Missouri Monthly – July 2026

You’re a Tonic

Flavoured tonics and mixers are seizing the moment.

Is it any wonder that as consumers continue to reach for lighter and fresher-tasting drinks with lower ABV, as the heat soars in the summer, as the drinking occasion shifts earlier into blue-sky moments, that mixers and tonics are coming to the forefront?

Take the example of the ever increasingly popular Paloma. While the classic may be made with soda water and actual grapefruit juice, busy bars frequently reach for grapefruit soda to do the same in one step. And if the characteristic grapefruit flavour of the Paloma is so reliant on the soda chosen, it makes sense that bars are looking towards more premium mixer brands to deliver.

Fever Tree has been making this argument for years. Their classic “3/4 of your drink is mixer, mix with the best” campaign puts the spirit in the background. But other brands have picked up on the opportunity, and they've got some competition.

Born in Berlin bars, all twelve of the Thomas Henry portfolio brought home medals in The Spirits Business Tonic & Mixer Masters, with their Citrus Lemonade the highest-rated in the entire competition. Their premium mixers have long been the signature pours at some of the world’s most exciting bars including Superbueno and Handshake Speakeasy, showing their pedigree and trust.

Double Dutch is leaning into atmospheric flavours with their “Sun & Sea Tonic,” and Australian brand Strangelove has a range of interesting flavours including “Salted Grapefruit,” “Coastal Tonic,” and “Spiced Pineapple.” Hopping onto recent consumer trends, Three Cents launched a “fresh and bold” pickle soda.

Strategic takeaway: While the right choice of spirit will always be important to cocktails, brands should not underestimate the importance of mixers to the trade. Consumers are increasingly looking for experimental flavours, so brands should pay attention to the mixer brands pushing the boundaries. There could be fertile partnerships to be had.

Altos Launches New Global Campaign

Altos tequila was created by bartenders Dre Masso and Harre Bresant in 2009, explicitly to work great in cocktails. So it makes sense that for their first global campaign, the brand is highlighting this quality.

Targeting consumers making cocktails at home, Altos aims to give them confidence that they don’t need to be a professional to make great drinks, at least when they’re using Altos.

About the campaign, Masso said: “I remember saying ‘Altos always works’ with a group of friends one night. It just came out. It wasn’t planned, it just felt true.”

Canned Whisky from Port of Leith

The Edinburgh distillery Port of Leith has launched new single serve cans of their single grain Table Whisky. These RTDs can be enjoyed straight from the can or poured over ice or into cocktails.

Table Whisky is the distillery’s hero liquid, modelled after the “table wine” concept in Europe. Blended to be approachable and shareable, this whisky is usually sold in wine-bottle shaped vessels.

We think this approach to whisky has great potential, particularly in getting more, and younger, consumers into the spirit at lower costs.

Hennessy Partners with Bad Bunny in London

In November, Hennessy Cognac became the official global presenting sponsor of Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour. To celebrate his two shows in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Hennessy created three signature cocktails for the tour.

The brand also brought the celebrations into the wider city, with the cocktails available at a variety of iconic venues. Further activations included a takeover at NT’s Loft in Hackney, Electric Brixton, and Dalston Salsa Social Club.

This is a great example of a brand really capitalising on a cultural moment.

Cocktails in the City

We visited the first day of the 2026 edition of the annual Cocktails in the City event in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury.

As always, the event had a selection of London’s top bars all in one place, many partnering with brands to create bespoke cocktails for this event.

While the usual suspects were there in force, we got to try a few new brands we’d not met before, and it's always great to hear from bartenders why they like particular brands and spirits.

Ralph Lauren

As one of the official sponsors of Wimbledon, Ralph Lauren always goes big for the two weeks of the championship. Their pop-up in Chelsea took over Sloane Square and featured a Ralph’s Café, mini store, and big screen streaming the matches.

On the middle Saturday of the tournament, when we popped over, the area had a great buzz with people enjoying the tennis. We particularly liked the “Polo” newspaper, which consumers could pick up for free and featured articles on fashion and sports through the uniquely Ralph Lauren lens.

Print is definitely having a revival.

Pepsi

Dashing through Soho recently, we came across the Pepsi Parlour pop-up. Part ice cream bar, part immersive brand space, consumers visiting could sample Pepsi ice cream float creations featuring the new flavours alongside premium gelato.

Alongside the ice cream bar, guests could step into a fridge for a mirrored photo opportunity, win prizes and take home free branded postcards and photo strips.

What better way to enjoy the scorching heat than a sweet treat set inside a Y2K aesthetic?

El Gobernador

A South American spirit made from moscato grapes, Pisco is made by distilling grape juice into a high-proof spirit. El Gobernador is produced in the Limarí Valley in Chile by the famed Torres winemaking family. This bright, colourless pisco is rounded and almost creamy on the palate.

They say:

“El Gobernador, born in the Limarí Valley, brings the spirit of adventure to northern Chile, with a reserve pisco made from Muscat Rosada and Muscat of Alexandria grapes that has an alcohol content of 40% ABV. It is produced using a process centered on a single distillation as the best way of preserving the terpenic aromas of the grapes.”

We like: Agave spirits from South America have been everywhere recently, but pisco is another classic spirit with a long heritage. While the Pisco Sour may be the iconic serve, we love that El Gobernador is also pushing lighter serves, connecting to current drinking trends.

Proper

Snack brand Proper is celebrating the release of their newest flavour, “House Hot Sauce,” with a limited edition bottled hot sauce and an edible candle.

Knowing that spicy flavours frequently disappoint, either plenty of heat but little flavour or plenty of flavour but no real heat, Proper first made sure they had a really solid hot sauce flavour. So it makes sense to release it as a real sauce too.

We love: Spicy flavours are definitely all the rage at the moment, with consumers looking to heat as a way to engage their senses and challenge themselves in a safe way. The candle and surrounding campaign flips this, placing the snack as an indulgent ritual and the heat as a sensory pleasure experience.

Twinings

According to Twinings, Gen Z is “Gen Tea.” According to their research, 62% of Gen Z use tea to “mentally prepare for something significant.”

To celebrate this behaviour, the brand has created a range of “tea bag bags,” bag charms that hold a single Twinings tea bag sachet, that consumers can win by answering the question: “How does Twinings keep you prepared for whatever comes your way?”

We love: We saw kitsch bag charms everywhere last year, with Gen Z using these accessories as a way to show off their personal style with a little bit of fun. This is a great way to jump on the trend, meeting consumers where they are. Charming!

Paddy Power

Betting company Paddy Power has brought their characteristic Irish irreverence to the World Cup. Their main campaign pits Danny Dyer against Rob Lowe to show that nobody does football like England, with Dyer proving that we don’t need confetti cannons or glamour to celebrate the sport.

In Ireland, the brand also showed that even though the nation’s team may not have made it to the tournament, they can still support a team: Ivory Coast. Simply mirroring the Irish flag gives the flag of the Ivory Coast. Simple yet effective.

We love: So much attention is put on the athletes themselves during major sporting events, and rightly so, but in football the fan culture is so important too. It’s great to see Paddy Power highlighting what makes the fan experience great on both sides of the pond, showing they really understand the mindset of their consumers.

‍