利口酒与特色烈酒大师赛2026榜单揭晓 低酒精度品类逆势增长
适度饮酒风潮下，利口酒与特色烈酒品类正借势增长。赛事主办方披露的数据显示，Hugo Spritz成为2026年4月至6月英国增长最快的鸡尾酒，销售额同比大增196%，并带动百加得旗下圣日耳曼接骨木花利口酒在英国截至3月的12个月内销量翻倍有余；金巴利集团近三年在英国Spritz消费中占比近九成。美国市场方面，2025年利口酒与配制酒销量基本持平，但销售额增长近10%，低酒精度与白天饮用场景成为主要支撑。本届赛事在伦敦The Wren Tavern举行盲品，三组评委覆盖果味利口酒、味美思、苦艾酒与开胃酒等品类。
As consumers moderate their alcohol intake and new drinking patterns emerge, the liqueurs and speciality spirits categories are capitalising. SB put a host of offerings to the taste test.
Cast your mind back to summer. One serve rode a wave of growth: the Hugo Spritz. Data from global payments company Square showed the Hugo Spritz was the fastest-growing cocktail in Britain, with sales up 196% between April and June 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. The elderflower-flavoured cocktail has helped to boost Bacardi's well-established St-Germain brand. The elderflower liqueur claims to have more than doubled its UK sales in the 12 months to March 2026, compared with the same period in 2024/25. The rise of the Spritz cocktail has been well documented in recent years, led by Aperol. The brand's parent firm, Campari Group, has held a dominant share of nearly 90% of all Spritzes served in the UK over the past three years, according to IWSR.
Beyond the Spritz and the UK, the liqueurs category as a whole is enjoying some success in the US. There, volume sales of the liqueurs and cordials category were flat but value sales managed to increase by nearly 10% in 2025, data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the US revealed. The demand for lower-ABV serves and movement towards daytime occasions have supported momentum for liqueurs and speciality spirits. This is further backed by a wave of launches in the sector, seeking to imitate the success of products like Aperol.
This provides the perfect opportunity to access the latest influx of entrants into the category, as was the case in this year's Liqueur & Speciality Masters. Three panels of judges gathered at The Wren Tavern in London for a blind tasting spanning everything from fruit-based liqueurs to vermouth, absinthe and aperitivos.
The first panel was chaired by Ruchira Neotia, drinks consultant and India specialist. She was joined by Dan Greifer, head bartender at London's Low Country, and Ed Wicks, quality lead for Levels 1-3 and educator at Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). The second panel was led by Nicola Carruthers, deputy editor at The Spirits Business. Her panel included freelance drinks writer Lauren Eads and Sarah Miller, founder of the Gin A Ding Ding blog. Matt Chambers, co-founder and director of Whisky For Everyone, chaired the final set of judges. His panel included Casey Small, freelance drinks consultant, and James Bunting, founder of New Make Communications.
The Liqueurs portion of the tasting saw a Master awarded straight away, as Joseph Cartron's Bergamote won the top award in the Herbal round. Greifer said: “Light, floral, citrussy. The florality leans more towards perennial flowers such as geranium. The initial palate is very floral heavy, then the citrus kicks in, and finally the sweetness comes and carries the finish.”
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