Hot honey vodka, passion fruit margarita and African sugar rum: The best new spirits

With Dry January now at an end, wet-led venues may be turning their attention to refreshing their alcoholic cocktail and spirits menus.

 

From ready-to-drink offerings for time-pressed sites to speciality drams, keeping your spirits offering on-trend is essential in such a competitive market.

 

Therefore, we have brought together the latest and greatest spirits launches to attract and retain your customers.

 

Find new spirits menu options below.

 

Sustainable hot honey vodka

 

Ramsbury Distillery has added two new flavoured vodkas: Hot Honey Vodka and Wildflower Honey Vodka. Both are created using ingredients grown on the Ramsbury Estate in Wiltshire. The vodka is made with winter wheat and water drawn from the estate’s chalk aquifer, and produced in copper column stills powered by sustainable biomass. Wildflower Honey Vodka showcases floral notes from honey made from the wildflowers growing across the land, while Hot Honey Vodka combines honey with a warming kick of red chilli.

 

Price 70cl bottle, £21.05

 

Indian lightly-peated single malt

 

Mangrove Global has expanded its world whisky portfolio with Agneya, the latest expression from Indian single malt producer Indri. Agneya is made from six-row malted barley sourced from Rajasthan and lightly peated using Scottish Highland peat malted in India. The 46% abv whisky is double-distilled in copper pot stills and matured in ex-bourbon and sherry casks, and delivers notes of mango, banana, melon and toffee wrapped in dried peat smoke.

 

Price 70cl bottle, from £30

 

Margarita made with small-batch tequila

 

Lockdown Liquor & Co has launched a Passion Fruit Margarita, created in partnership with agave spirits brand the Lost Explorer. The cocktail, a twist on the classic Tommy’s Margarita, is created using the Lost Explorer’s small-batch Blanco Tequila combined with ripe passion fruit and fresh lime.

 

Price 500ml bottle, £18

 

African sugar cane spirits

 

Kakira Cane Spirits, named after the Ugandan village at the source of the River Nile, has launched in the UK. The brand was founded as an off-shoot of Kakira Sugar, Uganda’s largest private-sector employer, and each of its spirits is made from sugar cane grown on the estate. The range comprises seven-year-old old rum, five-year-old silver rum, five-year-old dark rum, spiced rum, dry gins, sugar cane vodka and coffee-infused sugar cane vodka.

 

Price 70cl bottle, from £19.50

 

Seasonally-inspired Irish whiskey

 

Kirker Greer Spirits has expanded its Kirker Irish whiskey range with the Kirker Four Seasons Collection, designed to capture Ireland’s changing seasons. Winter is rich and smoky with peated malt; Spring tastes of pear, gooseberry and elderflower with honeysuckle and cherry blossom notes; Summer evokes ripe stewed fruit and spice; and Autumn replicates stewed apple tart, buttery pastry, cinnamon spice and toffee. Each blend is bottled at 46% abv, non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, showcasing cask influence from Bourbon, Oloroso, Madeira and Marsala wood.

 

Price 700ml bottle, £45

 

Decade-old high-ester rum

 

Demerara Distillers has introduced the second release in its high-ester rum blend series, El Dorado Port Mourant/Diamond High Ester. High-ester rums feature intense fruity and floral notes, driven by a high concentration of esters (aromatic compounds). The cask-strength blend has been aged for 10 years in once-used bourbon barrels. It opens with aromas of green apple, flambéed banana and notes of peat, complemented by a tobacco spiced finish.

 

Price 750ml bottle, from £95

 

Heavily-peated whiskies

 

Bruichladdich Distillery has launched the 16th series of its Octomore Islay single malt whisky with four super-heavily peated spirits. Octomore16.1 is crafted using 100% Scottish Mainland Concerto Barley, malted to 101.4 PPM, aged in cask for five years, with an abv of 59.3%. Octomore 16.2 uses the same distillate as the 16.1 and is aged in cask for five years and bottled at 58.1% abv. Octomore 16.3 has been aged five years in Bourbon, Sauternes and Pedro Ximénez casks, with the Islay barley malted to 189.5 PPM and bottled at 61.6% abv, and Octomore 16.4 was malted to 189.5 PPM and bottled at 62.6% abv.

 

Price 700ml bottle Octomore 16.1, £113.70