Skift Take
Craft cocktail culture is based on the same principles driving change in the luxury hospitality world today: consumers’ desires for best-quality ingredients, a curated sense of place, and staff conscious of (and connected to) the local scene.
In chronicling the evolution of the luxury traveler, Skift has tracked the transition of consumers' tastes from desiring the most expensive to the most thoughtful of experiences and goods. It’s a trend that has made its way into the carefully crafted cocktails of the hotel bar — and opened the door for greater communication and community between hotels and the cities they serve.
While the rise of cocktail culture began in places like Sydney, London and New York, its influence today is evident in nightlife and hotel bars in European cities from Paris to St. Petersburg.
Although it is worth reading the New York Times’ chronicle of the slow rise of craft cocktails in Paris and its recognition of hospitality operator Experimental Group as triggering a cocktail revolution in France, we’d argue that the evolution—and its impact on the luxury hotel world—is nowhere more evident than Barcelona.
Skift spoke with the teams behind the bars of high-end hotels and local cocktai