drinksint January 2022 DRINKS INTERNATIONAL 03 F  WASN’T THE YEAR we hoped for, it was an improvement on 2020 for most markets. With the rollout of the vaccine globally, we saw the lockdown of bars as a last, rather than rst, resort, and other restrictions – curfews, alcohol i restrictions and distancing – became less and less 04 07 09 1O 13 16 18 HOW WE DID IT BARTENDERS’ CHOICE RUM dening interventions as the year grew old. Not uninterrupted trading by any means, but bars were trading in most markets in 2021, most of the time. The question this report seeks to answer, is how bars’ – and by corollary consumers’ – buying decisions evolved over the last year, and to what extent the pandemic impacted buying behaviour? Over the year, we have seen di-erent theories pro-ered. Would the public re-enter bars looking to be comforted by the big brands they know and love, or did an experimental mood emerge from the lonely nights in lockdown, with more nimble, less conventional brands clawing share? Well, if our report is anything to go by, there has been no revolution; the brands that pass through these pages are, by and large, the same as before the pandemic. There’s