TALES OF THE COCKTAIL 2023 TALES OF THE COCKTAIL 2023

By Brooke Adams

Everyone’s favorite conference, Tales of the Cocktail (TOTC), celebrates 21 years this summer, and, now at legal age, will be celebrating by bringing the world of alcohol and spirits together in the city that never stops, well, never stops drinking.

New Orleans has hosted the annual event since its foundation in 2002. Each year the international bar and spirits industry is welcomed to our beautiful city for a week of seminars, tastings, networking, and special events. While some cocktails such as the sazerac have withstood the test of time, Tales of the Cocktail provides an environment where the industry’s best can exchange new ideas, products, and techniques. Eileen Wayner, Tales of the Cocktail Foundation CEO, gave a sneak peek at what trends we should expect to see this year.

One of the biggest trends that can be expected to see explored at TOTC this year is innovation. At the beginning of the year, TOTC announced that this year’s theme would be “vitalize,” which celebrates the hospitality community’s vibrancy and adaptability. Attendees can expect to see that theme woven into the programming this year. Eileen says, “Vitalize is to give life, to sustain, to be creative. I think you're going to see that woven through education. We've got a couple of techniques seminars, including one on freezing techniques by Iain McPherson. Everybody deals with changing the ice solutions to make them colder and to capture the essence of taste in different ways. He's vitalizing that by sharing these techniques that he's crafted for himself. I think you find small examples of that that really speak to the innovation of this industry, that keeps it going, that allows us to continue to grow, to continue to push ourselves to think outside of the box. I think that giving ourselves the space to really think about how we are taking a classic cocktail, technique, or knowledge and then revitalizing it, giving it something new. That's what happens at Tales, and I think that you'll see that across every experience, from a tasting room to those major night parties that are going to be unreal, to education.”

Another major trend Eileen has seen lately— drinking less. While that seems like a scary phrase in the alcohol world, worry not. People are still drinking, but now they want to spend more on betterquality products. “I think everyone’s been talking about premiumization, drinking less, and drinking better quality products,”

Eileen extolls. “So there’s going to be a lot of activities at Tales this year that are really exploring some of the more exclusive opportunities to taste. One of the things we offer is exclusive tasting so that you can sort of experience the show and experience a really fabulous covenant that you might not have come across.”

Tastings are always a popular event at TOTC. Luckily, these events are open to local New Orleans residents, as well as the global folks that come to New Orleans to attend. “There’s a lot of data and statistics on how, especially in a post-COVID world, trends are adjusting,” explains Eileen. “I think people have really explored and experienced what they like.

United States, we get to experience,” Eileen clarifies. “There is a global niche of spirits or spirits that have been sort of traditionally from a specific region, that we are now able to explore in different regions of the world. There is just so much innovation and amazing things happening. I expect to see a lot of global spirits at Tales.”

In the age of the internet, we are far more connected as a global community than we ever have been before. TOTC recognizes the importance of celebrating how the global community has encouraged diversity in our experiences with alcohol and spirits. This year, Tales of the Cocktail Foundation

In bars, people know which spirit they want in their favorite cocktail and are asking for it. Instead of just ordering a gin and tonic, people are ordering what they want to have in that, which is, I think, a really interesting trend.”

The exploration of high-quality spirits isn’t just an American phenomenon, it is a global one. The global trend can also be seen reflected in the programming for this year’s TOTC. Attendees can look forward to programs such as Spirits of the Trees, which explores spirits made from trees in Sri Lanka and Nigeria. Attendees can also look forward to a few amazing seminars highlighting Japan, South Africa, Kenya, and much more.

“There are just so many really interesting global spirits that, as distribution becomes more readily available in the announced they will be partnering with the Singapore Tourism Board to showcase the multifaceted culture of Singapore and celebrate the talent within the island nation. As part of this partnership, TOTC will be hosting a four-day residency, where they invite Singapore bars to come and transform the Republic Bar into a pop-up of their bar. Each day will be a dedicated Singapore bar. With a tasting room day pass, which you can get for $45 as a local New Orleans resident, you can go and sit at the Republic Bar and meet the team and experience the innovative and inspiring residency.

TOTC invites New Orleans residents to come and experience all of these innovative and vivacious trends this year. This year TOTC will be hosting its conference from July 23 through July 28