![A Visual Timeline Of The 21St Century’s Biggest Cocktail Trends [Infographic]](https://fokos.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/a-visual-timeline-of-the-21st-century-s-biggest-cocktail-trends-infographic-featured.jpg)
TL;DR
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VinePair published a visual timeline of 13 cocktail trends across the first quarter of the 21st century, using New York’s Milk & Honey opening in 1999 as its starting point. The report traces shifts from historic recipe revivals to fat-washing and bar gadgets, while describing its dates as approximate rather than definitive.
VinePair has published a visual timeline of 13 cocktail trends that shaped the first 25 years of the 21st century, tracing the modern craft cocktail revival from the 1999 opening of New York’s Milk & Honey to techniques and bar tools still in use. The report is a retrospective, not a definitive history: VinePair says the points at which trends rose or faded are difficult to date precisely.
VinePair identifies Milk & Honey, which opened on Dec. 31, 1999, as the touchstone for the modern craft cocktail revival. The report also credits earlier developments, including Dale DeGroff’s work at the Rainbow Room, the original Angel’s Share opening in 1993 and the growth of London’s cocktail-bar scene during the 1990s. Its timeline uses the end of 1999 as a practical starting point for following the scene into the new century.
One prominent period, labeled 2000–2015, was a revival of old-school drinks. Bartenders searched historic books and records for recipes, bringing drinks such as the Sazerac, Negroni, Bee’s Knees and Last Word back into wider use. VinePair says the renewed interest helped establish these drinks as modern classics, even as bartenders moved on from the period’s associated vintage style.
The timeline also follows fat-washing, which it dates from 2007 to 2019, and the spread of technical tools from around 2015 onward. VinePair attributes a landmark example of fat-washing to Don Lee at New York’s PDT: the Benton’s Old Fashioned, made with bourbon infused with bacon fat supplied by chef David Chang. The report describes smoking guns, iSi whippers, flavor blasters and the Spinzall centrifuge as tools that entered cocktail programs at different points. It includes other short-lived presentation fashions, such as tiny clothespins used to attach garnishes to glass rims.
How Bar Techniques Reached Mainstream
The timeline shows how cocktail culture changed not only through new recipes, but through the methods and presentation bartenders used. Historic recipes gave audiences renewed access to older drinks; fat-washing and other infusions expanded the range of flavors; and specialized equipment brought more theatrical and technical approaches into bars.
For readers, the retrospective offers a way to recognize where familiar drinks and techniques came from. VinePair’s account also suggests that trends do not always disappear when their moment in the spotlight passes: the report says fat-washing became more mainstream and remained in use, while specific gadgets have cycled in and out of fashion. The timeline is a guide to those shifts, rather than a measurement of how widely each trend was adopted.
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From Milk & Honey to Modern Bars
VinePair frames the revival as part of a longer development, not a sudden invention at the start of 2000. Before Milk & Honey opened, bartenders including Dale DeGroff had helped renew interest in well-made cocktails, and New York’s original Angel’s Share had opened in 1993. London’s cocktail bars were also expanding during the 1990s.
Milk & Honey’s opening date gave VinePair a convenient marker for the 21st-century timeline. The report says the bar, associated with the late Sasha Petraske, helped bring a carefully curated cocktail culture to wider attention. From there, VinePair groups trends into broad periods, while acknowledging that their starts and endings cannot always be pinned to a single year.
““It can be difficult to pin down the exact moment these trends took off or faded away.””
— VinePair
Where the Timeline Has Limits
The infographic’s trend dates are rough ranges, not independently measured start and end points. VinePair explicitly notes that cocktail fashions can emerge gradually, overlap and persist after their peak visibility. Its account does not provide adoption figures, a ranking method for selecting the 13 trends or a detailed explanation of how it judged each trend’s reach.
The supplied report excerpt ends while describing the clothespin fashion, so it does not establish the full sequence of all 13 trends or provide details for every item. It also does not say whether the infographic will be updated, or how the trends may develop through the rest of the century.
The Next Years of Cocktail Culture
VinePair presents the timeline as a point of reflection on the cocktail industry’s first quarter-century and says the changes invite curiosity about what comes next. The report does not announce a follow-up, forecast specific new fashions or set a date for another installment. For now, the infographic is a retrospective; any next development in the trends it describes remains open.
Key Questions
What is the news?
VinePair published a visual timeline and report outlining 13 cocktail trends that influenced drinking culture during the first quarter of the 21st century.
Why does the timeline start in 1999?
VinePair uses the Dec. 31, 1999, opening of Milk & Honey in New York as a marker for the modern craft cocktail revival. The report also notes that earlier work and bars helped set the stage.
Which cocktail trends does the report describe?
Among the trends in the supplied report are the revival of historic drinks, fat-washing, the use of technical bar gadgets and the brief fashion for attaching garnishes with tiny clothespins.
Are the trend dates exact?
No. VinePair calls the timeline a rough chronology and says it can be difficult to identify the exact moment a trend begins or fades.
Source: vinepair.com
