Diageo is tackling the cost of living crisis by cutting the price of cocktails in pubs and serving them on tap.

New Diageo MD Dan Hamilton told The Australian the drinks giant will have fitted more than 200 pubs around Australia by the end of the year with cocktail taps to give consumers the opportunity to imbibe at competitive prices.

“It’s great to see the on-trade coming back after such a disruptive period but it feels like it is coming back strong and we are seeing consumers wanting to being out there, celebrating and socialising in a pretty positive way and I think that is good to see,” he said.

Called Draught Cocktails, the on-tap innovation enables bartenders to pour, garnish and serve up to six cocktails per minute.

“Draught Cocktails is unlike anything we’ve seen in this space before,” said Hayden Abercrombie, Marketing & Innovation Director at Diageo.

“After years of research and development, we have perfected the consistency and quality of a hand-shaken cocktail, on
tap. This means venues can now guarantee consistently high-quality cocktails to their customers at pace, without compromising on that hand-shaken quality.”

Diageo describes Draught Cocktails as a “game changing solution for venues”, while allowing them to capitalise on the growing demand.

“By taking the complexity out of cocktail-making, we are helping bartenders pour, garnish and serve one cocktail every 10 seconds – that’s six times faster than traditional cocktails, which take on average one minute to make,” Abercrombie said.

The cocktails include favourites such as Gordon’s Pink Martini, Smirnoff Passionfruit Martini, Captain Morgan Strawberry Daquiri and Smirnoff with Mr Black Espresso.

Abercrombie said: “Research shows that over half of 18-34 year old consumers drink cocktails on premise, with 55% of them drinking on every or almost every visit. The two biggest barriers they encounter when buying cocktails is affordability and quality. Our Cocktails on Tap directly addresses this issue, providing consumers with improved accessibility without
compromising quality.”