Cocktails (Photo: Flickr/Ambernambrose)

To get a little insight into the latest cocktail trends in bars around town, check out a recent post on the Boston Dandy in which this libation-loving blogger gives his two cents on what’s new at bars around town.

The basis for this graduate school bon vivant’s rumination was a recent Food and Wine column by writer Jim Meehan, describing drink trends nationwide. Meehan sees four recent categories of mixological innovation: chef’s cocktails, drinks that incorporate salt, nonalcoholic cocktails and tea-based drinks.

The Boston Dandy sees evidence of all of these trends in local bars (and provides some tantalizing examples of drinks by the bartenders such as Bob McCoy of Island Creek Oyster Bar and Max Toste of Deep Ellum). He then goes one better and adds smoke-based libations to the list, citing the Smoking Cinnamon a drink by Todd Maul of Clio, which uses smoked ice. He also describes his own experiment with pipe smoke and Old Fashioneds, which is very posh indeed.