While cocktails may be very visible in the on-trade, their consumption in the off-trade is much less prevalent, with just over a quarter (26%) of adults who consume alcohol at home, claiming to drink cocktails at home, down marginally from 2017 levels (28%).
Recent research on behalf of Retail Intelligence by Empathy Research, amongst a nationally representative sample of 1,015 adults aged 18+, sought to understand the motivations for having cocktails at home and which types of cocktails are most popular.
Consumption of cocktails appears to be even more focussed on celebratory times this year, with just over half (51%) of cocktail drinkers consuming on a special occasion and over 4 in 10 (44%) consuming at Christmas. There has been a reduction in the proportion cocktail drinkers (27% from 32%) who claim they do not necessarily have to have a specific reason to drink cocktails at home.
Cocktail Mixing Kit
The majority of home cocktails are prepared without the aid of a cocktail mixing kit, with just a third (32%) of cocktail drinkers claiming to use one. Males (45%) are significantly more likely than females (22%) to use cocktail mixing kits. Knowledge in relation to cocktail making is primarily sourced online, with general online searches being used by almost 7 in 10 (65%) cocktail makers, up from 58% in 2017.
A further 1 in 5 (20%) use YouTube to help them make cocktails. Friends/Family members are used as a source of information by just over a third (35%).
Looking ahead to this Christmas, cocktails appear to be on the menu for a sizeable proportion of those who current make cocktails in-home, although not to the same extent as they were last year, with just over 6 in 10 (61%) planning to make some this Christmas, down from 68% last year.
For further information and more in-depth analysis on consumer behaviour amongst those who make cocktails in-home, please contact Robbie Clarke at Empathy Research.
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