as well as the Veranda from Hannah’s Bar at the Madronna in Healdsburg, California, which proves that all Martinis can be improved with the addition of dill and fennel. At New York City’s buzzy new restaurant, Principe, the Negroni Verde features fennel and a dash of olive oil, both of which complement an appetizer of prawns dipped in coriander-jalapeño sauce. 

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