Summer’s Unlikeliest Cocktail Ingredient?

It may seem odd for Guinness—a deep, dark, robust stout—to play a key role in the latest crop of refreshing summer drinks. But bartenders say its creamy texture and bitter-chocolate flavor add just the right counterpoint to a wide range of cocktails, and it’s showing up in surprising ways.

For Taylor Yale, a bartender at Hartley’s in Brooklyn, New York, the inspiration for the Guinn & Tonic was an espresso tonic spotted in a coffee shop. “I said, That kind of looks like Guinness.”

At the fairly traditional Irish pub—not a cocktail bar—Yale originally received some pushback about offering a Guinness-based cocktail. “That’s sacrilegious,” she recalls the manager protesting. In response, she offered the drink on a “secret menu,” hand-selling the drink customer by customer, often likening the mix of Amaro Montenegro, cava, Guinness and tonic water to a root beer float.

“The orange and chocolate notes of Montenegro go with Guinness, which is chocolatey and malty,” Yale explains. The equal-parts Champagne-and-Guinness classic Black Velvet was another reference point; after rejecting prosecco, which read as too sweet, Yale found that a long pull of the stout mixed with about an ounce of drier cava yielded a pleasingly creamy top. A squeeze of fresh orange accents the amaro and adds a pop of color to the otherwise brown and brooding drink.

That was last summer. In May 2025, Guinn & Tonics outsold classic Old-Fashioneds.