Novel flavor profiles, snacks and artisan drinks lead 2013 restaurant trends

Bar-inspired flavor profiles, real ingredients, “snackification” and automation: Those are just a few of the trends New York City-based consultants Baum+Whiteman International forecast to be big in 2013. The firm, which creates high-profile restaurants for clients around the world, collects macro hospitality trends each fall and issues its predictions. Here’s what we can expect:

1. Bars: Where the flavor action is
 
Looking for future flavors? Keep a keen eye on artisan boozeries. Ambitious bartenders, whose numbers are growing exponentially, are infusing vodka, gin and (especially) rum with mango, kiwi and other housemade exotica, like dried fruit, as they stretch the notion of handcrafted cocktails. Talde in Brooklyn, N.Y., lines its bar with beakers of honey syrup, grenadine, vanilla syrup, mint syrup, Chinese five spice syrup, citrus bitters and maple bitters, all housemade. At “Farm-to-Bar” Copa d’Oro in Los Angeles, fruits, herbs and vegetables come fresh from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. You tell the bartender alcoholically what’s on your mind and he fashions a drink from these ingredients. It’s happening across the country.

Flavor researchers and chefs should refocus on the bar: Cocktails of pureed and muddled melons, syrups of lemongrass, rosemary, pomegranate, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, among other esoterica; flavored vinegars going into old fashioned shrubs, smoked ice cubes, yuzu bitters, chocolate-chile bitters, sangria variations no one’s heard of in Spain.

Restaurant and hotel chains, straining to step away from bottled and powdered shortcuts, are playing catch-up. But training hundreds of bartenders can be a killer. To raise their competitive profiles, they’re emphasizing Latin accents. A good example: T.G.I. Friday’s Tiki Torch, a mashup of tequila, muddled pineapple, triple sec, lime and chipotle-pineapple syrup.

Boozy soda fountain favorites for grownups are on-trend: Floats, shakes, parfaits and smoothies laced with bourbon, peppermint rum, aquavit, Benedictine or chartreuse along with flavored syrups. And better burger chains, obsessed with differentiation, are now pushing alcohol-laced shakes.

You need to know about “fatwashing.”

Because handcrafting artisan cocktails is slow and labor-intensive, we’re seeing pre-made barrel-aged cocktails. Small batches are stored for weeks and even months in old bourbon, rum or sherry barrels where they mellow and absorb butterscotch top notes inherent in the wood. State laws prohibiting premixing of different boozes are being relaxed or ignored, so this trend is spreading fast, with good reason. A five- or six-liter batch of Negronis might barrel-age for a few weeks, then sell out in a day or two. Avant garde bars are batch-carbonating premade cocktails and serving them in capped bottles.

All this artisan stuff is expensive, and cocktails are regularly crossing the $15 line. By-the glass wines are galloping in price as well. An $8 glass once came from an $8 bottle; now we’re seeing $12 glasses from $10 bottles. And local craft beers, traditionally poured in pints, now come in 14- or 12-ounce glasses.

Hotels and hot restaurants around the country are hiring itinerant cocktail consultants. These paid guns stay on top of local small-batch distilleries and crank up their imaginations. A London bar has been selling a Meataquita, a concoction of chorizo-infused tequila, vegetable juice, balsamic vinegar, smoked salt, pepper and port.

Coming soon to you:

• Bars specializing in brown spirits, especially bourbon and new-old ryes.
• Mysterious vermouths.
• High-proof spirits (think 50 percent alcohol and up) and artisan beers with 8 percent to 12 percent alcohol. Not just because people want to get tanked faster, but because patrons are demanding stronger flavor identities.
• Beer-based cocktails.
• Juices “enhanced” with a bit of booze, so you simultaneously get your antioxidants and a bit sloshy.

2. Soft drinks are bubbling

For quick-service restaurants, beverage sales are a big bright spot with growing numbers of snack-time beverage-only sales. The three big gorillas — McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks — slug it out with every beverage concoction they can devise to slake thirsts. Starbucks has added a line of coffee-spiked energy drinks, its acquisition and planned chain of Evolution Fresh Juice bars (with premium prices and a real menu) will compete with Jamba Juice and the company’s new Tazo Tea salons are taking on Teavana. Jamba Juice is pushing recently acquired Talbott Teas into its smoothies and has added fresh-squeezed options to its high-sugar lineup. Dairy Queen is hawking Orange Julius-branded soft drinks. Red Mango is adding frozen coffee smoothies. And frozen yogurt shakes are taking off everywhere.

Upscale restaurants, pushing for differentiation, are making their own artisan sodas using fresh and local ingredients (especially at their bars). And several bottlers of flavored waters are adding real juice to their products.

Behind all this stirring: Consumers are trading in colas for “fresh” beverages or fruit-flavored carbonates and smoothies with a health halo. New York’s coming ban on monster-size sweetened drinks raises awareness, too. Pepsi sees flavored carbonated drinks outselling colas by 2015. Every fast feeder needs a blended fruit beverage, preferably with healthy herbs and berries. Hibiscus, pomegranate, lemongrass and basil will pop up in mass-market beverages. Expect fruit-flavored iced teas to rise at quick-service and fast-casual restaurants.