While interviewing drink experts about miso cocktails for a recent piece, a comment from James Irvine, Merivale’s group creative cocktail lead, led me on a tangent. Irvine had pointed out that beyond its unique flavour contribution, miso can also serve as a conversation starter for bartenders.
“Beyond the drink construction, miso is a great conversation piece,” Irvine said. “Bartenders can speak to the flavour profiles it allows.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that a drink ingredient could be a talking point with guests. To be fair, I hadn’t thought much about the conversation between bartenders and guests — apart from the movie cliché of a bar patron whining about their troubles to a bar keeper.
Mitchell Baldwin, drinks and venue manager at Sydney bar Hacienda, says with a cocktail experience, bar staff aim to give guests a memorable, sensory-rich moment. Sharing the inspiration behind a drink and talking about its ingredients helps deliver that.
“A conversation about a drink can make it taste better,” Baldwin says. “Sharing stories of its creation, whether inspired by a place, season or personal memory, adds depth and emotion, makes the flavours more memorable. This understanding of the drink’s inspiration encourages guests to have a greater appreciation for each sip.”
Often, a cocktail menu aligns with the venue’s overall theme and ethos. Nu Nu in Palm Cove aims to showcase local tropical produce with its cocktail offering. They’re made using fresh ingredients like makrut lime and pandan, sourced from local markets.
Maybe Sammy’s bar manager Hunter Gregory says conversations open people up to trying new things. Someone might read a drink with passionfruit, amaro, tomato and gin, and be put off by the idea of tomato based on past experiences. A quick chat with the server — or even another guest — can break down those walls.
“I have memorable conversations about ingredients every day — often with guests curious about how certain flavours work together or how an unfamiliar ingredient is used in a drink,” says Gregory. “It might be something like, ‘It says strawberry yoghurt — does that make it creamy?’. These chats are always about education.”
Sometimes, those chats will lead to guests trying a flavour or taste combination they wouldn’t usually go for. Those moments of surprise and discovery help make Gregory’s job incredibly rewarding. He says the team doesn’t deliberately choose ingredients to be conversation starters — they’re just fun and innovative, added in creative ways.
At Sydney’s The Velvet Glove, conversation-sparking cocktail ingredients include 24k gold leaves, quince liqueur and absinthe and mandarin liqueur. Hayley Gooley, the bar’s owner, says a guest curious about the 24k gold leaf led to a great conversation with the bartender about how edible gold has been used in European courts for centuries, not just for luxury but for symbolism.
“These conversations are what make the bar experience so dynamic and personal,” says Gooley. “Knowing why a certain botanical is in a gin, or how a spirit’s ageing process affects its depth, adds another layer to the sensory experience. It’s like art, once you know the context, you engage with it in a deeper, more meaningful way.”
All bar experts I talked to agreed: patrons are becoming more curious about their drinks. Gooley says guests want to know exactly what they’re drinking and why certain flavours work together. They’re more engaged.
“This curiosity allows us to have deeper interactions, and it’s exciting to see people approach cocktails with the same appreciation as fine dining,” she says.
Gregory says Maybe Sammy has built a reputation for inventive cocktails, so people often come in ready to trust the bartender and explore the menu, and converse. “Sydney is full of incredible talent and world-class bars, and as that curious continues to grow, so does the opportunity to showcase just how exceptional our cocktail culture really is.”
Related: Watermelon Is Crushing It on Restaurant Menus Right Now
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