Tales of the Cocktail Foundation Presents World Class (Sponsored by DIAGEO) recently crowned Alexis Ortega of Philadelphia, PA the 2026 World Class U.S. Bartender of the Year, following a multi-day national competition in Chicago. With more than 20 years of hospitality experience, the Philadelphia mixologist is known for an approach that balances elevated craft with accessibility, creating experiences that feel as welcoming as they are inventive.
Kristiane Weeks-Rogers of CRAFT SPIRITS magazine (CSM) spoke with Ortega about flavor trends, authenticity in craft spirits, bartender-friendly qualities, storytelling, and creative techniques behind the bar.
CSM: What cocktails, what flavor trends are gaining real traction right now?
Ortega: The idea of flavors and trends can be really cool to not get caught up in a fad, but to be in genuine flavor. Asian flavors right now in the U.S., especially Japanese, are everywhere. You see things people maybe don’t really know and they may have heard of; but to introduce those kinds of flavors can be really beautiful. I think weird can be fun, but I think weird has a place.
Having relatability in a spirit and a flavor profile can make it easier and more approachable to get to guests because at the same time, when we do unusual things, we’re educating the guests. But not all the time, not every guest wants to be educated. So you can be weird, but we have to be weird and relatable at the same time. It can be familiar and new simultaneously.
CSM: How do you think craft distillers could be thinking about flavor trends?
Ortega: In the end no matter what you do, if you’re not a nonprofit organization, you have to make money. The business has to succeed. We can put all of our money into the craft projects, and maybe we really wanted to see this flavor come through and bring the “likes”. But if your consumers aren’t willing to consume the product literally, then the unexpected flavors don’t always apply. Creating things that are real is the most important.
That is the biggest thing that people are looking for now, not fake flavors or overusing natural flavors, or overusing artificial versions of them. If you can convey the real flavor, or if you can convey something close to your heart, or with a story you can tell behind that; I think that is more relatable, and a better connection than just having an obscure flavor in general.
What really separates each and every product is the human connection, the individual that goes along with that. I can make the coolest product in the world. But if the connection is not there, or I just don’t have a way to relate to the consumer, then it’s not going to sell.
CSM: On the opposite side of production, our distillers often wonder how their spirits can show up in real service environments. What qualities make a spirit truly bartender friendly?
Ortega: Things that are able to carry across the palate. A lot of people will look at vodka as just being vodka. But if vodka is done correctly, it can take the flavors that you combine with it and carry across your palate, giving it length and depth.
When I pair flavors my first reference is generally colors because visually is the first way you approach everything. So if it’s a flavor profile, say raspberries, that’s red. How do you go from red? Do you want to create the colors together? Or do you want to contrast colors? That’s always a fun way. How do I connect it to other flavors, if the flavor can be so obscure? Or something like mushroom and savory can be a challenge to convey and get the message across, but you can still do it. I try to just make it approachable in some way.
CSM: What do you find currently is the most approachable for a consumer?
Ortega: I think the most approachable is probably agave spirits. With agave spirits, there is no single identity, because they can be so varied in profile, texture, regionality, flavor. You might have an assumption of what it may be, but it’s going to be totally different. The ability to be different can be really cool and approachable, because then it allows us to connect flavors all over. I can go savory, I can go sweet, I can go warm, spice, I can go fruity.
But then it also evokes a feeling. Think about when you drink a margarita. That invokes a feeling. And to me, feeling can be more important than the flavor. You can hit someone in the chest and make them feel something with the flavor, you can put them in a place. When you drink a frozen drink, you don’t drink a frozen drink in the winter. When you drink a frozen drink, you think of being somewhere warm, you’re with friends, maybe by the beach, by water. Those kinds of things can be really impressive to me. I like that sense of feeling.
That feeling can convey so much. Think about the best thing you’ve ever had in your life, right? It’s not always about the best food you’ve ever had. The food was really amazing, but the company, the environment, the hospitality, the way they made you feel elevates the experience to a whole other place.
CSM: You mentioned this a little bit at the beginning of the conversation: storytelling. What kind of brand stories or production details do you find resonate the most? How can brands better equip bartenders to share those narratives like you were talking about before?
Ortega: Education. Connect with the bartenders, because we are storytellers. If we don’t know the story, it can be difficult to tell the story. Making information readily available to the bartender, to the consumer, helps us in giving and conveying that message.
But it’s easy to get caught up in those things, or get caught up in the idea of a story. What is it that actually made you special? That’s what the story is. It’s your roots. It’s your foundation. It’s how you got to where you are today.
The best story you can tell is your own because that’s what makes you special. That’s unique, because no one else on the entire planet can tell your story. Never lose sight of that vision.
We continue to grow. We challenge ourselves, try new things. That’s fine. But don’t lose sight of what made you who you are. That’s why people continue to support.
Photo credit: Shannon Sturgis
CSM: The world class must be a great space for many things; to workshop, to work hard, to challenge yourself while highlighting innovation and technique and presentation. Which innovations or approaches do you find the most successful? What do you think has the most potential?
Ortega: If it has application, and you do it with intention, that’s what matters. Don’t just do it because you think it’s cool. I’ve been doing cryo concentration. I’ll work on getting the vacuum blender next. Because that’s definitely the next trick. That’s really fun for me.
The fact that you can take water and fat and keep it together in a stable scenario, that is wild and pretty incredible. That’s been a challenge throughout history: that we’ve never been able to mix oil and water. This is a thing that a very small number of people are aware of that’s happening right now. That’s got really great potential.
CSM: How often do you turn to what’s going on in restaurant flavors to influence what you’re looking to next?
Ortega: Regularly. You need to be working with your culinary team, having conversations with culinary people, or even the pastry people. When it comes down to the development of cocktails, we’re more relatable to the approach of pastry programs than to chefs. When you’re cooking you can freestyle, but oftentimes, when we’re doing development, we’re more precise and accurate, more like a pastry application.
CSM: McDonald’s just hopped on the cold foam, the boba, and the freeze-dried fruit train. How often do you try to avoid those trends?
Ortega: Honestly, it’s subjective, that question, depending on the individual. But if it’s something that I enjoy, or I can see everybody’s really into it right now, then I can play with it. At World Class, at the competition, I served a drink representing Southeast Asia, one of the immigrant communities down here. We have an area of Philadelphia called Little Saigon. It’s one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the US.
So I did a boba drink, I did a milk tea. I planned four different teas to represent the four different regions of Scotland. And to combine with Johnnie Walker, I used a whey syrup, a little bit of yuzu and then topped it with boba. Because I think boba is a fun thing.
CSM: I know that one of your winning cocktails included Mr Black. How do you workshop a cocktail like that?
Ortega: For this one the idea was a modern classic. I think a modern classic is familiar, but new simultaneously. You can relate to it, you understand it, but you maybe never had it in that application.
So my question was: Well, if coffee can wake up the morning, why can’t it wake up the night? Oftentimes when we drink coffee cocktails, they’re indulgent or stirred. Maybe it’s shaken, it’s sweeter, it’s after dinner, it’s finishing the night. How do I bring it forward?
I went with citrus and I chose grapefruit. I thought of the tonic, the idea of how I could use tonic and bitterness to give it length. Using the grapefruit syrup paired with a little bit of tequila to give you body, a little bit of Don Julio Reposado. Then I made a grapefruit soda that had peels to it, to give it tannin. I wanted to have a little bitterness instead of a sweet soda.
I didn’t want to make something that was so obscure and I could only make it. I wanted to have a drink for everyone. That was the basis of this drink: something to get your night started, something crushable; you can have another one.
I paired it with popcorn, because little do people know, it’s one of the biggest pairings in Ethiopia with coffee (which is the birthplace of coffee). When I found out about Ethiopia and that it’s a common thing, that couldn’t be more relatable. Everyone understands eating popcorn. And in the US, we have corn everywhere.
When you drink it, it’s actually clean, it’s refreshing. It’s familiar and new at the same time.
But simultaneously with that recipe, maybe you don’t have the resources to recreate it, but there’s also things that you can purchase and just do it that way. The idea behind these, and craft, is: how do we elevate the entire bar industry? How do we make our local bars have a little bit better product, but simple recipes so that they can do it, too?
CSM: I think you’re tapping into my final question a bit here on the subject of guest expectations. What shifts in guest expectations have had the biggest impact on how bartenders choose and use spirits behind the bar?
Ortega: What a brand might stand for has a big impact. I think in the bartending community, we can really stand on opinions. We come from marginalized communities, we have passion behind what we represent, who represents us, and how it’s represented.
To authenticity, being honest with the consumer goes a really long way in the way we choose brands we want to work with. That other people want to work with. It’s something that represents themselves or represents a topic in a way that we want to support.
Photo credit: Shannon Sturgis
