![A Visual Timeline Of The 21St Century’s Biggest Cocktail Trends [Infographic]](https://letsbrew.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/a-visual-timeline-of-the-21st-century-s-biggest-cocktail-trends-infographic-featured.jpg)
TL;DR
VinePair published a visual timeline of 13 cocktail trends that shaped the first quarter of the 21st century, starting with the craft cocktail revival around New York’s Milk & Honey. The report tracks shifts from historic recipes to fat-washing and bar gadgets, but describes its dates as rough rather than definitive.
VinePair has published a visual timeline charting 13 cocktail trends that influenced drinking culture during the 21st century’s first quarter, from the revival of old recipes to fat-washing and the use of specialized bar equipment. The retrospective identifies New York’s Milk & Honey, which opened on Dec. 31, 1999, as a key starting point for the modern craft cocktail revival, while acknowledging that the trends’ dates are approximate.
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The timeline begins with the old-school drink revival, which VinePair places from 2000 to 2015. After Milk & Honey opened, bartenders revisited historic recipes and reference books, bringing drinks such as the Sazerac, Negroni, Bee’s Knees and Last Word back into wider circulation. The report says the revival established those cocktails as enduring classics, even as bartenders moved on from the period’s vintage-inspired style.
VinePair dates the rise of fat-washing to 2007 through 2019, crediting bartender Don Lee of New York’s PDT with helping popularize the technique. Lee’s Benton’s Old Fashioned combined bourbon infused with bacon fat and maple syrup. The approach inspired other bartenders to experiment with ingredients including duck fat and butter; the report says the technique later became more mainstream rather than disappearing.
Other trends in the timeline include cocktail-making gadgets and scientific techniques, which VinePair dates from 2015 onward, and tiny clothespins used to attach garnishes to glass rims around 2017 to 2019. The report names smoking guns, iSi whippers and Dave Arnold’s Spinzall centrifuge, released in 2017, among the tools that brought theatrical presentation or methods such as clarification to bars. The supplied account describes the clothespin fashion but does not provide a full account of its later course.
How Bar Techniques Reached Mainstream
The timeline offers readers a way to see how modern cocktail culture expanded beyond a focus on reviving recipes. Its examples trace a shift toward experimentation with flavor, texture and presentation: bacon-fat-infused bourbon altered a familiar Old Fashioned, while equipment such as siphons and centrifuges gave bartenders new ways to prepare and serve drinks.
That history matters because trends can leave lasting changes even when their most visible expressions fade. VinePair argues that once-obscure techniques became more familiar in bars, while classic recipes returned to regular menus. The piece also cautions indirectly against treating every trend as permanent: the timeline is a retrospective, not a measure of how widely each practice is used today.
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From Milk & Honey to New Methods
VinePair describes Milk & Honey’s opening on Dec. 31, 1999, as the touchstone for the craft cocktail movement’s growth into broader public awareness. The report also credits earlier influences, including Dale DeGroff’s work at the Rainbow Room, the original Angel’s Share, which opened in 1993, and the London cocktail-bar scene of the 1990s. It presents the New York bar as a useful marker, not the sole origin of the revival.
The timeline groups trends into date ranges rather than assigning precise start and end points. VinePair says cocktail history makes those boundaries difficult to pin down, and characterizes its chronology as a rough timeline. Its scope is the first quarter of the century, not a prediction of which techniques will dominate in the years ahead.
““It can be difficult to pin down the exact moment these trends took off or faded away.””
— VinePair
Trend Dates Remain Approximate
The article does not establish precise dates for when each trend began or ended, and it does not provide a standardized measure of how common each practice became. The date ranges are VinePair’s editorial framing, not a complete industry-wide dataset. The supplied source material also ends during its account of the clothespin trend, so it does not establish how that fashion developed afterward.
The timeline is retrospective and does not confirm which current techniques will persist. It describes the iSi siphon as having re-emerged and says some tools have staying power, but those assessments are the publication’s characterization rather than quantified findings.
The Next Cocktail Trends
VinePair frames the timeline as a look back at the first quarter of the century and points toward the trends that may shape the period ahead. The report does not announce a new industry survey or forecast specific techniques. Readers should treat future developments as open questions; the article suggests only that experimentation and cross-pollination with art, history and science will continue to influence cocktail culture.
Key Questions
What is the timeline about?
It is a VinePair retrospective covering 13 cocktail trends that shaped the 21st century’s first quarter.
What event does VinePair use as the starting point?
The report identifies the opening of New York’s Milk & Honey on Dec. 31, 1999 as a touchstone for the modern craft cocktail revival, while also naming earlier influences.
What is fat-washing?
It is a technique that infuses a spirit with fat to add flavor and texture. VinePair cites Don Lee’s bacon-fat-infused bourbon for the Benton’s Old Fashioned as an influential example.
Are the timeline’s dates definitive?
No. VinePair calls the chronology a rough timeline and says the exact points when trends took off or faded can be difficult to determine.
Source: vinepair.com
