Get into the mix for World Cocktail Week
— -- Today's cocktails have an abundance of fresh ingredients. With the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans celebrating World Cocktail Week from May 6-13, Kelly Carter for USA TODAY asked top mixologists to share what's popular in their area.
New York
Expert:Dale DeGroff, master mixologist
Hot cocktail:Spicy Abbey with gin, orange bitters, orange juice, lemon juice, dash of Lillet, Stonewall Kitchen's hot pepper jelly, agave nectar and Szechuan dried chilies
Why now:"It pairs well with pan-Pacific or Latin foods. Lately I've been doing lots of food-friendly cocktails. People want to sit at the bar and munch, whether it be tapas, Indian or pan-Pacific. People don't like to sit down and have multi-course meals. They can't afford it anyway."
Popular ingredients:"I'm mixing different types of syrups — honey syrups, agave syrups and simple syrups. I do a triple syrup with agave, honey and simple syrup that is more textured and has lots of layers."
Seattle
Expert:Kathy Casey, international consultant and bar chef
Hot cocktail:Rhubarb Spring Thyme with gin, rhubarb, sugar, fresh strawberries and thyme.
Why now:"It's such a fabulous spring pairing. The flavor is very bright and poppy and it goes so great with berries. I love doing layers of flavors in cocktail. My background is as a chef so I'm always looking for the really round flavors of things. And it plays well with herbs. It does nicely with thyme, cilantro."
Popular ingredients:"Homemade bitters are a huge deal in the Northwest. We have a lot of shops that sell a lot of herbal type stuff, like Chinese medicine. I just made a bitters with Schizandra berries, which are tiny, tiny berries. They have a really weird flavor and are kind of buz
Chicago
Expert:Adam Seger, general manager and bar chef at Nacional 27
Hot cocktail:The Chadwick, a pomegranate-ginger-habanero mojito
Why now:"Obviously mojitos and Latin drinks are very hot right now and also drinks using spices such as ginger and antioxidant ingredients, such as habaneras and pomegranate."