Get ready Leeds, Cocktails in the City is back!
- Katharine Gemmell
- 13 February 2019

Sip and smell your way through a sensory cocktail experience, featuring some of Leeds' best bars in collaboration with the UK's best drinks
Cocktails in the City is coming back to Leeds this year for a two-day cocktail extravaganza, featuring collaborations between popular drink brands and the city's best bars.
From Fri 1 – Sat 2 March, the annual event will take over Leeds Town Hall and aims to bring guests on a sensory tour through 16 of the city's bars – without anyone having to leave the building. It features pop-up cocktail bars from the likes of Angelica, Below Stairs, Harvey Nichols, Vice and Virtue and The Watermark, as well as food and DJs to complete the night.
The event is unique in that it is the only cocktail festival in the UK that combines a city's best bars with interesting brands to create collaborative and creative cocktails. Each bar competes by creating three signature cocktails and putting on tasting tables, with one bar being crowned the overall winner of the night. This year, organisers are putting the skills of the hard-working bartender in the spotlight through mini bar battles and new sensory drink experiences.
One new experience for 2019 is the Cocktail Storybook, wherein participants go on an adventure with Below Stairs and every decision made impacts the final flavour of the drink. There is also another kind of journey with The Tasting Rooms, where guests are invited to make their way through three flavour chambers of craft spirits. Other experiences are drinks and food pairings with Vice & Virtue and a culinary collaboration from Leeds' chefs Luke Downing (Dough, Vice and Virtue) and Matt Healy (x The Foundary).