Spirits Ball
New Haven Cocktail Week
Various Locations in New Haven
Through Sept. 19, 2026
“I can’t handle it,” I told the representative from craft whiskey brand Redwood Empire at Sunday’s Cocktail Week kick-off Spirits Ball at Wooster Street's Gioia Cafe and Bar, hoping he couldn’t hear the waver in my voice.
J.R. sensed desire despite my reluctance. “Well, you can change that. This is a gateway whiskey. It’s super mellow.”
Would you know that the girl who hasn’t sipped whiskey in years took that wheat whiskey right down the hatch? The aftertaste was mild, unlike the fire blooming in my chest. But it felt good.
I loved learning that the company, which has been making whiskey in California for 10 years, plants a tree through international charity Trees for the Future every time they sell a bottle of whiskey. All their whiskeys are named after protected redwood trees: Lost Monarch, the bourbon and rye blend, is named after a 320-foot-tall redwood in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. And they put the latitude and longitude of the tree on the bottle.
Okay, enough about trees. Though, I’m a tree person with a favorite tree to prove it.
Redwood gave me just the kick I needed to kick off New Haven Cocktail Week.
This year, New Haven’s annual celebration of the world of cocktails runs through this Saturday. There’s a whole host of events. Sunday’s Spirits Ball started everything off. A ticket got you face to face with the myriad spirits vendors that supply alcohol to restaurants and bars participating in Cocktail Week. There were yummy passed hors d’oeuvres to soak up the alcohol.
New Haven Cocktail Week also features seminars educating the public about spirits. Tickets for workshops like Olives and Oil’s on Amaro Importante, an Italian herbal liqueur having a revival, sold out quickly. Monday, there was the annual New Haven Bartender Competition at Ordinary with eight cocktail slingers going head to head. There will also be a free party on Friday in Temple Plaza behind then Shubert Theatre with cocktails by New Haven Cocktail Week participants, food from Anchor Spa and a DJ.
The 35 restaurants and bars participating in New Haven Cocktail Week span the city and include everyone from 116 Cocktail Bar to Zinc. They all have special menus with about five to six cocktails to mark the occasion.
“A lot of us get along very well and that doesn’t happen in every city. But we have a good community,” said Timothy Cabral of New Haven’s hospitality scene. Cabral, one of the founders of New Haven Cocktail Week, co-owns Gioia Café and Bar and the downtown cocktail bar Ordinary. “We share a lot with each other. We promote each other. I’ve lived all over the country, but I kept coming back.”
I tried Gioia’s Pink Smoke, from their Cocktail Week menu, a drink with mezcal, lime, botanical liqueur and watermelon juice. The mezcal was subdued but I enjoyed the slightly bitter taste.
Later, I noticed a bottle of gin and made my way over to the Suntory Global Spirits table. That was another spirit I hadn’t had in a while. The Roku craft gin was so refreshing that I immediately imagined myself enjoying it in a citrusy cocktail alongside pancakes at brunch.
This was a better experience than the pine needle concoction I once choked on at a high school party. (Sorry parents!) The Suntory representative told me that the London Dry-style gin I drank is juniper heavy and that the bottle has six sides because the alcohol contains six different botanicals, and Japanese culture leans heavily into meaning.
On Sunday, I sampled rum made from a 16th century pirate recipe: Their crème rum was so smooth. I learned about Italian herbal liqueurs and guzzled a cream Spanish liqueur with the rich flavor of a caramel cookie. I had a rose tequila made with 100 percent pure agave that tasted as pretty as it looked.
By the end of the Spirits Ball, I had made my way through whiskey, gin, rum, tequila and enough liqueurs to turn the afternoon into a very spirited education – and I was still standing.
Thank Gioia for those meatballs.
For more on New Haven Cocktail Week, visit their website and on Instagram.
