Time Out, the leading global media and entertainment brand, is teaming up with William Grant & Sons UK and its premium spirits brands for the return of Hotboozapalooza, its hot cocktail festival.

Curated by Time Out London’s drinks editor, this anti-mulled wine event is back for a second year on Wednesday 12th December and sees wildly original and delicious cocktail creations served steaming and accompanied by immersive entertainment. Hotboozapalooza will take place at Night Tales, Hackney’s late-night party destination, to get Londoners into the festive spirit.

To showcase the best drinks in London, Time Out has partnered with four William Grant & Sons UK premium spirit brands: Hendrick’s, Monkey Shoulder, Glenfiddich and Reyka. Each brand has teamed up with bartenders from some of the capital’s best bars to create each delicious hot cocktail.

Each brand will be brought to life using exciting experiential elements:

• An immersive installation from premium Icelandic vodka Reyka, where party-goers can snap an aurora selfie at a reimagining of the Northern Lights;
• Added indulgence will come from Glenfiddich whisky, which will be serving up a miniature whisky sour or salted caramel doughnut created by chef Adam Handling alongside each cocktail;
• Monkey Shoulder blended malt whisky will encourage revellers to monkey around on a retro arcade gaming machine;
• Finally, Hendrick’s gin will bring a table top curling game, celebrating that Hendrick’s is distilled near to where all the world’s curling stones are sourced from.

Time Out and William Grant & Sons UK are collaborating to develop and deliver this integrated content partnership spanning this Live Event, as well as Time Out print, email and social media channels. The activation is a great example of how Time Out no longer only curates and writes about the best city experiences, but also creates and delivers them within wider campaigns for advertising partners across a number of Time Out channels. This offers brands excellent opportunities to connect with Time Out’s highly engaged, hard to reach audience who want to make the most of a city.

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Sipsmith has introduced the Sipsmith Gin Shop: a festive gin pop-up store which aims to serve as this year’s ultimate Christmas shopping destination for ‘ginthusiasts.’ Debuting on Wednesday 14th November, at 192 Piccadilly, the Sipsmith Gin Shop will be the perfect place for visitors to check off their Christmas gift list.

The shop’s shelves will be brimming over with gin bottles, limited-edition distillations, and a bounty of gin books, cocktail accessories, and other covetable gifts. The Sipsmith Gin Shop will also offer gift-wrapping services to help each bottle look its best. The space will also host a number of evening events, masterclasses, personal shoppers, and in-house bar—all designed to ease any holiday stress and put visitors in a jolly frame of mind.

To mark the festive season, Sipsmith will provide a range of seasonal, limited-edition gins on offer, including past Sipping Society favourites including Gingerbread Gin, Mince Pie Gin, and Chocolate Orange Gin. Beyond the bottles, the Sipsmith Gin Shop will also have numerous accessories on the shelves, from copper barware and cocktail gift sets to glassware and gin books. The shop will also feature Gin Stockings: the first stockings on the market dedicated exclusively to gin, with the option to ‘Build Your Own Stocking’ to add a personal touch.

The Sipsmith Gin Shop will also teach guests how to host the perfect Christmas party with masterclasses on how to stir up a number of cocktails, and talks to help them brush up on their gin knowledge. The Sipsmith Gin Shop can even play host to customers’ seasonal parties.

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J₂O’s favourite limited-edition flavour, Glitterberry, is back, and this year it’s available much earlier than ever before. In stock now, it allows operators to add a festive sparkle to their outlets while maximising seasonal sales opportunities such as Bonfire Night, Halloween and Christmas. The team has been hard at work to create new, limited-edition glassware which for the first time features a snapcode that links to a special J₂O snapchat filter. These are available to all J₂O customers on request, as well as new POS kits, including bar runners, drip mats and strut cards.

Although available for a limited time each year, Glitterberry made a huge impact in the category in 2017, when £9 out of every £10 spent on the flavour was incremental to the category. This emphasises the huge opportunity for operators to offer their customers something different for the festive season.

Britvic will be supporting the launch with a variety of J₂O Glitterberry and orange and passionfruit inspired tools available through www.sensationaldrinks.com. These include a portfolio-led selection of cocktail recipes and serves, to help operators attract customers looking to treat themselves, as well as those moderating their alcohol consumption.

“We know consumers are more social in the run up to Christmas, as well as wanting to drink less alcohol over the festive season. This Christmas we want to help retailers make the most of the sales opportunities this presents, as well as other key occasions like Halloween and Bonfire Night. The early return of J₂O Glitterberry certainly helps to do this, and the Snapchat element to the glassware adds a new level of consumer excitement for this year so we’re encouraging outlets to stock up and register for free POS kits now.”

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