What cocktail reflects Asheville's style? Vote for your favorite spirited drink

ASHEVILLE - Cocktail trends come and go but the tried-and-true styles are here to stay.

As spring and summer cocktail menus roll out, the Citizen Times wants to know what spirited drinks readers look for at local bars and restaurants.

Mitchell Labuda, bar lead at Posana, has worked behind bars at several Asheville establishments and has noticed customer trends. He said customers’ cocktail preferences change depending on demographics like age and class. A fine dining restaurant sees different trends than a dive bar. A tourist may order differently than a resident.

“When people come to Asheville, I think that people are looking for a unique experience, whatever that may be,” Labuda said. “That’s a goal, to provide something unique not only as a business that wants to offer something no one else is offering but provide this really dope experience for somebody.”

Labuda has seen many trends go in and out of style, but he said the classics like the espresso martini, margarita, classic martini and Old Fashioned are "blowing everything out the water."

Traditional cocktails offer familiarity and are accessible, unlike modern cocktails with unknown ingredients. However, imbibers are willing and eager to try new recipes if they understand what’s in the glass.

Labuda said Posana’s cocktail menu is curated to be creative yet approachable with flavor profiles of the less common ingredients detailed in the menus.

For Labuda, his favorite warm weather cocktail is the Chartreuse Swizzle, made with green chartreuse, pineapple and fresh lime juices and falernum with “tons of bitters” and served over crushed ice.

Labuda said a cocktail that best describes Asheville’s spectrum of residents is the Boilermaker, considered a beer cocktail, it’s a pint of beer served with a shot of whiskey.

“Asheville’s such a broad dynamic of people,” he said. “Thirty percent of Asheville’s service industry is Miller High Life and PBR and the flip side of most of the population here is a shot of high-end whiskey.”

Fernet Sour, which consists of fernet, lemon Juice, rich demerara syrup, egg white and bitters, may be more fitting as it strays from traditional norms and the use of local ingredients like Appalachian herbs and botanicals found in Fernet can "make something interestingly unique," Labuda said.

What’s your all-time favorite cocktail? Cast your vote in the Citizen Times’ poll, open from March 20-31. The results will be posted at citizen-times.com the week of April 1. Plus, read more about what trends local bartenders are seeing across the city.

Check out Posana’s new spring cocktail menu at posanarestaurant.com.

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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: What's Asheville's favorite cocktail? Vote and decide