Kocktail serve up world-class cocktails at Waitrose Winter Food & Drink Festival

Newcastle based creators of premium RTD cocktails, Kocktail, has rounded off a busy year with their first appearance at Waitrose Winter Food & Drink Festival in London.

With 8,000 attendees across three days, the small independent brand was delighted to be invited to exhibit, following their first listing with the UK’s leading department store, John Lewis & Partners.

In a new location for 2022, at London’s Tobacco Dock, the festival included a Christmas Market, Food Court and Kitchen Disco. Kocktail served just under 4,000 samples, with approximately 80% of customers trying one sample.

Co-founder of Kocktail, Emil Stickland, said:

“After quiet few years for in-person events due to restrictions, it’s been brilliant to finally be able to bring the Kocktail experience to life in 2022. When we launched in the Summer of 2020, these kinds of events were totally off the cards, so being able to do them now makes it even more exciting.
It was a total honour to be asked to attend the Waitrose Winter Food & Drink Festival, as leading experts in delicious food & drink. We were very proud to be within the mix of so many leading brands – from Mirabeau, Mermaid Gin to Moët Hennessy. To then find out our bottled cocktails are now available in the Waitrose Farm Shop was the icing on the cake – make that garnish on the cocktail!”

Providing a host of inspiration for the festive season, the timetable of free talks and demos included a private masterclass with Kocktail’s chief cocktail curator, Neil Donachie. Attendees got to shake and stir drinks, learning secrets of world-class cocktail making from Donachie, who was previously senior bartender at The Savoy when it was named best hotel bar in the world.

Drinks sampled at the festival included Kocktail’s multi-award-winning Espresso Martini, Gingerbread Espresso Martini, Chocolate Negroni and Cherry Cola Old Fashioned.

Following the Waitrose Winter Food & Drink Festival, the Kocktail team has been busy sampling at a number of in store events and Christmas markets across the UK; from Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, John Lewis Oxford Street to Made.Up North Winter Market.

The Newcastle based brand is looking ahead to 2023 and will soon be announcing their next round of crowdfunding, as they enter their third trading year.

For more information, visit www.kocktail.co.uk.