Cocktail Pairings For 2020’s Top Recipe Trends

Even if you didn’t get in on this year’s top recipe trends, there’s still plenty of time to enjoy their cocktail equivalents. 

2020 was the year we became incredibly well acquainted with our homes. We watched all of the TV, counted the floor tiles, and put our kitchen appliances to use like never before. 

Google released their Year in Search, showing the year’s top trends across a sweeping ranging of topics. Its collection of recipes is diverse, disparate, and ultimately delicious. 

We spent our year learning to make things at home. We searched for sourdough starters, healthy banana bread recipes, and whipped coffee. Yeah. Remember whipped coffee? That was this year too. 

The top-searched recipes of the year showed us what we were missing too. People opted for homemade versions of Disney churros, Dole whip, DoubleTree cookies, and IKEA meatballs. 

Your pots and pans have bore the brunt of your recipe experimentation up until this point. Let your bar tool sets, cocktail syrups, and drinkware shoulder the weight from here on out.

Here are the Spirit Hub cocktail pairings, equivalents, and enhancements for 2020’s top trending recipes. 

Sourdough Bread & Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade

You’re going to need something to drink while you wait on your sourdough starter.

More than anything else in 2020, we had plenty of time. With more than enough time to wait on starters, sourdough bread took the high honors as this year’s top trending recipe.  Spend a little bit of that time to make Ragged Branch Distillery’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Lemonade and pair it with your freshly baked bread. 

Get the Recipe >>

Whipped Coffee & Death Wish Vodka

A splash of Death Wish Vodka makes any good whipped coffee great. 

We weren’t lying when we said whipped coffee was a trend this year. Right when quarantine began, your social feed was flooded with attempts at dalgona coffee. Some admirable, others ill-advised. But we know the secret to acing this trend. You just need a splash of Albany Distilling Co.’s Death Wish Vodka.

Get the Recipe >>

Disney Churro & Chocolate Mexicano

All this talk of princesses and Disney churros, you deserve a boozy hot chocolate. 

2020 was the year of cancelled travel plans. Any attempts to visit the Disney theme parks, squandered. Instead of getting down, we flicked on the princess movies for the fifteenth time in a row, and made the park’s signature Disney Churro for the kiddos at home. You deserve a dose of decadence too. Make yourself a sweet and smoky surprise with Prolijo Mezcal’s Chocolate Mexicano.

Get the Recipe >>

Dole Whip & Pineapple Sunshine

All it takes is a splash of Pineapple Sunshine to liven up quarantine living. 

No Disney-theme-park conversation is complete without discussing the famed Dole Whip. Hours of waiting in the beating sun isn’t so bad with a cup of the frozen pineapple treat. Plenty of people recreated the feeling at home. Wicked Dolphin put it in a cocktail. Because when we’re all stuck inside, we could use a little made-made Pineapple Sunshine.

Get the Recipe >>

DoubleTree Cookie & Vitae Winter Nog

The only accompaniment for DoubleTree Cookies this holiday, rum-filled egg nog. 

We miss the simple pleasures the most. Who thinks of the DoubleTree Cookies during their day-to-day life? But this year, it was one of those treasures we couldn’t get out of our heads. We put a holiday spin on this trend. Because after going house to house, Santa needs more than a glass of milk. Keep him dashing through the snow with a glass of boozy nog from Vitae Spirits alongside those trendy cookies.

Get the Recipe >>

IKEA Meatball & The Midnight Sun

A quick-and-easy cocktail recipe that makes assembling your furniture less of a hassle. 

The only thing better than browsing the aisles of IKEA is eating their Swedish meatballs before shopping. Their meatballs are so good, everyone took to recreating the recipe at home. Pair your meatballs with a cocktail easier to make than IKEA’s furniture: The Midnight Sun by New Alchemy Distilling, featuring their Fylleangst Aquavit, a West Coast spin on the traditional Scandinavian spirit.

Get the Recipe >>

Chaffle & The Keto-Friendly Mint Julep

Been good at sticking to your diet? Fill your copper mugs with this keto-friendly favorite.  

For some of us, 2020 was the year of getting healthy and dieting. If you jumped on the ketogenic diet train, you discovered the joy of the chaffle this year. But if you don’t know already, the food trend sweeping the nation is a waffle made of cheese and eggs. Get in on the brunch festivities while sticking to your diet with the keto-friendly Mint Julep by Willie’s Distillery.

Get the Recipe >>

Hamburger Bun & The Social Toddy

Bring back socialization with Social Toddies. We’ll bring the hamburger buns.  

2020 meant barbeques-for-one, forcing us to miss out on our favorite summertime activity: BBQs and cocktails. Without a dozen people to feed, we took to making our own hamburger buns at home. But we want to celebrate with people again! Bring back social gatherings with the Social Toddy by Fremont Mischief Distillery. 

Get the Recipe >>

Egg Salad Sandwich & Peach Whiskey Sour

No egg salad sandwich recipes here. Just perfectly light and frothy whiskey sours.

All year long people searched for egg salad sandwich recipes. We’re no experts on egg salad. But, we do know a thing or two about using eggs in cocktails like Waterpocket Distillery’s Peach Whiskey Sour. They don’t add much flavor, but when properly prepared eggs whites add a layer of rich, silky foam to your cocktail. Pick up a bottle of Robbers Roost Utah Peach Whiskey, and put down the egg salad sandwich.

Get the Recipe >>

Healthy Banana Bread & This Sh$t Is Bananas

A decadent chocolate banana cocktail, the perfect pair for your healthy banana bread.

This year has been absolutely bananas. From being cooped up in our houses, to all the time we spent searching banana bread recipes. Well, technically, most people searched for ‘healthy banana bread,’ but shouldn’t dessert be as decadent as possible? Break out Durham Distillery’s Damn Fine Chocolate Liqueur, because This Sh$t is Bananas.

Get the Recipe >>

Cocktail Pairings For A Year Like No Other

For the better part of the year, we’ve all been sequestered within the same four walls. What could have been mundane and droll ended up being a year filled with growth and experimentation. 

We watched new shows. Cooked some new foods. And shook up some new drinks. We didn’t let quarantine kill our sense of adventure.

For that, we all deserve a round of applause. And a cocktail.

Let’s carry that adventurous spirit with us into 2021.

With the small batch spirits, cocktail syrups and mixers, barware, and glassware, Spirit Hub has everything you need to lead the charge to a tastier future. 

Here’s to a year of uncommon flavor and delicious new trends. Find cocktail recipes that perfectly suited your 2020 here and share them with us on social!