Green Tea Shots are the most popular cocktail during St. Patrick’s Day? Data says YES!

Green Tea Shots Top St. Patrick’s Day Cocktail Orders, According to Union OnPrem Insights

St. Patrick’s Day is one of the U.S.’ highest grossing holidays of the year for bars and restaurants and according to OnPrem Insights data from Union—a data-driven hospitality engagement platform—the top “cocktail” ordered is the green tea shot (24%). The popular millennial cocktail is followed by margaritas and Irish car bombs come in third place.

Based on Union’s OnPrem Insights, St. Patrick’s Day is a force in driving on-premise sales, as bar sales more than double in 2022 across the board. It is no surprise that Irish pubs are the top performers on St. Patrick’s Day, as last year’s data showed a 350 percent increase in sales. Traditional bar sales were still up on the holiday last year with a 135 percent increase and restaurants saw sales double.

“We were taken aback by the fact that green tea shots are once again trending and Irish car bombs are in third place for St. Patrick’s Day cocktail orders,” noted Layne Cox, Union’s chief marketing officer. “It was also interesting to see how much restaurants benefit from St. Patrick’s Day. We always knew that bars were crushing it, but we were surprised to see that restaurants’ on-premise alcohol consumption sees a significant uptick as well. With St. Patrick’s Day falling on a Friday this year the festivities will likely last later into the night and bleed into the weekend, so busy bars and restaurants should take all of this into account to be prepared for the rush with a well-stocked bar.”

Looking at Union’s OnPrem Insights report on a regional level, Guinness’ share jumped from seven percent to 24 percent in New York City on St. Patrick’s Day. That was a big jump of more than 16 percent, about three times more than normal.

“The big takeaway here is that New Yorkers like Guinness as a regular drink, but drink it even more so on St. Patrick’s Day, whereas in other cities’ drinkers consider Guinness a special occasion beverage,” noted Layne Cox, Union’s chief marketing officer.

Pretty wild data here…but what is in a Green Tea shot anyway? For those who don’t know, see below!

Green Tea Shot