Autumn’s so close we can almost taste the spiked cider and mulled wine, but some hotels are raising the bar this year when it comes to seasonal drinks. From small-batch beers to ultra-luxe anniversary cocktails, here’s where to order the most unique — and fleeting — tipples of the season. Drink up before you blink and miss them.
Raffles
In honor of Raffles Hotel Singapore’s 125th anniversary, its legendary Long Bar — birthplace of the Singapore sling — is mixing up a new twist on the old drink: the 1887. An exclusive, limited-edition Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve Champagne provides the base for the 1887, so this sling has a doubly impressive pedigree. Order the 1887 now at Raffles hotels worldwide, including the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Raffles Beijing Hotel and, of course, the original Singapore outpost.
The Beverly Hills Hotel
If The Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel could talk, it could spread 60 years’ worth of juicy Hollywood gossip. Fitting, then, that its bartenders have created a celebrity-inspired “These Walls Are Talking” cocktail menu for the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star hotel’s diamond anniversary. No diamonds on the menu, though there is a “Norma Jean” Dom Pérignon, so you might find yourself humming a little “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” anyway.
The Brown Palace Hotel
Even at 120 years old, The Brown Palace Hotel is still learning new tricks: The Denver landmark has joined forces with Wynkoop Brewing Company to create the 1892 Artesian Lager, a limited anniversary brew made with water from the hotel’s underground well. Get it at Wynkoop or The Brown Palace’s Ship Tavern, and return later this fall to taste their other collaborative beer, Rooftop Honey Saison; it’s brewed with honey from the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel’s rooftop beehive.
Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta
Park 75 Lounge at the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta will serve its new Pink Drink throughout October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, to raise funds for a local treatment center. Far from a fruity, frilly affair, the Pink Drink is an autumn-appropriate blend of mezcal, Aperol and Campari with Orange Cream Citrate and housemade wormwood bitters.
XV Beacon
If it’s a straight-up fall drink you’re after, you’d be hard-pressed to find one better than the Vermont Maple from Mooo at the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel XV Beacon. The only-in-New-England concoction combines Laird’s AppleJack, Vermont maple syrup, apple cider and lemon juice. If it’s simply straight-up you’re after, dip into Mooo’s impressive collection of rare liquors — they’re always in season.
Photo courtesy of Raffles Hotels & Resorts
