If you've never visited Punch.com, it's a great booze-centric website with great info, stories and cocktail recipes. The site's crew did a running commentary of which drink trends should disappear next year, and we thought it so good that we decided to do our own–but not without crediting them for the idea. So, here are eight bourbon trends the BourbonBanter.com crew (Patrick "Pops" Garrett, Steve Coomes, Erin Petrey and Brent Joseph) want gone or left in place in 2025.

Cask Finished Bourbons

Steve: Go, mostly. There are just so many bad ones and bland ones. Some are just "Why, oh, why?" bad. Count Amburana barrel finishing among the latter. I’ll throw double oaks into the mix, too. Despite their popularity—which ensures they’ll never go away—even the decent ones are too much about the wood. I like more nuanced whiskies, things born of well-chosen (especially non-soured wine) secondary casks, patience and real skill by distillers and blenders aging them. 

Erin: Bye Felicia! I am the resident finished-whiskey-hater. I’ve liked a handful of finished whiskies (even Amburana, Steve! but it’s few and far between. It’s a great way to create more SKUs by not doing very much and can many times mask mediocre juice. Good riddance. 

Brent: I try to keep an open mind when trying new bourbons, but these need GO! Like far far away. To a place that I will never visit. I’ve tried countless finished bourbons over the years and can probably count on one that I’ve actually liked. Of the ones that I did enjoy, I have never spent my own money on any of them. 

Pops: FINISH THEM! Once a great way to innovate, it’s become a crutch to differentiate sourced whiskey, cover up flawed whiskey or expand SKUs to make some fast money before whiskey drinkers sober up and realize they’ve been bamboozled. It’s time for the trend to fade away until discipline and restraint return to the finishing process.

Hazmat Bourbon Proofs

Steve: Go. Why harm your throat and gut with 75% ABV whiskey? Whatever flavor is there to enjoy comes at a steep price. Let the chest-pounding dunderpates have those. 

Erin: Dump it to Crumpit. Hazmat hides a lot of the more subtle flavors I enjoy so much about whiskey and instead favors the less subtle tones of lighter fluid and acetone. I am a sucker for barrel proof, but I’m not searching for the most booze possible, which seems a bit amateurish a tendency. It’s like when I was in college and you’d do the dollar-to-proof ratio for liquor to get the drunkest for the cheapest. If that’s your game, buy a bottle of Everclear to boof and call it a day. 

Brent: I usually prefer my bourbon higher-proofed,, but how many are actually Hazmat (over 140 proof)? If it happens to be that big, cool. If not, oh well. If it’s too hot for you, add some water. I have over 100 opened bottles at my house and I don’t think there is one “Hazmat” bottle. There are a few that are close. Why again are we getting grumpy about this? There aren’t enough out there to make this a thing. Go back to yelling at the neighborhood kids on your lawn.

Pops: Keep ‘em coming! Is this a thing? Are distilleries specifically working to release hazmat bottles, or is it just what happens when they review their available stock? I’m a high-proof whiskey lover with the scar tissue to prove it, but I don’t seek out “hazmat” levels on purpose. It’s just another high-proof to me and I’m happy to see plenty of high-proof bottles continue to be on the shelves. High-proof gives you options to water down to fit your mood and palate. Don’t believe me? Try making Basil Hayden’s stronger.

Celebrity Bourbon Releases

Steve: Go. They take up valuable shelf space for better brands. Sure, they get buyers’ attention, but does anyone buy a second bottle after figuring out that Hollywood/Nashville hero bottles aren’t that great? 

Erin: Mixed. It feels like every celebrity out there wants a booze brand and very few are even decent. The world doesn’t need more 80 to 90 proof 4-year MGP in a different package. I do think certain celebs can bring some consumers to the whiskey space, like Beyoncé and Sir Davis, as an entry point. So there’s a lot of trash and a little treasure. Like digging through your dog’s poo after it’s eaten a piece of jewelry. Like, is it even worth it at that point? 

Brent: These need to go like a cat after a coffee enema. I challenge you to find me a good one that you would choose over any standard labels from major distilleries at comparable or even much cheaper prices. I’ll wait.

Pops: Go! Great whiskey has been around forever without celebrities lending a helping hand. They add cost to the equation without improving the product. 

Light Whiskey

Steve: Go. The name alone sounds too much like, “like whiskey,” as in, “this is like whiskey, but it’s not really whiskey.” Of the handful I’ve tried, all are predictably low on flavor and body. When there’s an abundance of rich, full-bodied and complex American whiskey available everywhere, why dial it all back with flavor-stripping higher proofs and cooperage that lends little to the whole?

Erin: Go. This bores me. If I want whiskey aged in used cooperage, I’ll drink Scotch, which I don’t do often (and prefer the peatier stuff). And aging in uncharred barrels seems like a great waste of perfectly good wood to me. I can see it now: kits advertising making your own light whiskey, sold right next to the lumber at Home Depot. 

Brent: Go. Who even drinks this stuff? I’d rather have a light beer than a “light whiskey.”

Pops: Stay–but with a new purpose. These need to evaporate from the market as a standalone product. I’d like to see people use it as a blending component along with other whiskeys to push blending innovation.

Smoked Old, Fashioneds

Steve: Go. I actually like smoked old fashioneds, but only when I want one. Secondhand smoke from smoked old fashioneds becomes a bummer when you're eating. But that’s the price you pay when drinking in public, and I’m fond of that. I'll call it a hazard of the job.

Erin: Go. I’m. So. Bored. Y’all. It’s a lovely showpiece–especially when a cloche is involved–but it’s a bit of a has-been practice now. Let’s move on and let those cocktail smokers go to the big back kitchen gadget graveyard in the back aisle at Goodwill where they belong. 

Brent: Go. I don’t even want ice in my bourbon let alone fruit. Now you want to smoke it? Listen, I smoke meat for a living, and if you need your bourbon to be smoked, you need to re-evaluate some things in your life.

Pops: Go. Novelty has a short shelf life, and it’s time to move on. If your favorite bar’s signature drink is a smoked old-fashioned, it’s time to find a new bar.

Better Sound Systems in Boutique Bars

Steve: Stay. I went to a bar in Austin, Texas, that had an incredible sound system that put music everywhere without making it loud. I talked to my friends without screaming while enjoying the playlist. Seeing all the vintage stereo gear curated to make that work was also cool. 

Erin: Stay. As I get older, I just want to hear myself think and talk with folks. Louder does not equal better. At least Muzak is mostly dead. I’d pay extra for the quiet room. Like the quiet car on Amtrak where everyone becomes collectively mutinous if you so much as speak a peep. 

Brent: Stay. Who in the hell would complain about better sound? Probably the same people that drink light whiskeys and buy celebrity brands.

Pops: Yes please, stay. I’ve never liked having to yell over music to have a conversation. The better the sound system,, the easier it is to converse while enjoying music. Who doesn’t want that?

Cocktail Bar Reservation Lists

Steve: Stay. Though these aren’t new in big mixology markets. Covid made them popular elsewhere as we managed pandemic priorities like enjoying social drinking while social distancing. I’m 60, so I’m beyond the days of crowded, loud bars and people watching. That was fun for a time, but all I have to show for that is tinnitus. Reservations keep the experience elevated … which, unfortunately and logically, ensures prices are elevated.

Erin: Stay. I love a plan. I love an assigned seat. I love an uncrowded, intimate bar experience. It makes sure everyone who is there truly wants to be there and will enjoy it as much as you will. Plus, I love walking past a gaggle of folks lined up outside a place and be like, “Oh you don’t have a reservation? Good luck!” as I sidle in smugly. 

Brent: Stay, I guess. I have used this exactly once in my entire life. I drink bourbon neat. I don’t have a tremendous need for a reservation where some weird hipster in a denim bar apron tries to act like doing his job by making a drink is something special that needs an admission ticket.

Pops: Stay. I’m all for anything that reduces wait times and creates a more personal experience.

Allocated Bottle Opening to Deter Flipping 

Steve: Go! I know the idea is only being pitched in Ohio, but it’s crazy and should be quashed now. I’ll open my pricey bottle when I feel like it, not when retailers demand I do it in person so they can feel better about it not being resold. 

Erin: Go, go, GO! I am so tired of seeing car crotch shots, knowing they are destined for the secondary. Bourbon has become so much less fun with it being impossible to get allocated bottles. Also, I have a job: I don’t have the time to wait outside a liquor store for hours hoping to get a bottle when I know most of the other folks in line will sell to the highest bidder. Make bourbon fun again. And make bourbon about drinking it again! No one needs a bigger, better jerk off shelf. Get an Only Fans or Porn Hub account like everybody else and leave the bourbon to the people who are going to drink it. 

Brent: I don’t mind this practice if the retailer sells the bottles at the actual MSRP. I hate the secondary market and what it has done to bourbon. It’s not nearly as fun as it was 10 years ago. I refuse to wait in line, and I’m not paying over MSRP for bourbon. Too much quality bourbon is on the shelves to pay 20 percent to 100 percent over MSRP. The issue is if you intend to give that allocated bottle as a gift. It’s a lousy look to give someone a bottle that has been opened.

Pops: Go! This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard to deter flipping. If I pay for something new, it should be in new condition (unopened) when I leave the store. To avoid people flipping, create better pricing controls or make more bottles available. I’m tired of distilleries whining about it when they do nothing to improve allocation via the distribution tier.

intend