Millennials have been blamed for the demise of everything from movies to dinner dates to golf. But now the much-slighted generation is getting credit for something unexpected: saving hard liquor.
While young people in America are said to be drinking less alcohol overall, a shift in their tastes has helped spirits companThese shifting tastes are boosting sales of Whiskey and Tequila. Whiskey and Tequila often attract similar audiences, even though they are vastly different.
Tequila is no longer just seen as a cheap spirit for shots. Tasting tequila is very similar to tasting whiskey. You will pour, sniff, and sip the same way you try a bourbon. One difference is that there is usually less finish. Quality tequila is very smooth compared to quality whiskey. After aging in whiskey barrels, tequila becomes more complex while retaining all of its raw charm.
The shift toward Tequila and Whiskey for younger audiences has been in the process for a few years.
Whisky was always seen as an older man’s drink. Till about five years ago, a handful of high-profile whisky clubs that cropped up in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh, with bureaucrats and corporate honchos as members, often boasted only stag memberships, sans wives.
Exclusive cigar and whisky lounges in hotels with heavy wood and leather only propagated this image of an older man’s drink.
As far as snobs go, there is a school of thought that says older whisky is not necessarily better and anything over 18-21 years old is just a con job but that’s another story.
Whisky cocktails are integral to the experience and today these are the highest revenue-generating category on the menu.
The world over, whisky has been seeing a renaissance. Bourbons, craft distillations, rye whiskies are all riding a wave of popularity among millennials. Scotch, meanwhile, is lightening its image not just with non-age-statement whiskies (brought out because aged stocks in Scotland were dipping to mixed reactions) but with newer, engaging products and campaigns.
Associations with Mad Men and David Beckham or Gone Girl are only part of the reason why whisky has been trending globally. One big way in which it has been able to reach out to a larger diverse audience is through cocktails. With interest in these at an all-time high and with bartenders pushing boundaries to give us drinks that are Instagram-able and delicious, it is natural that whisky should seek to pitch itself as suitable to mixing.
“Whisky is the drink everyone wants to be seen with and orders at bars revolve around classics like Old Fashioned,” he says, while promising to give Mumbai a taste of more innovative whisky infusions. Old Fashioned is usually seen as the first step towards drinking serious whisky but there are other cocktails doing away with the image of a stiff drink.
“We are trying to teach people how to do drinks like whisky with ginger ale or Whisky Sour diluted with soda. These are easy and accessible,” says Pankaj Balachandran, one of the country’s top mixologists, recently appointed brand ambassador of Monkey Shoulder.
This strategy of providing short bursts of excitement is targeted at an audience looking for wow experiences. The cocktail route to making whisky accessible is being taken by other brands too, many of which have roped in brand ambassadors in the 27-30 age bracket to influence trade and consumers.
Vodka is no longer the base spirit of choice for the chic. Gin is still trending but Whisky and Tequila are at the cusp of an explosion. Globally, vodka is in decline — its sales are slower as compared with spirits like whisky, tequila and gin — while whisky has seen an upswing with younger drinkers taking to bourbons, ryes and Irish whiskies apart from traditional Scotch.
