Pallavi Pasricha
September 29, 2025
East or West, the sun’s just rising on the popularity of whisky cocktails, says award-winning mixologist Monica Berg, while in India for the Johnny Walker Black Label ‘One Step Further’ programme. Drink responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.
In Scandinavia, whisky is a very serious thing. There are a lot of whisky clubs and snobbery attached to the spirit and people know exactly what they are drinking.
In the UK, they drink whisky in cocktails, but don’t necessarily prefer it neat.
In London, for instance, 98 percent of the whisky that I sell is in a cocktail. The other 2 percent is to Americans on holiday!
The guests I have from India know their whisky well. They’re still very open to trying it in a cocktail — but it needs to be delicious!
Globally, I think both brands and drinkers are going to see a lot more of whisky cocktails in the next five years, and that includes ready-to-drink ranges. I think this is where the future lies.
For so many years, we were told that whisky “should be drunk like this”, so there’s always going to be a transformational period where you start to change the conversation before people catch on. Read Monica’s full interview with The Bar India here - https://in.thebar.com/articles/cocktails-whisky-with-monica-berg