This Is The New Cocktail Trend You Need To Try

What do you think of when you hear the word 'cocktail'? Something light and sugary sweet, or a booze-filled concoction that lasts a moment on the lips but forever in those videos of your cringey dancemoves? (If it's both don't fret xox)

Cocktails have become the must-have beverage to have in your manicured hand on a night out on the town, but the high alcohol content masked by all the delish flavours means that it can get kinda hard to keep note of how much you've drunk.

Let us introduce you to the fab saviour that is low-alcohol cocktails.

Trust us on this, they're gonna kick off.

Fresh, summer-y sippers

Ireland's bar scene is thriving at the moment, and while we'll always be a year or so behind the trends in London or New York , when we do catch up we catch up well.

This summer you're going to be seeing a lot of bar menus in Irish hotspots that feature low-alcohol cocktails that are ideal for fresh, summery evenings when you feel like a tipple but don't want to go too wild.

The low-booze of choice in cosmopolitan bars ranges from sherries, amaros and aperitifs, to our preferred liquid - vermouth.

Vermouth, a fortified wine, has always been an essential ingredient of classic cocktails, but now is really it's time to shine.

Its light sweet flavours lends itself sooooo well to this light-alco trend.

Seriously, once you try one of these expertly blended bad boys you will never have a craving for a strengthy drink again.

Well, apart from after an insanely stressful day at work but sure hey.

One of the names you'll be noticing on Ireland's shores is Belsazar vermouth, a German creation with divine notes of fruity herbs, spices - we've tried this simply added to some tonic water and a lil orange peel and it is dee-lish.

Think Pimms without all that messy floating fruit <3

Compared to other long drinks like a Vodka & Tonic, these chilled out cocktails only have an alcohol content of about 4%.

Oh, and they look SO pretty too - you won't even feel like you're missing out on a fancy drink, see?

The low-alcohol cocktail trend has been kicking around the best bars in the States and UK for the past year or two, and one of the most amazing things about it is that it opens up the opportunity for new places where you can get your drankin' on.

No spirit license in your fave local restaurant? No problemo, you could still swig down one of these.

You can use vermouth as a base in pretty much any cocktail, so whether you're a mad Espresso Martini head or a Negroni obsessive (like myself), you can still enjoy all the flavour without the banging head the next day.

Lads when you think about it this basically means hangover-free cocktails.

Basically, like. Once you don't drink 15 of 'em anyway.

Although when they look this good that might be difficult to resist...

Keep an eye out in cocktail bars around the country for this, once the weather really starts to turn for the better we can guarantee this is a trend you'll start noticing - and start loving.

All the fun and flavour without the consequences? Yep, this is one drink that's gonna fly.

What do you think? Are you keen to try a low-alcohol cocktail?