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I ND U S T RY RE PORT
When it’s part of a cocktail. With one or two notable exceptions brands originally destined for the shots market are happily finding themselves an integral part of cocktail culture. So how does this leave the shorts market itself? We look at the health of the shots market in our Industry Report.
October 2020 | DRINKS INDUSTRY IRELAND
When is a shot not a shot?
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hots, once primarily regarded as a nightclubbing order, began to move out of this limited segment of the drinks trade some time ago. Where once considered nothing less than a nightclub staple, being both portable and able to be downed quickly, in today’s pub the shot has come to badge the group gettogether at the start or end of an evening. Sometimes both. Thus, nightclubs apart, shots have tended to feature in bars and at music festivals where the target demographic tends to hang out. A valuable high margin product, shots can also be considered for the food occasion in pubs where they might be offered as an aperitif or digestif. Irish bars such as Cissie Young’s in Cork have found shots sales to be “very good” according to Tom Lynch there. “The young crowd drink a lot of shorts,” he says, “The women especially!” Jagermeister has resurfaced at the bar after being dormant for a while, he adds. “Jager was dead last year, I thought” says Tom, “but we can’t cope with the demand for Jager at the moment - it’s huge.” Tia Maria too has been prominent in the sales figures at Cissie Young’s. “We might not sell a bottle of it a
month and then we’ll get three orders in for it as part of a Baby Guinness or other cocktail,” he says. Tom believes that the shots are selling so well because of the (preLevel Three) pub closing times. “Either that or perhaps the customers are getting into shots themselves.” But perhaps the most prolific use of shots can be found in today’s cocktail market. Increasingly shots are finding themselves a constituent part of the cocktail culture, becoming a core ingredient in many cocktails. Today shots can be found as an active ingredient in a variety of cocktails such as the Kamikaze, the Jagerbomb, the B52 or the Slippery Nipple.
Vaccari Sambucca
Vaccari Sambuca has two skus in the range: Vaccari Sambuca White and Vaccari Sambuca Nero - both triple anise Sambuca made with Mediterranean Aniseed, Fennel and a very rare Chinese Star Aniseed grown in South China and North Vietnam. Vaccari Sambuca White is a unique selection of premium ingredients combined to create this triple anise sambuca including essential oils from a wide range of botanicals. This can be thinned with water or can be drunk as a flambé after chewing two coffee beans. >>
