In the ongoing classic-cocktail renaissance, the Dirty Martini made a recent comeback, inspiring other “dirty” drinks, including the Dirty Shirley (a spiked Shirley Temple) and the non-alcoholic Dirty Soda (cola with coconut and lime). An enduring bartender trick is the so-called spirit swap (think: an Old Fashioned with rum instead of whisky), and here blanco or reposado tequila, or even smoky mezcal, bring on-trend agave spirits to meet the Martini trend. Brine and seaweed embrace the craze for all things umami.

Dashes of aromatic bitters are key components of Whisky and Pisco Sours, Old Fashioneds and other classic cocktails. Bold bartenders have started pouring cocktail bitters (which normally build bitter flavours on a base of neutral alcohol) like spirits, to make drinks that are ultraspicy and astringent like this sour—two flavour profiles with enduring popularity. Bitters like Angostura (from Trinidad) or licorice-flavoured Peychaud’s give the resulting drink the trendy hue of your favourite rosé wine or pink T-shirt. Since ice can flatten eggwhite foam, the bartender endorsed “reverse dryshake” is a new technique that first chills the drink with ice, then delivers an ultrafluffy foam with a “dry” (no ice) shake.

The continuing highball craze taught us to lengthen tall, refreshing drinks with soda water, tonic or “sonic” (a bit of both). Now, we’re also recommending shortening long drinks as a fresh trend: take a favourite tall drink like the Bloody Mary, and make it a Martini-style short drink. We were inspired by trendsetting bars like Double Chicken Please in New York, which serves trendy food-inspired drinks, to infuse pizza flavours into this cocktail. To achieve bar-quality results, we made like a pro bartender and raided the kitchen for flavour-boosting ingredients, from dried mushrooms to nutritional yeast.