Have you ever wondered what the most popular drink at your local bar is? Or if Californians have different tastes than New Yorkers? Wonder no more!
Thanks to a recently released Nielsen research report, we now have insights into what the most popular drinks in America are, and the results tell an interesting story. First of all, it seems Americans really like drinking cocktails that start with the letter “M”. If you look at the top five drinks in the US, four of them start with M. The top five include:
- Margarita
- Martini
- Old Fashioned
- Mimosa
- Moscow Mule
But of course, the generalization of the top five doesn’t always apply. In fact, popular drink choices change based on location and time of day. For instance, margaritas are the top drink of choice during the 6pm to 12am time slot but after 12am Martinis are more popular, followed by long island ice teas. In fact, the top five drinks of choice after 12am are quite alcohol heavy, which should come as no surprise.
When you break it down by major markets, you’d think there would be some wildly different drink preferences, but surprisingly no. Looking at Boston, Chicago, LA, Miami, New York and Tampa all but Chicago prefer margaritas as their go to drink. Chicago, a city after my own heart, prefers the old fashioned. In fact, margaritas don’t even get a mention in the top five for Chicago.
The other area Neilsen looked at was price point. Perhaps unsurprisingly, New York and Chicago boast the two highest cocktail prices at $11 and $11.95, respectively, while Tampa sits squarely in the middle in terms of pricing across all markets. On average, Americans are willing to spend about $9 for a cocktail.
It seems that the US truly is a Margaritaville.
Ale/Sessions 