How to Craft the Ultimate Seasonal Cocktail Menu for Your Bar

Now that you understand a few of the benefits that a seasonal cocktail menu brings to your bar, it’s time to decide how far you want to go with seasonality as it’s a spectrum.

Before diving into R&D for your seasonal cocktail menu, though, you’ll want to be sure you strike a fine balance on this spectrum of seasonality as every bar, and what they can manage on the day-to-day, is different. Here are a couple of factors to consider that will help guide how seasonal your menu should be:

• The ability of the staff. First and foremost, it’s important to establish how the seasonal menu will be maintained on a day-to-day basis. If you have a dedicated prep person who’s well-versed in the kitchen and can handle the volume of hyper-seasonal ingredients that need to be made for service, then this might be less of a worry for your bar. But, if prep for service is dependent on the bar team itself, it’s vital to appoint a couple of bartenders or staff to lead this aspect of preparation for service. Understanding the ability of the bar staff is vital to striking that balance of hyper-seasonal (i.e., prep-heavy) serves with minimally seasonal serves, and so on. If your team is filled with all-star bar professionals, then a list of twelve to eighteen hyper-seasonal cocktails may very well be feasible; but if you have a lot of newbies to the industry, then you may want to dial that number back to somewhere between two and four.
• Mapping out the cocktail list. How many cocktails do you wish to feature on your menu? In what style? With which base spirits? What sells and what doesn’t at your bar? Which seasonal ingredients do you feel most excited about highlighting? Answering these questions will help your team develop some sort of framework that ensures you’re striking a balance of seasonal drinks that guests will enjoy of all styles and flavors, drinks that will sell, and cocktails that your team can easily manage for service.
• The longevity of the seasonal ingredients. Not all ingredients share the same peak season, so it’s important to consider how long certain foods will be in abundance before deciding to put them on your seasonal cocktail list. All too often, bars get excited about a specific seasonal ingredient only to find that in a few weeks, they’re unable to source it at the same volume and price. This can lead to disappointed guests who were excited to try this new serve, only to discover that it wasn’t on the menu that day due to a food shortage; also, that cocktail is likely, now, costing you more than it was when you initially planned the menu. Be sure to consider how long the seasonal ingredient will be available for at the price you desire as certain foods might lend themselves better to a special menu (ramps have an extremely short peak season) instead of the main seasonal list.

Late spring and summer, and even early fall, are the seasons where bright berries, peppers, tomatoes, and other vibrant foods are at their best; and these flavors are highly sought-after by guests, meaning that bars and restaurants will often source these ingredients for seasonal menus. But as the colder months approach, seasonality can get a bit trickier as there are fewer fresh, in-season foods to work with. While root vegetables, squashes, and other local foods that are grown in greenhouses are viable options, a great way to lean into seasonality during the late fall and winter is by preserving foods from warmer seasons through pickling, various preserves, ferments, infusions, and other culinary techniques.

Here are a few thought-starters for ways to make ingredients that are thought of as out-of-season, seasonal during the colder months:

• Pepper-infused Don Julio Blanco. The Spicy Margarita has become a standard order for many tequila lovers who enjoy a touch of spice in their drinks. A great way to preserve in-season peppers is by infusing them into some tequila to savor their fiery flavor for the colder months. It’s a simple, very forgiving method, and this infusion will keep for many months to come (typically no longer than six)
• Pickled cucumbers for bar snacks and seasonal garnishes. Another simple food ingredient that can be used in cocktails, such as a Ketel One or Tanqueray Martini, is pickled cucumbers. The brine can be used in Dirty Martini variations, or as a cheeky Pickleback (pickle brine and Dickel or Bulleit whiskey) for regulars and bar industry friends, and the pickles can be used as bar snacks, or as garnishes. Cucumbers are just one example of food worth pickling, but strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, and other ingredients work brilliantly as well.
• Fermented blueberry-basil. On the nerdier end of the bar ingredient spectrum, ferments have established themselves as favored hyper-seasonal ingredients at many of the best bars in the world, so it’s a great technique to explore should you have the time and patience (as that’s all it really takes). The fermented blueberry basil savors an excellent ingredient pairing from summertime and makes it accessible throughout the rest of the year. It’s perfect for stirred drinks, such as a Tanqueray No. TEN Negroni, or Martini, or as an additional layer of sweetness and umami in a sour. There are many fermentation techniques and methods worth researching, but see the full process and recipe for this ingredient in the “Try it Yourself” section below.

Fresh, in-season ingredient examples:

• Acidified carrot syrup. For bars or restaurants with a juicer—a great piece of equipment for juice-forward brunch cocktails and no-ABV serves—juicing fresh, in-season carrots and creating syrup with them is a perfect way to use this hearty root vegetable. The addition of citric acid powder elevates the flavor and increases the shelf life.
  • 1-part fresh carrot juice
  • 1- part sugar
  • 1% citric acid powder (to the weight of the final syrup
    • Method: Combine the juice and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, weigh the container that the syrup will be stored in on a scale, then tare to zero. Add the liquid to the container on the scale to calculate its weight in grams, then add 1% citric acid powder to the weight of the syrup. Store for up to 2-3 weeks
• Dehydrated shiitake mushroom-infused Bulleit Bourbon. Guests are always skeptical about mushrooms as a flavor in cocktails, but in an Old Fashioned and certain sours, it brings unique umami and dryness that makes for a memorable serve.
  • 1-liter Bulleit Bourbon
  • 1.75 oz dehydrated shiitake mushrooms (roughly chopped)
    • Method: Vat in a neutral container and infuse for 4 hours. Strain and store (where legal and compliant store*). Keeps indefinitely.

When it comes to seasonal drink-making, don’t be afraid to express your creativity in unique ways and utilize the talented personnel you have around you. If you have a creative and talented chef who loves finding ways to utilize surplus ingredients or off-cuts from the kitchen, then explore ways to integrate those foods into your cocktail list (you also save money!). Maybe the back-of-house team wants to run a special food item to move through some product and there’s an opportunity to pair a cocktail with it (Fig Prosciutto and Ricotta Crostini with a Tanqueray Bee’s Knees made with fig-infused honey syrup), or the bar team wants to create a seasonal specials menu completely dedicated to food-cocktail pairings — there are no boundaries, so embrace the seasons and balance the art with the science.