Every Cocktail Wants to Taste Like the "Forest Floor" Now

"When the modern amaro boom exploded early in the 2010s, "herbaceous" seemed like a novel flavor profile for a cocktail. In 2026, drinking something that tastes like pine and juniper feels borderline mundane; this year's "flavor of the year" is even, apparently, pine. With so many amari and other spirits now channeling local roots, flowers and herbs, chances are the cocktails you're ordering lately taste like licking a forest floor."

"The thing with this flavor trend is that it, like an ecosystem, requires layers; it's woody, earthy, green, floral, herbaceous and spicy all at once. But if you're not going to distill or infuse your own spirits, consider an ingredient that can reliably capture all of that in an instant. With notes of myrrh, resin, cedar, chamomile and peppermint, the Akhenaten Amaro from Brooklyn's Atheras Spirits is "forest floor" in a bottle."

""It has this lovely honey note but a decent amount of bitterness," says Bruce Schultz, head bartender at Amor y Amargo, "with a lot of gentian as well as this woodsy-ness.""

Herbaceous cocktails featuring forest-floor flavor profiles have transitioned from novelty to standard in modern mixology. Early 2010s amaro trends introduced pine and juniper as innovative tastes, but by 2026 these flavors have become commonplace. Bartenders across the country craft cocktails combining whiskey, alpine amaro, porcini mushrooms, cardamom-infused rye, and peated fernet to create layered, complex drinks evoking autumn forests and woodland experiences. Successful forest-floor cocktails require multiple flavor dimensions: woody, earthy, green, floral, herbaceous, and spicy elements working simultaneously. Spirits like Akhenaten Amaro from Brooklyn's Atheras Spirits capture this entire profile through notes of myrrh, resin, cedar, chamomile, and peppermint, offering bartenders a shortcut to achieving the desired ecosystem of flavors without requiring extensive distillation or infusion work.

Read at PUNCH