Summer spirit sales are soaring

Traditionally, purveyors of alcoholic beverages have focused a lot of their attention on the holiday season. But one major spirits company says the tide is turning, and summer is fast becoming an even more popular time of year to imbibe.

Kate Pomeroy of spirits giant Pernod Ricard says there are two sides to the story when it comes to summer’s growth in liquor popularity.

Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App

“There’s the traditional summer drinks - the rums, the tequilas, the vodkas,” she notes, “but then on the other side what we’re seeing is whiskey, which is a burgeoning trend across the whole category. Consumers are extending their... drinking of whiskey into that summer period.”

Some attribute the recent rise in whiskey drinking to Don Draper and the other "Mad Men," but while the hit show may be over, America’s love of brown liquor lives on.

Still, equally important is the continued interest in traditional summer beverages. For Pernod Ricard that means Malibu rum which does 39% of its annual sales in the summer. Likewise, 33% of Absolut vodka sales come in the same time period.

Pomeroy says growth in home-mixed cocktails year-round has also boosted the trend. Some of her favorites (of course using Pernod brands) include Avion watermelon margaritas, alto jalapeno margaritas and a vodka and Coke using Absolut’s oak-aged vodka (see, that brown liquor interest is everywhere!)

Pomeroy says the shift in attitudes isn’t so much about what we’re drinking, but how we’re drinking our favorite cocktails. “In general what we’re doing is premiumizing,” she says. “So we’re upgrading our drinking. We’re drinking fresher ingredients. We’re drinking better cocktail,s and overall we’re just drinking better.”