The Cocktail Lovers Magazine Issue 46 Autumn 2023

INGREDIENTS FOR MORE THAN GREAT DRINKS THE COCKTAIL LOVERS.COM AUTUMN 2023

ISSUE 46

ISSN 2052-059X

The robots are coming!

But will they ever replace bartenders?

PAGE 50

Inspect a gadget

Our pick of the latest kit to up your mixing game at home PAGE 24

Recipe for the future

Putting ChatGPT to the cocktail-creating test PAGE 40

THE

TECH ISSUE

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SERVE

How technology is shaping our new favourite cocktails

WELCOME

hello cocktail lover!

If I’m being totally honest, on a scale of one to 10, my tech knowledge hovers around a paltry two. Three at a push. I know there are acronyms like AI, AR, XR, something called ChatGPT and buzzwords like hyperautomation, digital immune system and distributed cloud floating around out there. But do I know what they really mean, let alone how to apply or explain them?

Er, that will be a big fat ‘no’.

Of course I know, the information is out there, all I have to do is do the research and get my head around it all. Yes, yes, I could. Or, how’s this for cheeky – we could ask people to write about it for a dedicated ‘Tech’ issue instead.

Admittedly, being The Cocktail Lovers, it’s written with drinks and bar-related tech in mind but if you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’ll be equally curious to know what’s what. Which is why we’ve sought out writers to break down the jargon and explain how the latest tech is being utilised in bars (p. 28), look at robots to see whether they can ever replace humans (p. 50), throw light on the kit behind the bars (p. 38) and check out the brands who are pushing boundaries in the making of their drinks (p. 48).

It’s fascinating stuff, and I’ve certainly learned a lot – some of it fun, some downright scary, like our superhero-esque AI profile shots on this page. But don't let those put you off – I hope you pick up some interesting facts, too.

MS S

As someone from a creative background I used to love the intimate connection I felt to whatever I was producing. Smudging charcoal when making a drawing. The energy of scribbling with a ballpoint pen when writing. I felt the introduction of something digital, particularly when writing, would somehow place a barrier between me and my idea.

How wrong I was. When I got the hang of writing on a keyboard I suddenly found I was more imaginative. I could get my thoughts down quickly, then revise and refine them with ease. I loved it.

Looking around the world over the past few years the pace of change in tech, digital and all kinds of mod cons is extraordinary. Particularly in the creative space, technology can be a fantastic facilitator.

And in the drinks world there are tech opportunities aplenty. Challenges too. The lab-like equipment available to bartenders behind the scenes is taking cocktail creation to another level, as we explore in our photo feature (p. 42). While the astonishing world of AI could be another great tool – but in the wrong hands a soulless experience, as we found out with a little experiment (p. 40).

There’s plenty more to discover and explore in our ‘Tech’ issue. And whether you’re experiencing this magazine online or in its rather more tactile print version, I hope you find it enjoyable and enlightening.

MR G

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SLUG HERE

contents 08 Amuse bouche

science behind 42 The the serve

News, views, reviews and interviews, including four new London bars, three cocktails for autumn and onehelluva collaboration from the team at Himkok in Oslo

18 22

Photo story: Five seemingly simple serves elevated to new heights by clever bartenders using high-tech equipment

48 Bright sparks

In praise of the brands keeping ahead of the curve by embracing the latest technology in their production processes. By Clinton Cawood

10 high-tech reasons…

To be a cocktail lover – including giving bottles the boot and playing it cool

54 The heart of the matter

In the hotseat

Simone Caporale and Marc Alvarez on old-fashioned hospitality vs new-wave tech

James Triffo, talking why everything’s coming up AI

24 Inspect a gadget

Our pick of the latest cocktail tech for the home

34

Drinking digital

She drops in at a London hotel bar looking to the future and he heads off on Eurostar to check out a Parisian bar inspired by a British pub

Clinton Cawood outlines the meanings behind the buzzwords and how they’re being applied in the drinks space

58 Take 3 ingredients

Diego Ignacio Villagrán Paredes, head of liquid research at Central and Kjolle restaurants in Lima shares a special recipe featuring Peruvian ingredients

Kristiane Sherry shines a light on three pioneers fusing science and drinks

38 Kit & caboodle

60

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the drinks labs?

Stu Bale explains

40

Recipe for the future

Mains & Martinis

Putting ChatGPT to the cocktail-creating test. By Gary Sharpen

Three London restaurants with open-plan kitchens and killer cocktails

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PEXELS PAVEL DANILYUK

28

Tech talk in plain English

56 The cocktail girl & guy

Issue 46 Autumn 2023 Editors Sandrae Lawrence, Gary Sharpen Creative director Scott Bentley – Bentley Creative Copy editing Laura Hill Cover photography Michael Hedge Contributors Stu Bale, Priyanka Blah, Clinton Cawood, Laura Foster, ChatGPT, Kristiane Sherry Thanks to Dré Masso, James Triffo, Diego Ignacio Villagrán Paredes

For all editorial and advertising enquiries, please contact:

(+44) 020 7242 2546 mail@thecocktaillovers.com

Find us:

50 The robots are coming!

JW H OWA R D P H OTO GR A P H Y

But will they ever replace bartenders?

Laura Foster finds out

62

66

Imbibing cocktails at India’s finest bars

Good vibrations!

The new Cymatics menu at Hacha brings music and cocktails together in a revolutionary way

Priyanka Blah selects five of the best

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TheCocktailLovers.com @cocktaillovers meet.thecocktaillovers @thecocktaillovers

Reproduction in whole or part of any contents of The Cocktail Lovers Magazine without prior permission from the editors is strictly prohibited.

All details of bars featured in this issue were correct at time of going to press. Please see individual websites for up-to-date information.

The Cocktail Lovers Magazine is printed in the UK by Stephens & George.

The Cocktail Lovers ISSN 2052-059X © 2023. Published by The Cocktail Lovers Ltd. London, UK

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY

CONTRIBUTORS

STU BALE

KRISTIANE SHERRY

LAURA FOSTER

Kit & caboodle: page 38

Drinking digital: page 34

Kristiane is a freelance drinks writer, educator and presenter contributing to publications such as Whisky Magazine, the Malt Whisky Yearbook, Club Oenologique and many more.

Her impressive career has seen her serve as head of brand at luxury wine platform FINE+RARE, edit The Spirits Business magazine and head up the content team at Master of Malt. She’s also an accredited WSET Spirits Educator.

Stu originally wanted to be a dentist, which led him to collecting glasses in bars at night whilst studying in the day. Thankfully, the bar work proved more to his liking and a career in cocktails followed. After running bars in Edinburgh he moved to London to be the opening head bartender at 69 Colebrooke Row. He’s now director of Crucible, a drinks development lab, consultancy and training space.

In this issue: Who are the people pushing boundaries in the way we drink now and in the future? Kristiane finds out.

In this issue: Stu breaks down the workings of the various bits of high-tech kit used behind the bar.

The robots are coming: page 50

Laura Foster is an awardwinning freelance editor, journalist and copywriter specialising in drinks, food and travel. Formerly deputy editor of Imbibe (UK) and bars & drinks editor of SquareMeal, she has had work published in a variety of titles including Decanter, Club Oenologique, Drinks Retailing News, VICE, CLASS Magazine and Waitrose.

In this issue: Laura puts the robots to the test, as she explores how they are being utilised in venues around the world currently and how they might be used in the future.

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PRIYANKA BLAH

Imbibing cocktails at India's finest bars: page 62

Affectionately known as ‘Blah’, Priyanka is the founder of the popular cocktail and spirits website, The Dram Attic, a platform she set up to shine a light on the movers and shakers of the cocktail world. Based in India, she is a regular judge at international cocktail competitions and is considered one of the most relevant voices championing the South Asian bar industry.

In this issue: Priyanka takes us by the hand and guides us around the five hottest bars in India.

APERItiVO

Opening up the palate for the spirited stories ahead…

PAG E 9

PAG E 1 4

PAG E 2 2

PAG E 2 4

BOOK CLUB

15 YEARS OF THE CONNAUGHT BAR MARTINI

IN THE HOTSEAT

10 TECH REASONS…

Three books for drinks tech creativity from Dave Arnold, Tristan Stephenson and Tony Conigliaro

Drinks industry expert James Triffo tells us why we all need some AI in our lives and how we should be using it

From its conception to evolution, with Ago Perrone

PAG E 1 0

LONDON (BARS) CALLING… Purple Carrot Garibaldi on the menu at Dover Yard, the destination bar at 1 Hotel Mayfair

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To be a cocktail lover right now. Including letting labels do the talking and scoring big-time style goals

NEWS, VIEWS, REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS & HOW-TOS

The PLACE Lyaness

You don’t have to get how or even understand why the team at Lyaness do what they do; all you have to do is appreciate the fact that they do it. Beyond the calming blue walls and serene riverside views, there’s a whole lot of experimentation and cocktail wizardry going on, and for the past 10 years London’s bar scene has been all the better for it.

Five ingredients – Thunder Mushroom, B + B, Death Bitters, Everything Vinegar and Tree Caramel – form the root of all 15 drinks on the current menu, which explores how food and drink has shaped our cultural outlook over generations. Confused?

Don’t be. Go visit and be enlightened. lyaness.com

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APERITIVO

book club

Three books to unlock the ins and outs of cocktail geekery

COCKTAIL HACK #5

The Curious Bartender – Vol 1: The Artistry and Alchemy of Creating the Perfect Cocktail

By Tristan Stephenson

In addition to giving the lowdown on the classics and showcasing his own, more modern versions, Stephenson explains the terminology and techniques, as well as giving tips and tricks on how to use them.

Drinks: Unravelling the Mysteries of Flavour and Aroma in Drink

Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail

As well as cocktail recipes – ingenious originals and reworked classics – Tony C’s beautifully designed book covers everything from equipment and techniques (including centrifuges, refractometers and induction heat) to formulas for tinctures, foams, liqueurs and syrups.

We make no apology for featuring Dave Arnold twice within a few pages (see p. 13) – his impact on bringing tech to the forefront in the advancement of cocktails deserves utmost respect. Be inspired by his years of rigorous research, failures and solutions and apply them to your drinks.

By Tony Conigliaro

By Dave Arnold

THINGS WE LOVE Cocktails, couture – fabulous on their own but put them together and you’ve got our definition of proper mixology: collaborative creativity at its absolute finest. Case in point is the latest project from those clever chaps at Himkok in Oslo. Always pushing the boundaries when it comes to their new cocktail menus, they’ve teamed up with Norwegian designer Eline Dragesund, tasking her with capturing the mood of their 13 new drinks in a capsule clothing collection. And by Jove, she’s done it. Each piece, whether light and floaty or bold and structured, is her interpretation of the taste, texture and hero ingredient featured in the cocktails, including Parsnip, Apple and Sea Buckthorn. himkok.no 9 THE COCK TAIL LOVERS / ISSUE 46

Christine Wiseman, Global Beverage Director, Bar Lab Hospitality & US Bartender of the Year, Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards 2023

“Make a shrub or drinking vinegar by combining equal parts vinegar, sugar and water then add anything that's past its best in your fridge, like berries, melons and herbs, and throw in some spices. You can keep it chilled for two to three months.”

APERITIVO

The drinks Empirical Spirits

Danish distillery Empirical see conventional spirits and raise them with their bold, some might say challenging iterations of flavour. Not for them traditional categories like gin, whisky or vodka. Hell, no. Instead they use custom-made equipment and their all-rules-out-the-window mix of Eastern and Western production techniques to create liquid experiences such as Ayuuk (Pasilla Mixe, Belgian Saison 2, Pilsner Malt and Purple Wheat), The Plum, I Suppose (Plum Kernel, Marigold Flower, Belgian Saison 2, Pilsner Malt and Pearled Barley) and Soka (Sorghum Cane and Thai Rice Chong). empirical.co

LONDON (BARS) CALLING Four new bars to have on your radar

The Nipperkin is inspired by a traditional English country manor house. Which is code for don’t go expecting anything flamboyant or remotely brash. Located on the lower ground floor of 20 Berkeley, the décor is warm and cosy, like a friendly embrace, and the drinks fare suitably understated: simple but complex, familiar but unexpected, with seasonal British produce and products playing a starring role.

20berkeley.com/nipperkin

Bar Antoine

Wacky Wombat

What's in a name? You'll have to wait to find out when Nico de Soto’s highly anticipated London outpost opens in November. Inspired by his global travels, the internationally renowned bartender, and owner of award-winning bars Mace in New York and Danico in Paris, will focus the debut menu on Australia and its ingredients, transitioning to who knows where over the coming months. We can't wait. @wacky.wombat

Yannick Alléno’s restaurant Pavyllon is where you go for the Michelin-starred foodie side of things, Bar Antoine is where you go for the fun. Not that the creation of the cocktails here is taken less seriously – the drinks, like the joyful spirit of chef Yannick’s late son, Antoine, are captured beautifully. And for those who want a taste of the Michelin action with their beverages, the bar snackage served here is sprinkled with plenty of that too. pavyllonlondon.com/bar

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Dover Yard

Another newcomer to Mayfair, this one is a luxe neighbourhood bar with green credentials.

Featuring sink-into leather sofas, stone walls, lush plantings and a feature fireplace, the room overlooks a courtyard.

And the cocktails? It’s all about delicious done right, with responsibly sourced, locally produced British spirits at the forefront and zero-waste drinks made from remnants from two-Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers’ adjoining kitchen.

1hotels.com/mayfair

A DA M GO OD I S ON

Nipperkin

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PODCAST Join us as we share what we’re drinking, where we’re going, products we’re trying, the drinks books we’re reading and all manner of cocktail-loving goodness. Plus, we catch up with our favourite movers and shakers in the cocktail world.

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BE TH CROCK ATT

Just search “The Cocktail Lovers” wherever you listen and subscribe to your podcasts or scan the QR code to listen direct 12 THE COCK TAIL LOVERS / ISSUE 42

APERITIVO

CREATE A STIR! Three drinks for autumn Bramble 50ml gin 20ml lemon juice 10ml sugar syrup 20ml crème de mûre Blackberry and lemon slice, to garnish Method: Build the first three ingredients in a glass with ice cubes and stir. Top with crushed ice and drizzle with crème de mûre. Garnish with a blackberry and a slice of lemon.

Apple Butter Old Fashioned 50ml bourbon 1 tbsp apple butter 3 dashes Angostura bitters 1 apple slice, to garnish Method: Add bourbon, apple butter and bitters to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a tumbler over a large ice cube.

Garnish with an apple slice.

Toffee Apple Sour

40ml calvados or Somerset brandy 20ml lemon juice 20ml egg white 10ml toffee syrup 40ml Breton cider

Method: Add the first four ingredients to a shaker and dry shake (without ice) vigorously to combine and emulsify the egg white. Add ice and shake again. Strain into a small wine glass and top with Breton cider.

THE PEOPLE DAVE ARNOLD

If Dave Arnold tires of being labelled ‘the mad scientist of the cocktail world’, he’s not telling. Not that the moniker does the owner of Booker and Dax food and research lab in New York, founder and president of the Museum of Food and

Drink and author of Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail any harm. If anything, it makes him stand apart from those who have been inspired to follow his lead using the likes of liquid nitrogen, centrifuges and all

DID YOU KNOW?

kinds of hocus pocus to enhance their drinks.

Big ups to the Arnold, daring to do things differently, or more appropriately, with curiosity since starting out.

For more bright minds in the bar world, see page 34.

By 2030, artificial intelligence will add 15.7 trillion dollars to the world’s GDP, boosting it by 14%.

SOURCE: PwC’s Global Artificial Intelligence Study

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APERITIVO

Six Martini moments with…

AGOSTINO PERRONE

Director of Mixology at the Connaught Bar, London. Celebrating 15 years of the Connaught Martini Essentially the Connaught Martini is about our guests.

We created it as a way to connect.

When we were devising the launch menu, 15 years ago, Erik Lorincz, Santino Cicciari and I really wanted to honour the classics, and the tradition of the Connaught. We wanted to keep that but add a little zing without being too gimmicky.

TWO

First, we created a vermouth assemblage – a mix of three different styles of vermouth that worked nicely with all the categories of gin and vodka. Then we asked ourselves how we could play with the flavour without being too technical – we wanted to play with the mood, the mindset, the taste profile of the guest. So we came up with the idea of them choosing their own bitters.

THREE

I asked Bob [of Bob's Bitters] if he could create bitters with various intensities that

would work in a Martini cocktail. We didn’t want anything with a woody, bitter taste – we wanted the bitters to be aromatic and subtle, something that if we added a few drops would either lift the botanicals of the gin or give a special profile taste to the Martini. But at the same time, with a flavour that might be nostalgic for the guest, or something they’ve never tried before. It’s our way to communicate and it feels very personal as well.

four

The theatrical aspect of the serve is important.

Our Martini trolley is a sensational experience as you have a side bartender table only for you, so it feels like a chef ’s table. Pouring the Martini from a height is another important part of the serve. When we first opened the bar, we used the ‘throwing’ technique, which was about aerating the Martini.

The purpose was to open the fragrance and let the botanicals shine through. At the beginning it was only about the high

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pour, then we added the burst of citrus as we poured to enhance the serve even more.

five

It takes time to learn how to do the trolley service. It’s a big thing. We want the team to step behind the trolley when they’re fully ready. On average, it takes about a year.

six

We created the Number 11 Martini to celebrate our 11th anniversary. It includes all of the elements that are on the trolley – gin, vodka, vermouth, aeration, the lemon – but instead of a choice of bitters, they’re all blended in a pre-mixed cocktail. An aeration machine on the table brings theatre and the all-important aeration to the Martini, with the drink served directly into our specially designed coupe glasses, hand-painted by the team and inspired by Jackson Pollock’s paintings. We use five colours to represent the five bitters in the mix. the-connaught.co.uk

DAVI D COLL IN S ST UD I O

one

7 DAYS OF EVENTS IN THE BEST COCKTAIL BARS AND HOTEL BARS IN VENICE

FIVE WAYS WITH

Schnapps 4 pears 2 cups brandy 2 cups sugar 2 cups water

PEARS

Crisps 2 firm pears

½ tsp mixed spice Method: Heat the oven to 140°C/120°C fan/gas 1.

Thinly slice the pears into rounds from the base, picking out any seeds.

Arrange the slices on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and sprinkle over the mixed spice. Use a pastry brush to evenly distribute the spice, then bake the pears for 40 minutes. Leave to cool and crisp up.

Method: Peel, wash and chop 2 pears, discarding the seeds and core. Place in a sealable glass jar, cover with the brandy and leave to steep undisturbed in a cool dark place for a week. Strain liquid through a coffee filter into another, larger, sealable jar.

Prepare 2 more pears as above, add to a pan along with 2 cups of water and sugar. Bring to the boil while stirring. Allow to cool, then pour into the jar with pears and brandy. Store for 6 months, then strain and bottle.

Liqueur

1 large, ripe pear 1/2 cinnamon stick 1/4 nutmeg, broken into pieces 2 strips of dried orange peel 6 cloves 500ml vodka 150g caster sugar

2.5kg firm pears 1.5kg sugar 12 cups of filtered water 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 packet champagne yeast 1/2 tsp tannin powder (optional) 1 tsp yeast nutrient (optional) 1 tsp pectin enzyme (optional)

Syrup 1 cup granulated or demerara sugar 1 cup water 2 cups chopped pears

Method: Add the sugar, water and pears to a small saucepan over a medium heat.

Bring the mixture to the boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for 15 mins until the pears are brown and soft. Strain into a container, discarding the pear, and allow to cool. Store in a sealed jar.

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Method: Add the filtered water to a pan, bring to a simmer and add sugar to dissolve while stirring. Allow to cool to room temperature. Core and chop pears into small pieces (if using organic pears, keep skins on), discarding any bruised parts. Add to the room temperature water.

Transfer into a fermentation pan and add the lemon juice and champagne yeast, following instructions on the champagne yeast packet. If using yeast nutrient, tannin powder and enzymes, add now. Lightly cover the vessel and allow to ferment for 7 days. Strain through a brew or straining bag and transfer into a clean jar or demijohn. Allow to settle for a few weeks before bottling. Store for 35-45 days.

S H U T TE R STOC K

Method: Wash the pear and pat dry, then pierce all over with a fine skewer. Place in a sterilised jar large enough to contain the vodka. Add spices and dried orange peel. Pour the vodka over the top and cover with a lid. Place on a window sill for a one week. After a week, open the jar and add the caster sugar, then shake well and store in a cool, dark cupboard for another week, making sure that you give the jar a shake every day so the sugar completely dissolves.

After a week, remove the pear, spices and orange peel and strain through a coffee filter or muslin cloth. Decant into a sterilised bottle and serve as required.

Wine

APERITIVO

Diary DATES It’s busy, busy, busy on the events front in the next few weeks. Here’s what’s on our radar.

All events are ticketed. See websites for details CO N SU M E R E V E NT S

TR A D E E V E NT S

6-15 OCTOBER

9-11 OCTOBER

Edinburgh Cocktail Week

Bar Convent Berlin

Buy a wristband for £5 cocktails in 100 bars across the city, plus free entry to the flagship cocktail village. edinburghcocktailweek.co.uk main stage and gen up on the seminars – a must for rum fans everywhere. rumfest.co.uk

The largest trade fair for the bar and beverage industry, packed with seminars, events and exhibitors from around the world. barconvent.com

23-29 OCTOBER

Venice Cocktail Week 12-22 OCTOBER

London Cocktail Week

Eleven days of fabulousness for consumers and trade from the OG of the global cocktail weeks. Sign up for your wristband and enjoy £8 cocktails at more than 300 bars. londoncocktailweek.com 14-15 OCTOBER

RumFest

Sample over 400 of the best rums from all over the world, watch demos on the

A packed programme takes in book and product presentations and masterclasses during the day and guest shifts and dining experiences at night, with all participating venues offering a choice of three cocktails created especially for the event. venicecocktailweek.it 6-9 NOVEMBER

Athens Bar Week

Some of the best bartenders in the world take over Athens’ bars for a host of fun-filled parties and events. athensbarshow.gr/gr/en/events

7-8 NOVEMBER

Athens Bar Show

The last bar show of the year often comes with a welcome hit of sunshine alongside seminars, presentations and competitions. athensbarshow.gr

SAVOURSMITHS SOMERSET CHEDDAR AND SHALLOT POTATO CRISPS Not for nothing do the team at Savoursmiths call their crisps luxurious. These bad boys knock their competitors out of the park. Hand cooked in small batches and made from ingredients grown on a British family farm – even the humble cheese and onion flavour is elevated to dizzying new heights. Somerset cheddar and shallot, anyone? Trust us, once tried, you won’t go back to the rest. savoursmiths.com

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Notable Nibbles

10 Hi-tech reasons

GIVING BOTTLES THE BOOT

…to be a cocktail lover right now

Embrace lesspolluting paper alternatives instead – as seen at Johnnie Walker, Absolut, Avallen and many more.

Making like the jet set

You can enjoy the military precision of the Martini Maker in the British Airways Concorde Room in London’s Heathrow Airport or, if you’ve got £2,995 to spare, you can bagsy one for home. Created by luxury design studio Callum, Bremont Watches, British Airways and Ryan Chetiyawardana, it’s expertly engineered to create a first-class experience for high-flying Martini lovers everywhere. callumdesigns.com

THREE

Twisting things up No shaker? No problem. The Glenlivet Twist & Mix Cocktails call on innovative tech that allows you to simply twist the cap to release a burst of cocktail mix into the whisky bottle below. Nifty! theglenlivet.com

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APERITIVO

FOUR

Putting honesty to the test Have you heard the one about the world’s first lie detector can? For its Keep It Real campaign, Simply Spiked created cans with builtin heart rate and galvanic skin response sensors and used pulse rate electrodes to measure heart responses. True story. simplyspiked.ca

Playing it cool

Say goodbye to forgotten beer bottles shattering in the freezer: Coors Light have devised cold-activated labels that change colour when your beer is at risk of exploding.

That’s what we call pretty darned cool. coorslight.com

SEVEN

Letting labels do the talking Not cottoned on to the stories behind your drinks labels yet? Get with the programme and tune into savvy wine and spirits brands using augmented reality to bring their businesses to life. Like the very clever 19 Crimes.

19crimes.com

Scoring style goals

Whisky-loving fans of the beautiful game, take note: Chivas have teamed up with luxury knitwear label AGR to produce a limited-edition football kit. Made using upcycled deadstock fabric from vintage football jerseys, it’s a big win with us. agrknit.co.uk

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APERITIVO

DISCOVERING NEW ARTISTS

Ever ones for stirring creativity, Bombay Sapphire enlisted the ‘brains’ of the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist Ai-Da for a limited-edition bottle design. Get yours while you can. shop.bombaysapphire.com

Talking of world firsts, for more experimentation in the drinks space, there's Hell-AI, – an energy drink formulated, tested and marketed by artificial intelligence. Does it taste good? AI thinks so.

We’ll wait for humans to judge. hellenergy.com

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Pulling out the stops The next best thing to Guinness on draught in a bona fide Irish pub is a perfect pint of Guinness at home. The Guinness MicroDraught allows you to have the former in the latter, thanks to the latest technology. guinnesswebstore.co.uk

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ASK APERITIVO THE EXPERT

IN THE

H TSEAT James Triffo, AI advisor and educator in drinks You’ve worked in various areas of the drinks industry – when did AI enter the picture?

My journey started in drinks branding and distribution, working at InSpirit Brands. It was the breeding ground for a group of incredibly talented individuals.

During this time, I became a founding partner of the Spirit Cartel. I also had a side hustle, bootstrapping my very own award-winning cocktail bar, NOLA. After the pandemic hit, I shifted my focus to trade consultancy. I became involved in projects with drinks brands and hospitality venues, and I started getting asked about the return on investment of various AI-powered apps, primarily chatbots. It was a new topic for the industry, so I began to learn as much as I could to assist in determining when and how AI technologies could become valuable tools. The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT this spring marked a significant shift, with AI now being one of the foremost considerations in any new discussion.

B R I T I S H A I RWAY S

What led you to sign up for the Saïd Business School AI Programme?

A prestigious university accreditation is always beneficial. The invaluable AI-focused network I continue to build also played a significant role in my decision. The drinks industry, while welcoming, can be insular, making it challenging to expand beyond our established connections without venturing into unfamiliar territory – this made going outside my comfort zone and back to school more rewarding.

Why this specific course?

When I started looking around the schools offering courses in AI they all seemed more focused on the engineering and coding side of things. I wanted to develop a better understanding of how

AI will advance and impact, as well as the ethics and legality of using types of AI for business and commercial purposes.

In which areas of hospitality do you think AI will be most beneficial?

Key areas to focus on include marketing, training, payroll and inventory control.

For example, implementing AI into sales through a 24/7 online host on your website or social media can significantly enhance customer conversions and retention by addressing complex requests, such as arranging budgeted private parties, without delay, preventing customers from seeking alternatives.

What’s exciting you about tech and AI in the hospitality space now, and in the future?

I’m currently testing Meta’s latest AI-powered ad feature, Audience+.

We integrated it into a high-profile client’s ad campaign and after running it over a weekend, the results, including click rates, downloads and interest, far exceeded our expectations; numbers exceeded pre-Covid results, showcasing a significant improvement over traditional methods. This technology is poised to improve as more companies develop their own AI solutions or integrate with platforms like OpenAI. The increased accessibility of AI has sparked widespread interest in its potential. Almost everyone has had a taste of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, but this is just the beginning.

In the dynamic world of hospitality, staying ahead of the curve is paramount. From revenue management and eCommerce to contactless solutions, data-driven insights, improved customer service and personalised experiences, the possibilities are vast.

I appreciate that AI opens the door to creative and accessible opportunities

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that go beyond traditional boundaries.

Eye-catching design, interactive menus and enhanced customer engagement are set to revolutionise the way we experience hospitality. The future holds exciting prospects for those who embrace innovation.

What are the biggest misconceptions that people have about AI? In creative industries, there’s often concern about AI replacing jobs or making them entirely automated.

However, I don’t believe either of these scenarios is destined to happen for creatives. Generative AI is a valuable tool, acting as an additional creative resource. I spend a lot of my day refining my work with AI, but it doesn’t mean the ideas aren’t my own. Instead, AI enhances my work through human input, interaction and refinement. I like to think of it as another brain at the table.

But I do believe that without the correct training and understanding, AI can be improperly implemented – opening the door to unintended trademark infringements, biases and plagiarism.

That’s the part I want to help with.

What aspects of tech/AI should we all be on board with?

The technology sector is in a constant state of evolution and adaptation, and hospitality professionals need to be on board with learning, evolving and adapting. The crucial first step is to understand what will work best for your business before making investments.

If someone had told us that our guests would take photos of each offering they were about to enjoy, instantly sharing these pictures worldwide, while also linking to our business details, it might have seemed far-fetched. Yet, today, this is the reality we navigate and embrace. jamestriffo.com

Inspect a gadget Our pick of the coolest tech to up your drinks-making game at home

1. Best for theatre and fun

Add a shot of drama, flavour and a whole lot of fun to your drinks with edible bubbles, clouds and mists.

Flavour Blaster Cocktail Kit, from £239.94, flavourblaster.com

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4. Best for ice warriors

Give your ice the respect it deserves with a countertop device that makes three types of ice in under 10 minutes. NewAir Countertop Ice Maker, $329.99, newair.com

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2. Best for fuss-free drinks

Select a recipe from the app, place your glass on the base and let the coaster tell you when and what to pour. Barsys Coaster, £51, thebarsys.com

3. Best for a smoky flourish

Elevate the look and enhance the taste of even the simplest cocktail by serving in a puff of smoke. Sage Smoking Gun, £79, sousvidetools.com

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MART IN H UDAK AT MAYBE SAMMY

APERITIVO

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5. Best for the personal touch Customise foam-topped cocktails and coffees with logos, selfies and your own unique designs. Ripple Maker, from £1,800, store.drinkripples.com

6. Best for not-so green fingers

Enjoy deliciously fresh garnishes, grown at home, any time of the year. Veritable Indoor Garden Smart Edition 4 Slot Herb & Plant Holder, £199.90, johnlewis.com

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7. Best for style and substance

The latest addition to the Barsys family uses AI to learn your preferences and cater to your taste. Barsys 360, £379 (available from October), thebarsys.com

8. Best for bringing on the fizz

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Streamlined and sexy, this Scandi-chic model delivers perfectly carbonated water every time.Carbonator 3, £179, aarke.com

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MESSAGE IN (AND ON ) A BOTTLE Yes, it’s an elegant design, but look a little closer at the Shivering Mountain bottle and you’ll begin to discover the story of the gin within

F

irst impressions count. And the first impression of Shivering Mountain gin is a bottle that is both bold and elegant.

And certainly one that rewards closer inspection.

THE MOUNTAIN WITHIN Cleverly moulded into the base of the bottle is an intriguing indented shape. A shape which represents a mountain. Moreover, there are a swirl of diagonal embossed lines all around the bottle. These represent geological fault lines. A mountain? Fault lines? Why? Pick the bottle up, twirl it gently from side to side, and observe that glass mountain within. It’s moving. It’s shivering…

SHIVERING MOUNTAIN This clever optical illusion evokes the name of the gin itself. Shivering Mountain.

What’s in a name? Rather a lot it seems. In the heart of the Peak District National Park sits Mam Tor or, to give it it’s local name, Shivering Mountain. So called because the elemental erosion and geological movement that is at the heart of the area cause frequent landslides on the mountain, which the locals say is just the mountain shivering. And it’s within the valley over which it majestically looks is to be found the distillery which bears its name.

THE SPIRIT OF THE PEAK DISTRICT Drawing on the history and the natural surroundings of the area Shivering Mountain has been hand crafted to literally be the spirit of the area. Bringing together its micro-climate, spring waters and natural botanicals, the distillery calls it Ginology.

Think wine terroir.

Along with the botanicals

classically associated with gin; juniper, coriander, angelica and cardamom, there’s an abundance of local flavour.

The richness of sloe berries found growing in the surrounding valleys. Warmth from bilberries which flourish on the high moorland. And a honeyed sweetness from the heather and gorse from the

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slopes which surround the distillery.

The water, too, comes directly from a nearby natural spring, having filtered through layers of ancient rock, sand and shale.

All the result of the area’s very special micro-climate which can be felt in the freshness of the air and can

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OPENING A BOTTLE (OR THREE) Distinguished by their subtle hues there are three exceptional and award-winning expressions of Shivering Mountain gin to be enjoyed. Each a realisation of Ginology, yet each with a distinct character of its own.

PREMIUM PINK GIN A deep inviting pink hue signifies the Premium Pink Gin. Rather than adding a sweetener, it’s been carefully crafted to achieve a perfect balance of pink grapefruit and orange with the original gin’s dry base. Expect a refreshing, lightly aromatic gin with a smooth, crisp citrus finish.

small batch premium gin.

As for the base of the bottle. Look very closely and you’ll be rewarded with the mountain’s geographical coordinates.

Who knew a bottle could share so much?

be tasted in Shivering Mountain gin.

A PROMISE AND A PLACE The bottle has still more to reveal to the curious explorer.

Embossed proudly around its shoulder is a promise, ‘Forged and foraged for Peak Perfection’. A guarantee of quality from this hand crafted,

EXPLORE SHIVERING MOUNTAIN There are many enticing ways to explore Shivering Mountain.

A trip to the area itself would be a joy (there are even two suggested walks on the website) but an equally enlivening journey awaits when you open a bottle that proudly bears the name Shivering Mountain Distillery.

Whether the Premium Dry Gin, the Premium Pink Gin or the Early Harvest, there’s a wonderful journey ahead with Shivering Mountain. shiveringmountain.com

PREMIUM DRY GIN In it’s distinctive blue tinted bottle the Premium Dry Gin is characterised by juniper and citrus flavours enhanced with fruity notes from sloes and bilberries. Along with the lighter, sweeter, floral tones from gorse and heather, the result is a very smooth, warm and rich gin, with a long and slightly spicy finish.

Shivering Mountain Dry Gin & Tonic 50ml Shivering Mountain Dry Gin 15ml orange liqueur 150ml Club Soda Dash of orange bitters Dehydrated orange wheel Method: Fill a Gin Copa glass with premium ice chunks/cubes. Add the gin and orange liqueur. Top with soda water and add a dash of orange bitters.

Stir gently, garnish and serve.

Please enjoy Shivering Mountain responsibly

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EARLY HARVEST GIN A hint of green in the bottle’s colour suggest the coming of Summer. Flowers, leaves and berries from around the distillery are crafted into this elegant gin.

Elderflower, wild bilberries and gorse in the aroma. Abundant berries, bilberry leaf and juniper in its rich taste. And a Szechuan pepper conclusion.

L

ove it or loathe it, there’s no getting away from tech, so you may as well get down with the lingo and what it means. Your guide to the key protagonists starts here:

ChatGPT Let’s begin with the one that’s on everyone’s lips, the latest technological advancement that’s helping kids cheat on their essays while simultaneously plotting to bring about the end of the human race – possibly. Technically a language model rather than an artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, from research laboratory OpenAI, has been trained on vast quantities of books, websites and more. It draws on this primarily to allow it to have natural language conversations, but its uses go significantly beyond just having a chat.

While some of the most publicised uses include the writing of articles (or essays, if you’re a student), ChatGPT can also be used to summarise text, as well as provide translations. It can take on different personas, create business plans, write code, compose music, give you recipe ideas – not to say that it necessarily does any of these things well. You’ll still have to evaluate whether those hip-hop lyrics in the style of Dr Seuss are any good, or if that’s what you want to eat for dinner.

This article wasn’t written by ChatGPT, in case you were wondering.

As seen at: Earlier this year, Axelrad beer garden in Houston, Texas put ChatGPT to the test, pitting the AI software against its human bartenders in a month-long Humans vs. Machines initiative.

Cleverly guests could try half serves of both bartender made or ChatGPT generated drinks and vote for their favourite via a QR code. Who won?

Interestingly, it was a tie.

TECH TALK IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Everything you wanted to know about tech and how it’s being utilised in the drinks space. By Clinton Cawood

Sample page of the AI-generated imagery featured on the drinks menu at Lyaness

AI image generation While ChatGPT primarily produces text, AI can also be used to create images and videos. A far cry from the trippy and sometimes terrifying computer-generated artwork produced by Google’s DeepDream around 2015, the tech has developed significantly in the past couple of years and is accessible to everyone via products such as DALL·E 2 (Salvador Dalí meets lovable Pixar robot WALL-E, geddit?), Midjourney and others.

Services like these allow you to describe the image you’d like generated (invariably a monkey on a bicycle, fish on a bicycle, or similar), and after a few moments it’ll provide a few options, each unique. These can be refined and tweaked, and, like ChatGPT, you can ask it to emulate a particular style or artist.

That latter point is a controversial one. In addition to the existential questions created by tech like this, about the value of human endeavour and creativity, and the meaning of art, there’s the fact that these models have been trained on vast amounts of material created by human artists and photographers. While their livelihoods are potentially threatened, they’re not receiving any compensation or credit for their work. An ethical conundrum for our times.

As seen at: London bar Lyaness is never one for shying away from innovation, and its current menu shows the magic that can happen when the right prompts are given to the right AI tools. Design agency Magpie used Midjourney to generate the bold, often wacky imagery to depict the bar’s unique approach to cocktail making.

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T E C H TA L K

Blockchain You might associate this one with cryptocurrencies (more on that later), but there’s more to blockchain than bitcoin. An immensely useful concept, it’s also not the most captivating, unless you’re a mathematician or data scientist…

In brief, blockchain is a way of storing information, such as a series of transactions, in a public but very secure way, using blocks in a virtual ledger that’s stored across multiple places. So while it’s useful for keeping track of everyone’s cryptocurrencies, it’s also good for keeping other data secure,

while providing traceability.

As seen at: Still in Cask is a great example from the world of drinks. A service that makes it possible to buy shares in casks before the spirit is ready to be bottled, it uses blockchain technology to keep track of the ownership of these shares in a secure, robust way. As its website explains: “If we disappear (we hope we don’t), there is still a public record of your Cask Share contract with the distillery.”

Cryptocurrencies Let’s tackle crypto while we’re on the subject. Either the future of finance or little more than a complex Ponzi scheme, depending on who you speak to, cryptocurrencies have been around for a while now, and don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. Bitcoin, the most prominent among them, has had its ups and downs but remains significant. At the time of writing the total value of all of the bitcoins out there was $507 billion. [Source: Cryptoticker].

In short, cryptocurrencies make use of blockchain to create digital currencies without involving governments or banks. To keep track of your crypto, you use a digital wallet, and these coins can be bought and sold, and exchanged for other currencies, crypto or not.

N I CC I P EAT P H OTOG RA P H Y

As seen at: The Pembury Tavern in Hackney tried it; The Devonshire Arms in Cambridge followed suit, along with the rest of the pubs in its Individual Pubs Group. That was around 10 years ago. None of them are still accepting cryptocurrencies of any kind in their establishments. What does that tell you? When asked what tips they would give anyone thinking about accepting the likes of bitcoin in pubs and bars, the team at The Pembury Tavern simply answered, “Don’t.”

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T E C H TA L K

Metaverse Virtual digital worlds have been around for some time – think Second Life – but they never really caught on, until recently. Now we have an array to choose from, such as Decentraland and The Sandbox (p. 51)–––, and to some extent platforms such as Roblox.

There aren’t huge numbers of people living virtual lives in these worlds, yet, but that hasn’t stopped brands from starting to find ways of cashing in. Everyone from Louis Vuitton to Adidas has dipped their toe in the metaverse’s waters. Coca-Cola is all over it, offering NFT collectibles via Decentraland, and even launching new flavours in the metaverse before their real-world debut.

As seen at: Wisher Vodka, meanwhile, has claim to being the first metaverse spirit brand.

For a time, it existed only virtually – it has a metaverse distillery and everything. Wisher has since launched as an actual vodka you can drink.

NFT The crypto buzzword of a couple of years ago, NFT is a very welcome acronym for the term ‘non-fungible token’, particularly given that few had ever heard the word ‘fungible’ before. Here we go with the blockchain again… the fact that these tokens are non-fungible, or can’t be interchanged, means each unique one can be bought and sold via blockchain.

The cryptocurrency usually associated with NFTs is ethereum.

So suddenly everyone was trading in digital artwork – mostly pixelated apes, for some inexplicable reason – as well as anything else digital and previously difficult to monetise, like social media posts. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey famously sold an NFT of his first-ever tweet for $2.9 million.

Purveyors of real-world products, including booze, soon caught on, selling NFTs that were linked to tangible objects.

As seen at: There are countless drinks brands doing very good, very creative business in this space, thank you very much,

Esra Røise's illustrations for the Himkok NFT cocktail menu

There are countless drinks brands doing very good, very creative business in this space, thank you very much… and it’s not just about offering ownership of limited-edition bottles. Additional benefits such as exclusive events, private distillery tours and special discounts are up for grabs.

BlockBar is one of the biggest marketplaces for NFT’ers looking for high-end wines and spirits, with very special bottlings from the likes of Midleton Very

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Rare, The Pinnacle Vintage, Benriach Twin Set and Ruinart Limited Edition

by Jeppe Hein on its website. Also worth mentioning, Himkok in Oslo was the first bar in the world to launch its entire cocktail menu in the NFT space, partnering with famous Norwegian illustrator Esra Røise to create digital artworks of the 13 cocktails and drinks brands for a range of unique experiences.

AD D IE C HINN

AR in play on the Mirage menu at City Social

VR and AR While you can access the metaverse from a web browser, the idea is that this is ideally done through either virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR). Strap on a VR headset to wander the streets of Decentraland, or play games in 3D. This tech has developed significantly in recent years, becoming just-about accessible.

AR, meanwhile, isn’t quite as immersive, blending virtual images with the real world. You can access this with your phone camera – think Snapchat filters, for example – but Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro might be the next step. Blending VR and AR into ‘mixed reality’, potential applications are pretty broad.

3D printing Bridging the gap between the digital realm and the physical is 3D printing, a technology that’s been around for a little while now. The idea is that any digital 3D model can be created out of a variety of materials, by a device that ‘prints’ one layer at a time. These printers haven’t quite reached the point of being common home appliances, but they’re relatively easy to access via 3D printing services – great for making bespoke beer taps, cocktail garnishes… you name it.

As seen at: It may be one of the oldest

stores in London but Fortnum & Mason has shown that it’s no stranger to modern technology by embracing 3D printing in its recently launched 3’6 bar. Created by award-winning French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani, the digitally-led design cleverly blends a mix of wood and fermented sugar bioplastics in its sinuous concept – even the stools and ceramic goblets are a result of digital jiggery-pokery. Another example in this space includes the fascinating Print A Drink, the world's first 3D printing technology for drinkable liquids.

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As seen at: In 2017, Jason Atherton’s City Social in London launched its impressive Mirage menu. Each of the 12 cocktails was presented on a special coaster, which guests hovered their phones over to initiate an augmented mini movie inspired by different styles of artworks, from Mayan and Victorian to Pop and Avant-Garde.

The same year saw Virgin Atlantic – yes, the airline – launch its Immersive Digital Adventure menu in its Clubhouses in Heathrow, JFK, Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. Guests could choose from cocktails available from nine partner bars around the world. VR headset on, they could then ‘travel’ to Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, Employees Only in New York or The Walker Inn in Los Angeles, amongst others, where they could get a glimpse behind the scenes as the home bartender made the drink.

SHARE. INSPIRE. PIONEER.

WELCOME TO SIP Connecting and empowering the global hospitality community

SIP

(Share. Inspire. Pioneer) by Pernod Ricard is so much more than just another advocacy programme for bartenders. It’s a powerful online and offline platform devised to empower the entire hospitality industry. That means F&B managers as well as festival staff, bartenders as well as bar owners, club promoters as well as chefs, and pretty much everyone else in between.

Ambitious? You bet it is. But no more than the ambitions of the hospitality industry as a whole. Constantly moving, constantly improving and constantly innovating, it’s because of the talent that can be found at every level of this fast-moving industry that SIP was conceived in the first place.

As Pauline de Pins, global on-trade digital manager at Pernod Ricard and the driving force behind the initiative,

explains: “SIP is the result of the collaboration between trade advocacy experts at Pernod Ricard and hospitality members from all over the world. This community platform was born after Covid when we all felt we needed to join forces to build a programme that would go beyond competitions, brand promotion and academies; a programme that would actively lift the industry and open a space of connection for everyone, from the owner of multiple restaurants in Shanghai to the promoter of a nightclub in Berlin. We are all facing the same challenges, staff shortage, energy crisis, changes of behaviours of our customers, so this is a platform for us to address those challenges together and learn from each other. In the coming months, SIP will spread to many countries, offering more opportunities for the SIP Community to collectively

READ

WATCH

Articles Inspiring long and short features across a wide range of subjects – from finding the perfect name for your venue to the role of the modern door supervisor, naming cocktails and employing people with disabilities.

shape a more sustainable future for our industry.”

So what’s on offer? In short, plenty, including articles, videos, in-person events, training sessions and insights from some of the biggest names across the industry.

Videos From the serious – on-trade, on-trend insights for business – to the light-hearted, where bartenders around the world share workplace confessions, there’s plenty to watch and learn from, including SIP talks from industry experts taking in subjects such as why every town needs a nightclub and dance music data.

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LISTEN

Podcast Everything Happens After Midnight, where host Mirik Milan talks to the most exciting personalities shaping nightlife worldwide.

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COMING UP: BCB xSIP Studio

9-11 October Exhibition Centre Berlin, Messedamm 22, 14055 Berlin, Germany On the programme Round table discussions: • Dealing with the energy crisis • Untapping the creative process • Money matters – F(i)(u)nding your dream • What does success look like for Gen Z bartenders • Dealing with a toxic work environment • Innovation and collaboration • Bars matter – how do bars affect economy and identity for neighbourhoods and cities?

LEARN

Training Sharpen your skills with the array of dedicated online training programmes, among them The Bar World of Tomorrow, focusing on sustainable and responsible bar culture; BarSmarts Basics and Professional, and Brand Trainings across the Pernod Ricard portfolio. *Fee applies

Featuring JJ Goodman, Sam Bompas, Liam Davy, Emanuele Balestra, Mirik Milan, Raul Vola, Michael Bergström, Axel Söderman and more

EVENTS

Plus guest bartending shifts from Tjoget (Stockholm, Sweden), Himkok (Oslo, Norway) and IRHO Bar (Mannheim, Germany)

SIP Sessions In-person events around the world, taking in keynote speeches with industry experts, panel discussions and interactive drink moments.

For details, see join-sip.com/en/events Join the conversation.

Share your ideas, boost your business, master your skills, grow your community, shape the future of the industry Join-SIP.com 33

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PEOPLE

DRINKING Tech has infiltrated every part of our lives – including in the cocktail bar. How has this influenced drinkmaking philosophies?

Kristiane Sherry goes beyond the sous vide

DIGITAL

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I

t’s hard to think of a faster-paced space than the modern cocktail bar.

From prep to close, among the team and guests, there’s an energy, a vibrancy, a buzz. Add in the fresh technology solutions that have emerged over the past 10 years, and that tempo just keeps accelerating.

There are operational solutions.

Booking systems. Payment providers.

Stock management. Here tech strips out friction on both sides of the bar. But advances in kit, access to knowledge and even scientific discoveries are propelling modern cocktail creation to places never seen before.

“I feel like bartenders have always been evolving ever since they started,” I recall Miran Chauhan, head bartender at Johnnie Walker Princes Street in Edinburgh, telling me late last year.

He’s just teamed up with two-Michelinstarred Raby Hunt chef James Close and his wife, head of pastry, Maria Close, to launch STIR, a cocktail and cuisine concept at the whisky destination.

Chauhan’s cocktails at STIR, which opened in June, span rapeseed-washed Glenkinchie Distillers Edition, a birch sap reduction and even edible sand. He says a “shared obsession with flavour and techniques” has resulted in a “highly original taste experience”. It’s a fascinating step for a more mainstream brand like Johnnie Walker. Jurica Gojevic, food and beverage manager at Princes Street, describes Chauhan’s approaches as “unorthodox”. “Yes, we’re doing some pioneering cool stuff with liquids,” he said on my previous visit. “At the same time, it needs to be approachable.”

An ‘alternative flavour reality’

delving into varying freezing techniques.

One is ‘switching’, which works on a similar premise to distilling where, by playing with different freezing points, isolated flavours can be extracted.

Perhaps the most exciting is the new ‘sous pression’ – and the idea came from a burst water pipe.

“I was researching the energy that’s generated by freeze expansion,” he details. “It was so strong – like 100,000 psi (pound-force per square inch) for water. You see a lot of carbonated drinks in bars – that’s 30-40,000 psi. So I was like, wow, there’s a lot of energy here that we can try and harness.”

He does just that through kegs. He grabs one and shows me over the video call. It looks like a small milk urn – but one that enables seeming magic to happen. “We fill the cocktail all the way to the top, like you would prepare a smoothie. We add everything in here, all

Above: Iain McPherson; Below: L-R, Miran Chauchan, Maria and James Close

Just a five-minute walk away through Edinburgh’s elegant Old Town lies a remarkable corner of cocktail innovation.

Helmed by Iain McPherson, Panda & Sons is considered by many to be a global invention hub. With his latest menu Transcend, McPherson has harnessed genuinely pioneering freezing techniques to craft drinks like never before. As the menu itself notes, he is inviting guests to explore an ‘alternative flavour reality’.

“It’s nothing against cooking techniques, but I’ve realised now it’s so hard to find a new ingredient, but by using freezing, we can maintain the fresh flavours,” he explains over a call from his lab. “For example, a cooked strawberry is delicious. But it’s not a fresh strawberry.”

He and the team spent over five years

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the ingredients. And we freeze it fully, and then because the liquid is trying to expand it goes inwards into the fruit.

When it defrosts they combine, and so they marry together just like a water bath.”

Drinks using the technique on the Transcend menu include Sability, made with Bombay Premier Cru Gin, fino sherry, Lustau Blanco Vermouth and a grape maraschino liqueur, and Gladstone, which brings Fettercairn 12 Year Old Whisky, sweet vermouth and Bénédictine DOM together.

There are practical applications to McPherson’s freezing techniques too. By using freeze drying, he’s able to compress and preserve citrus juices. When rehydrated, they taste just like fresh.

While Panda & Sons doesn’t make any grand sustainability claims, it’s one way to harness the tech for green purposes.

McPherson’s journey with freezing techniques dates back to childhood. His dad was in the ice cream business. Later he studied an ice cream course at the University of Reading, and at the Gelato University in Bologna (it’s a thing). He’s comfortable playing at the frontier of what’s possible in drinks.

“I still Google things first to see if there’s any existing kind of experiments on it,” he says, explaining his processes and what drives him. Often, there are no answers to be found. “That’s when I know, cool, we’re on to something.

Because no one’s done it yet.”

Interestingly, he makes comparisons between the worlds of bars and restaurants. “I guess my driving force is that you’re taking so many techniques from the kitchen. How cool would it be if finally a famous chef from a Michelin-

PEOPLE

starred restaurant takes one of these techniques?” He pauses. “I think it’s only a matter of time.”

One of the food and drinks pairings on the STIR menu at Johnnie Walker Princes Street

A slow science?

Another pioneer in the science– bartending space is Zoe Burgess. She’s literally written the book on the subject.

Released in September 2022, The Cocktail Cabinet: The art, science and pleasure of mixing the perfect drink is a deep-dive into the why of drinks combinations. But these days, she has time on her mind as much as rapid technology developments.

“If all you’re focused on is newness, then I think you’re kind of missing out,” she muses when we catch up. “A big thing for me is the idea of time. Time relates to newness and progress.” Whether you’re creating drinks or consuming them, you need to sit with an idea. “I don’t think you ever discover anything new unless you apply time to it and you have a rigorous process.”

An art student by training, Burgess entered the drinks industry via a stint in chocolate development. She went on to spend 10 years running research and development kitchens in bars, including Untitled in London. Now she has her own consultancy, Atelier Pip. Surprisingly given her tech-heavy background, she’s now adopted more of an analogue approach. “For me, the most important thing in all of this is that analytical, critical, very precise and very logical point of view.”

“I am super intrigued by AI and computer sciences and quantum physics and mechanics – I find that part of science so fascinating” She recalls a time at the start of the year when she was working with jasmine and rice milk in a serve. After launching the drink she realised she’d been working on something similar five years previously. “Then I couldn’t get it to balance right.” Today, it’s like a White Russian twist. “There’s vodka, coffee, a little bit of tonka bean, rice milk, and then really beautiful jasmine there on top. It’s a very sensual, very emotive drink to consume. So I think don’t ever take for granted what you’ve done in the past. Keep your notes, be analytical.”

For Burgess, science and tech is as much about a mindset, a discipline and an approach as it is about the fancy kit you’ve got in the lab.

Zoe Burgess at Atelier Pip

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That said, there are digital advances that do have her attention. “I am super intrigued by AI and computer sciences and quantum physics and mechanics,” she continues. “I find that part of science so fascinating because of the unseen, and flavour is very much unseen.”

It’s something she finds exciting, especially the potential applications in drinks. “There are a lot of complexities around it, but I think the potential is immense.”

Ultimately though, whatever technical advances look like, the warm glow of hospitality must remain central. A very small proportion of us go to bars to geek out. For the rest of us, we want quality, value, fun. As Burgess says, “I’m looking for the human side of it.”

“If we’re being really honest, after spending 10 years working on rotovaps and with centrifuges and freeze dryers, I’m kind of enjoying going back to basics.”

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IN PRAISE OF OMOTENASHI

O

To the uninitiated, Japanese ‘omotenashi’ and hospitality are the same thing. But bartenders from across the UK who have taken part in the six-month House of Suntory DOJO programme know that there’s so much more to it than that.

“

motenashi goes beyond the general perception of hospitality,” explains House of Suntory UK brand ambassador Raffaele Di Monaco. “It translates to ‘public face’, which means that it is totally genuine. Omotenashi isn’t about fake smiles and not being able to deliver the service, it’s about taking pride in understanding the guests’ expectation and pleasure in surpassing their needs.”

This level of attention to detail isn’t just reserved for the likes of five-star hotels or Michelin-starred restaurants. “In Japan, omotenashi is everywhere – in public toilets, on public transport, even in the way you greet someone in the street. It’s a way of living,” confirms Raffaele.

Along with ‘Wa’ (harmony in Japanese nature) and ‘monozukuri’ (Japanese craftsmanship), omotenashi is one of the three pillars of the House of Suntory. And like Wa and monozukuri, omotenashi plays a vital role in everything the House does. “It comes into play in the way we host our events – simple things like offering guests a hot or cold towel to refresh themselves as they enter the room, having name tags on the table and serving welcome tea. The setup is very minimal but very efficient, which echoes the philosophy of the hospitality sessions that we’ve been running for the past three years.”

The sessions in question encompass four DOJO Masterclasses, including one that focuses on chadō, the traditional

Raffaele Di Monaco demonstrating omotenashi at a recent DOJO masterclass at Japan House

Japanese tea ceremony, highlighting the patience, precision and years of practice that goes into it. More than a tasting of tea, it’s included in the programme to give the participating bartenders a clearer understanding of omotenashi. Raffaele explains: “In Japanese culture, chadō aims to take hospitality to a higher level, instilling the mindset that by being the best one can be can lead to an authentic and enjoyable hospitality experience for guests.” Raffaele builds on this, explaining that the bartenders “learn that every element of the experience matters.

Everything from the design of the tatami room, to why the guest of honour sits closer to the tea master, is for a reason.”

Alongside learning about the tea ceremony, bartenders also embark on a tasting of House of Suntory’s Hibiki whisky during this masterclass.

“Everything about Hibiki signifies our core values,” explains Raffaele. “Hibiki represents the most balanced and harmonious whisky that the House of Suntory has ever produced so, when bartenders are serving their guests, savouring Hibiki, just like a chadō, is a moment where everything is in harmony.”

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What has this got to do with a bartender in Manchester or Edinburgh?

“We’re not expecting bartenders in the UK to start opening Japanese bars or practising tea services,” Raffaele laughs. “We include omotenashi in our programme because it highlights the importance of self-discipline that can help bartenders harness the ability to do repetitive tasks well on a daily basis,” he says. “The tea master doesn’t change a move for 30-40 years – as they say in Japan, the more you repeat the movement, the more you perfect it, which very much applies to bartending. We want to share this, as well as other Japanese disciplines, with as many bartenders as possible.

“This is why, in our 100th year, we’ve expanded the House of Suntory DOJO programme to engage 100 bartenders nationwide, with sessions in Manchester and Edinburgh as well as London.” The aim? “To help bartenders enhance their repertoires and offer unparalleled drink and hospitality experiences for their customers,” Raffaele says proudly.

For more on the House of Suntory DOJO programme, see suntorydojo.com

KIT CABOODLE Want to know what the cool kids are playing with in their drinks labs and how much it costs to set one up?

Stu Bale has the answers

N

ot everyone has access to rotary evaporators, centrifuges and the like, let alone knows how to use them. Which is why Stu Bale set up Crucible. The creative consultancy based in north London offers education and hands-on training on all of the kit, including the items featured on these pages. Here he gives us the lowdown on what they do and how much you can expect to pay for them.

For more details and to book, visit crucible-london.com

CARBONATION RIG

Carbonation is the process of forcing carbon dioxide (a colourless, odourless and incombustible gas) into liquid, resulting in lots of fabulous bubbles. Literally it’s that simple. It’s cheap, easy and fun; just like yer ma and only moderately dangerous.

Like that joke. Simply put, carbonation is the future.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? Expect to pay in the region of £100 for a regulator and some carbonation caps. Add another £50 for a keg to scale.

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ROTARY EVAPORATOR

Now this is more like it: the rotovap is the toy that all the bartenders want to play with. With good reason. It’s an exceptionally well-engineered bit of kit. Initially designed for dehydrating pharmaceuticals, it's only relatively recently been used in bars and kitchens.

Here’s why. You can’t make a cup of tea at the top of Mount Everest as water would boil at around 70°C. This is because the air pressure is much lower and essentially that’s what holds water as liquid. The rotovap is a fully sealed vacuum chamber and by having

BAR KIT

full control of the pressure we can alter the temperature at which the mixture boils. This allows us to treat each different flavour or botanical at the best temperature to extract the best expression from it.

We can also use it to reduce and concentrate flavours by evaporating unwanted liquid off at a low temperature, avoiding cooking or caramelisation.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? I won’t lie, these machines don’t come cheap.

The last time I checked, a Buchi R-300 would set you back around £12,000.

ULTRASONIC

This piece of kit is based on the principle that when you put more energy into something it speeds up whatever interactions are taking place. The ultrasonic creates many tiny bubbles on a cellular level, which vastly increases the rate of flavour extraction.

The best way of describing it is, it’s like the start of an awkward house party when nobody knows where to sit or who to talk to.

After some time, everyone has found their space and is comfortable. And even more delicious.

Drinks that have been through the ultrasonic don’t necessarily taste like each of their ingredients but are instead one new entity with everything completely integrated.

This machine is great for quick infusions, rapid ageing of spirits, oil and alcohol. In short, everything tastes better if it’s ultra.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? You can buy a good one for £300-£500, or here’s a sneaky tip: try the middle aisle at Lidl where £30 buys you a jewellery cleaner if you want to dip your toes in.

Above: Inside Crucible: Centre: A carbonation rig; Far left: Stu Bale

NINJA ICE CREAM MACHINE That’s the downside. On the plus side, the fact that it spins so quickly means that it separates things by density, so heavier stuff goes to the bottom, allowing you to separate fats, get extreme taste and change textures.

It’s great for clarifying juice, or extracting fats from things like peas.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? In the region of £5,000ish. Avoid secondhand ones as they might have been used for blood. No joke.

INKBIRD & HEAT MAT CENTRIFUGE

I’ll be honest, the centrifuge is the only bit of kit that properly gives us the fear. It spins round at 80 times per second and sounds like a plane taking off. Add to that the fact that it has separate containers and they must all weigh exactly the same, otherwise everything will be thrown off balance and go through the building across the road!

As far as I’m concerned, people who don’t like ice cream are untrustworthy and almost certainly psychopaths. It’s tasty, super easy to make and remarkably difficult to mess up.

You can also use these machines to make amazing blended drinks.

The folk at Ninja took advantage of an expired patent on Pacojet technology and unleashed this beast at a much more walletfriendly price a couple of years ago.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? £200

FREEZE DRYER

It’s impossible to keep any degree of consistency in your ferments without this little bit of kit, as it keeps a space at a constant temperature so you can maintain maximum control of your fermentations.

We recommend pairing with a battered old fridge for maximum efficiency.

Long story short, this fancy bit of kit allows you to remove pretty much all of the liquid from your project, at sub-zero temperatures.

This means that the dry bit left over should taste exactly as nature intended it, without any flavour degradation. Great for capturing the best of the season, to use all year round, or getting more creative with your garnishes.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? All in, about £100.

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE? Starts around £3,000.

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Will the rise of artificial intelligence signal the end of human creativity in the cocktail world? By Gary Sharpen

T

here was a time when, for most of us, our interaction with AI was limited to watching Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film of the same name. Now it seems to be everywhere. Banking, medicine, entertainment, marketing, travel, surveillance and creativity. And it’s the last of these, creativity, that’s a quintessential part of the cocktail world.

So perhaps it’s hardly surprising that some bartenders are downloading one of the myriad ChatGPT apps available to aid their cocktail creation inspiration.

But does this mean that a bartender’s creative input could be removed altogether? Could anyone open a bar and just ask their friendly app to come up with the drinks menu?

We decided to find out.

The brief

We imagined we owned a neighbourhood bar in London and wanted to create a drinks list based on the city’s cultural individuality. Could AI create that list with just a few questions and prompts from a non-bartender?

Getting started

Having downloaded an app recommended by a friend who knows about all things tech, we were off.

“Suggest 10 cool London cultural events,” we began. In just five seconds we had a list. While we liked the Notting Hill Carnival and London Fashion Week, Street Feast was too vague, Winter Wonderland too date specific and Chelsea Flower Show not particularly, well, cool. After a few prompts, such as “more modern”, we had a list we wanted to celebrate in cocktail form. The process hadn’t taken long and we were getting the hang of prompts. Or so we thought.

Naming the list

To add context to our next request, we stated: “I am a smart London cocktail bar wanting to create a drinks menu inspired by this list. What should I call it?”

As well as a suggestion, there was an explanation: “…a drinks menu inspired by the vibrant and diverse cultural scene in London could be called ‘The London Jamboree’. This name captures the sense of celebration, excitement…” Really? We weren’t feeing it.

After a few more prompts from us – including “more cool” and a request not to use the M word in response to the suggested ‘Metropolitan Mixology’ – we were getting a little irritated by the overly chatty responses that preceded each answer. “Absolutely”, “certainly”, “sure”… like an overenthusiastic intern on their first day. We went all out and asked for several options.

“Certainly!” The likes of ‘Cultural Cocktail Collective’ and ‘Mix & Mingle Metropolis’ followed, as did an instruction to “feel free to mix and match the suggestions”, before the grand

Setting aside the fact that we didn’t like the name, we also had no way of knowing if it was an original drink or not 40 THE COCK TAIL LOVERS / ISSUE 46

C H AT G P T

We ran the recipe through a number of text to image generators and these were some of the hilarious results.

Pineapple twist garnishes and pineapple exteriors with orange interiors

conclusion: “Cheers to a successful and stylish cocktail experience in London!”

We were unimpressed and irritated in equal measures, so decided to move on to the all-important drinks themselves.

Creating a cocktail

We went for the first event on our list: “Create an original cocktail to celebrate the Notting Hill Carnival in London.”

In less than five seconds we were introduced to the ‘Carnival Breeze’.

It consisted of dark rum, coconut rum, lime juice, pineapple juice, passion fruit juice and grenadine, and there were full instructions on measures, shaking and garnishing with pineapple and mint.

We were invited to add a “fun twist” by coating the rim of the glass in sugar.

Presumably in case the drink wasn’t sweet enough already.

Setting aside the fact that we didn’t like the name, we also had no way of knowing if this was an original drink or not, and wanted to avoid potential accusations of plagiarism.

Most importantly, we knew we wouldn’t like it and wouldn’t want to

Livity Limeade 2oz aged rum 1oz lime juice 1oz pineapple juice ¹/₂oz fresh orange juice ¹/₂oz agave syrup Pineapple leaf, to garnish Instructions: Fill a shaker with ice cubes.

Add the aged rum, lime juice, pineapple juice, fresh orange juice, and agave syrup to the shaker. Shake well for about 15-20 seconds to chill the cocktail. Strain the mixture into a chilled Martini glass.

Garnish with a pineapple leaf.

serve it. So more prompts: “less sweet”, “straight up”, “garnish”, and so on.

We ended up with pretty much the same ingredients, less the grenadine, served in a coupe and garnished with a pineapple leaf, along with the happy invitation “to sip on the Carnival Breeze and let it evoke the vibrant energy…”

It wasn’t rocking our boat. Or carnival float. Giving it one more chance we requested a few more names. ‘Carnival

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Sunset’, ‘Ladbroke Island', ‘Grove Grove’, ‘Masquerade Crush’ and ‘Livity Limeade’ were thrown into the mix.

The future

To be fair, the whole experience had taken just about an hour or so, and for a full-on project one would, of course, spend a lot longer than this. Presumably we would get the hang of being very specific with our requests. We would never get used to the faux friendly chat though. Perhaps experienced bartenders might find it useful for brainstorming and a bit of inspiration. Other people might think it would help them actually create drinks. This latter one is a bit of a concern. In the same way that being able to take photos on our phones doesn’t mean we are all suddenly great photographers, AI won’t make novices great drinks creators.

The human touch, with experience and emotional attachment, is key. But we will look to the future with an open mind. And, by the way, we did make the final version of the Livity Limeade. It was bloody awful.

PHOTO STORY

How tech is shaping our new favourite cocktails Photography Michael Hedge Drinks styling Dré Masso

T

here was a time when the only equipment needed to make a cocktail was limited to a few basic items that had hardly changed over a century or two. A shaker or mixing glass were pretty much all that were required to elegantly combine a few ingredients, along with some ice, to serve up something that would delight the guest. Simple.

Today, while the drinks we’re served may look straightforward, pared back even, there’s an increasing chance that there’s been some incredibly clever things going on behind the scenes.

It’s not unusual for contemporary bars to have elaborate prep kitchens or even labs. And within them a bewildering array of high-tech equipment. Here, five bartenders share a serve they’ve created and explain the role of an essential piece of kit.

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THE SERVE

THE SCIENCE

Line’s pomegranate eau-de-vie, pineapple cordial, pomegranate whyin molasses and a tonka dust garnish

“The meter delivers exceptional accuracy for measuring sweetness when we create our sugar syrups, cordials and fermenting products. This means we can get the perfect balance of flavour we’re looking for as well as ensuring that we have consistency in all the drinks we serve, such as in the pomegranate whyin molasses we create for our version of a Mary Pickford.”

Digital brix meter

Mary Pickford

Vasilis Kyritsis, Co-owner, Line, Athens lineathens.gr

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THE SERVE

THE SCIENCE

Olmeca Altos Reposado, ginger and saffron-infused agave, lime juice passion fruit puree, serrano tincture, ginseng royal jelly and a saffron strand garnish

“Essential to this cocktail is the tincture made with tequila and serrano peppers.

Usually when you cook alcohol with ingredients the traditional way, some alcohol evaporates. And a standard infusion takes a long time and can be inconsistent.

But by putting the ingredients in a sous vide, the quality of the alcohol remains along with the intensity of the flavours.”

Aphrodisiac Margarita

Sous vide

Dré Masso, Co-founder, Olmeca Altos Tequila, and Global Bars & Drinks Consultant olmecaaltos.com

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PHOTO STORY

THE SERVE

THE SCIENCE

Himkok beetroot distillate, Vida Mezcal, Tío Pepe, reindeer lichen wine reduction and a pickled beetroot garnish

“We create our signature beetroot distillate with vodka, fresh beetroot juice and a hint of chipotle salsa, for that subtle kick, which we distil in a rotary evaporator. This piece of equipment means we can preserve the crisp taste of beetroot, which is essential to creating our unique variation on a classic Gibson.”

Rotary Evaporator

Smokey Beetroot

Paul Aguilar, Head of R&D, Himkok, Oslo himkok.no

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PHOTO STORY

THE SERVE

Bloody Maria Ozawa Lemon juice, yuzu juice, manzanilla sherry, homemade spice mix, Japanese tomato juice, vodka and an olive garnish

THE SCIENCE

Ultrasonic homogeniser “We mix kombu dashi, Worcestershire sauce, miso paste, wasabi paste, wasabi oil, celery salt, smoked vinegar, umami bitters, black sesame paste and light Japanese soy sauce, then put it through our ultrasonic homogeniser for at least 15 minutes. As the mixture has various densities and viscosities, the machine is essential in combining everything and making it as one, for an umami bomb of a Bloody Mary.”

Arathorn Grey, Head Bartender, Tippling Club, Singapore tipplingclub.com

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THE SERVE

THE SCIENCE

Carolina Reaper distillate, lactofermented pineapple liqueur, Red Okar, fresh pineapple juice and a Davidson plum salt garnish

“The drink starts with the Caroline Reaper, the hottest chilli in the world, which we distil at a low temperature using a rotary evaporator. This allows us to capture all of its floral and fruity characteristics – but none of the chemical compound that causes the heat, because it doesn’t distil.

The finished drink has all of the chilli’s alluring aroma and flavour but none of its hot spice.”

Rotary evaporator

Jungle Byrd

Luke Whearty, Creative Director, Byrdi, Melbourne byrdi.com.au

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THE ROBOTS ARE COMING! But can they replace humans behind the bar? Laura Foster finds out

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ROBOT BARS

DAVI D LE VEQU E - U NS P LA S H

W

hen it comes to robots, it’s very easy to worry about the end of days, or at least the end of jobs as we know it. The robots are coming! But what sort of impact are they going to have on bars, and are they really going to usurp hospitality workers?

First, let’s examine the current state of play. The technology is already advanced.

Global automation company Kuka has developed robots that can carry out relatively complex tasks to produce decent-looking cocktails, and its technology has been adopted in other companies’ systems.

One such set-up is Toni, a futuristic white bar box developed by Makr Shakr, where two Kuka robots with different functionality have been placed together.

One arm mixes the drinks, the other provides support, like a barback.

You can find one of these machines – London’s first cocktail-making robot – in Holborn, in a virtual reality gaming venue called Sandbox VR. Entering the building, you’re greeted by the blood-curdling screams of gamers, and smiling staff. The ‘bar’ sits in the main lobby, and guests can use iPads on the surrounding tables to choose from a basic menu that includes Negronis and Lynchburg Lemonades.

As an order comes in, Toni’s arms glide into action, with one gathering ice and the other moving between the bottles overhead. The drink is finished and placed on a spotlight, ready for collection: a Dark ‘N’ Stormy in a disposable plastic cup. I insert a straw, take a sip. It’s ridiculously sweet. But with a bartender on hand to taste the drink and tweak the specs during the development phase, the standard would very easily jump up several notches.

The development of this technology is surprisingly quick, as Rich Walker, director of leading robotics firm Shadow Robot, attests. In the space of just six months, the company went from a commission to produce a top-quality chef robot, to a fully functioning machine called Moley that could create a restaurant-quality crab bisque. “It’s absolute madness,” Walker declares. “It’s cooking a 27-minute recipe perfectly every time.”

The way these robots are ‘taught’ is relatively simple, when you’ve built the system, as he explains: “You can put a pair of gloves on, control the robot, get it to do something, record it and then, with a bit of fine-tuning, be able to play that back to replicate what the person has done.”

We discuss a robot’s potential limitations in smelling and tasting, but to ensure the consistency of a drink that uses fresh ingredients, but decide there are ways around that through the use of artificial noses that ‘smell’ for chemical compounds, alongside analysis of other parameters such as brix and pH levels.

One of the overriding impressions I took away from my encounter with Toni was the novelty factor: people dropping in to grab a drink and some content for their TikTok. Could it ever be more than this?

A certain ratio

Another company that’s using Kuka’s technology is Ratio, an organisation which runs a number of coffee-and-cocktail venues in Asia. Company CEO Gavin Pathross spoke to Tristan Stephenson on his Bar Chat podcast in 2020, declaring that the West was five years behind China in its adoption of robotic technology. He explained that six months after Ratio

the human connection is still a vital part of why we go to a bar or restaurant.”

As with everything, however, there’s always a time and place. Pathross explained that, with 1,000 hotels opening a year in China back in 2020, there simply wasn’t enough adequately trained staff to meet requirements.

With the initial outlay for robotic bar machines being at least $100,000, it’s not the sort of cash that most on-trade start-ups can spare. However, Andy Scanlon, CEO of Sandbox VR, UK and Ireland, believes that the machine makes financial sense. “It is a significant investment. When we made the decision to integrate Toni into our venues, we ran an analysis that showed it was in fact more cost effective than the human option.”

As the developments in robotics coincide with the huge leaps and bounds being made within the realms of AI, the advancements made in this sphere are likely to be exponential in the coming years.

Having said that, while it’s unlikely that we’re going to be faced with an army of robots tending bars across the globe, there is a chance the on-trade will find a middle ground. “I think some of the more mundane jobs, the more subtle and discreet kind of jobs, are where robots could infiltrate,” suggests Stephenson.

“Like processing glassware. And I can imagine a future where things like batching drinks are done by robots.”

“I suspect that it will be hidden,” suggests Walker. “So for example, a good dishwasher is a lot more intelligent than

As an order comes in, Toni’s arms glide into action, with one gathering ice and the other moving between the bottles launched its venues there, the robots lost their novelty factor, and the company then had to trade on the standard of its drinks.

With such rapid acceptance of Ratio’s robotic staff, does this ultimately spell the end for human bartenders?

Stephenson doesn’t think so. “I doubt that we’re going to see robots taking on those roles in a meaningful way that’s going to have a genuine impact on the industry,” he declares. “Because although robots have various uses – I now have ones that cut my lawn and vacuums my house – we don’t find ourselves requiring an emotional connection with a cleaner or a gardener, like we do with a hospitality server. It’s called hospitality, and I think

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anybody thinks. It’s monitoring the particulates in the water, it’s monitoring the inflow of the water and adjusting the chemical balance. And you could imagine that you would have other parts of the process [where] we can add some intelligence into a piece of equipment.”

Walking out of Sandbox VR and contemplating my robotic encounter, once the sweetness has faded, there’s one thing that really stood out. It wasn’t Toni with its smooth, efficient arms. It was the people who greeted us. Their friendliness, their humanity was the thing that stood out. Because, as Stephenson correctly pointed out, this is hospitality, a place for human connection.

09 – 11 OCTOBER 23

INTERNATIONAL BAR AND BEVERAGE TRADE SHOW EXHIBITION CENTRE BERLIN

BARCONVENT.COM/TICKETS FOLLOW US @BARCONVENTBER

DIGESTIF TIME TO SIP, SAVOUR AND CONTEMPLATE

IN THIS ISSUE Simone Caporale and Marc Alvarez weigh-up the merits of technology in the hospitality space, we enjoy stunning cocktails and cuisine, and Priyanka Blah takes us to the best bars in India

p. 60 Studio Frantzén

Swedish flavours come to the fore in the food and drinks at chef Björn Frantzen’s superstylish outpost at Harrods

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Modern looks combine with old-fashioned hospitality, the Sips team around the open-concept bar

THE HEART OF THE MATTER Simone Caporale and Marc Alvarez on why science will never replace good, old-fashioned hospitality

Behind the bar at Barcelona's historic Boadas

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THE HUMAN TOUCH

A

ll this tech business is all well and good but when you’re talking about drinks, bars in particular, you really can’t beat good, old-fashioned hospitality. At least that’s what Simone Caporale believes. And who’s going to argue with him? Having dazzled the cocktail cognoscenti with his creativity and charm during the five years that he was dreaming up all kinds of magic and far-out serves at the then multi-award-winning Artesian in London, he’s been regarded as one of the most innovative, influential and forwardthinking bartenders ever since.

These days he’s based in Barcelona,

With its soothing sage walls, openconcept bar and designer-clad staff, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Sips might be a bit too-cool-for-school – the kind of place where tech would take centre stage.

But the human touch that Simone talks about so passionately comes into play the minute you walk through the door.

That streamlined bar set at a jaunty angle isn’t just there to look good, it’s a way of preventing a barrier between the team and their guests – think low-key house-party vibes. Simone weaves his way through the room, ever engaging, ever attentive – in short, the perfect host – while the bartenders, led by Marc Alvarez, work around the convivial bar set-up on the drinks. It’s modern but

centrifuges,” he says. “But actually the most valuable piece of technology in the hospitality space these days is probably the reservation system. It may not seem sexy but it’s a powerful tool that provides important data that gives you vital information about your guests, all kinds of information that you can use to give them better experiences.”

Not that either of their bars has a reservation system in place. “We prefer old-school data, which is taking notes, remembering people and engaging with our guests,” Simone adds with a smile.

They do use tech though, but when they do, it’s considered – to add rather than replace, speeding up the process of certain tasks. Like help with research, for

“WE PREFER OLD-SCHOOL DATA, TAKING NOTES AND ENGAGING WITH OUR GUESTS”

The interior at Sips, Below: Simone Caporale (left), and Marc Alvarez

the proud co-owner of two very different destination bars. In the modern, minimalist, more experimental corner, there’s Sips Drinkery House – at the time of writing, positioned at number three on The World’s 50 Best Bars list. And in the other, representing a perfect slice of cocktail history is Boadas, the oldest bar in the city, dating back to 1933. They each have their own very distinct style and appeal to cocktail lovers around the world for very different reasons. But the success of both, according to Simone, is the human touch.

“There are always going to be modern tools, there is always going to be the latest shiny gadget, fancy bits of equipment and new technology but ultimately, you must bring in the human element,” he says. “Or put it another way, you need the passion, the energy that the human approach maintains,” he pauses and adds for impact. “That’s the essence of hospitality.”

classic, classy but relaxed, not too large, not too small. Just the right size, in fact, for Simone, Marc and the rest of the Sips team to interact with their guests.

Marc is co-owner of Sips and Boadas.

With a background in biological sciences and a CV that includes positions such as former group head of bars at Michelinstarred chef Albert Adrià’s restaurants, he too is considered to be a ‘mixologist’ rather than an old-fashioned bartender.

“When people talk about technology in bars and restaurants, they automatically think of rotovap machines and

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instance. “It helps speed up the process for sure,” says Simone. “For example, if I’m exploring something like the compatibility of flavours, if the data tells me that dry sherry and strawberries are compatible say, then I have some solid information to explore that route further.

We’ve also used it for developing Esencia, our new concept bar within Sips which opens in a few weeks time,” he continues.

“We modelled the first prototypes for the shapes of the serviceware by hand, in Plasticine, then did a 3D scan and printed them in 3D.” The big one for Marc, is the vacuum pack. “It’s been a real game-changer for me,” he enthuses. “Mainly because you can control the liquids and be certain that there’s no bacteria or anything to make it spoil inside – it’s more hygienic, much safer than storing your liquids in plastic or a glass container in the fridge.

And when you use the vacuum you always take notes about the procedure, which allows for more consistency.”

“Technology is not just a thing; certain ingredients are also a result of it,” adds Simone. “Like enzymes for instance, and the process of clarification. However, you need to start with the basics before you can elaborate. Technology can help you speed up processes but honestly, whatever comes from your heart, your mind, your passion can never be replaced by anything else.”

Giulia Cuccurullo behind the bar at Artesian

THE COCKTAIL GIRL ADMIRES… A London bar that’s looking to the future

Artesian The Langham, 1C Portland Place, London W1B 1JA artesian-bar.co.uk

I love it when girls are on top.

No, not in that way! I mean when women are completely bossing it in business. Especially in the bar. Not being funny and this is nothing to do with the guys out there, but this still tends to be a very male-dominated space. So when I see champs like Chelsie Bailey heading up the team at the iconic American Bar at The Savoy and Giulia Cuccurullo and Lorenza Pezzetta, the superstars running the show at Artesian at The Langham hotel, I can’t help but give the air a little fist bump.

Giulia is head bartender, Lorenza is bar manager/brand ambassador for the hotel and together they run an impressive

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ship – all warmth, twinkly eyes, big smiles and attentive service backed with razor-sharp precision and a work ethic that’s second to none. I love watching the two of them – Giulia orchestrating every move, every drink behind the bar, and Lorenza conducting the rhythm and flow of everything and everyone in front of it.

Okay, fandom over, I’m parched… but before I get to the drinks, a few words about the room. Artesian was one of the first of the super-sexy, superstylised, designer-led five-star London hotel bars I remember visiting – and 15 or so years later, I’m still in awe of it. There’s a lovely relaxed, extremely elegant feel about the space in the afternoon, with that rare thing in bars, natural daylight streaming through. In the evening, it slips into full-on glamour mode thanks to soft, subtle, very flattering lighting.

Both are ideal for settling in and exploring the new menu.

Called Ingredients of the Future, the list takes in 16 drinks, each celebrating a single ingredient that is, well, an ingredient of the future – durrrr!

There are drinks based on sweet potato, pandan, amaranth, tiger nuts and more, including my choice, Soil (Haku Vodka, sake, soil scent and koji). Described as ‘an earthy Artesian twist on the dry Martini’, it certainly rocked my boat – particularly the clever garnish that looked like a teeny plant growing at the bottom of the glass. My date went for one of the braver options on the menu, Insects (Michter’s Bourbon, Campari, Nixta, crickets, chicatanas corn, coffee and lime), which, despite sounding pretty scary, is a rather clever riff on a Whisky Sour.

There’s a Humble Chicken and Artesian Pairing Experience that’s just launched too, with four of chef Angelo Sato’s amazing dishes paired with three drinks (Peas, Sweet Potato and Kombu) from the menu. I haven’t tried it. But I can’t wait – Artesian cocktails x Angelo Sato’s food is just too good to miss.

OUT AND ABOUT

A bar in Paris inspired by the pubs of London? I’ll be honest, I couldn’t quite imagine it. I like a classic Blighty pub and, no surprise here, I love a bar with decent cocktails. But a combination of the two…

Definitely something to be investigated I thought. So a brisk hop, via Eurostar, and my date and I were no longer in London but happily in Paris. More specifically, walking down the Rue de Poitou. It was a warm day and the grey skies had given way to some agreeable sunshine. And there it was. The Cambridge Public House. A rich blue frontage, augmented with red velvet curtains framing wide open French windows, made for a very welcoming sight.

Stepping inside, the British pub inspiration began to make a little more sense. It’s not that it absolutely looks like a British pub.

But, rather, it has a feel of one.

Small groups, romantic couples and introspective solo drinkers were all equally and comfortably at home.

Dark wood, muted colours, thrift shop oil paintings and a reclaimed brass bar top all combined nicely. Along with subdued lighting and non-intrusive music, it felt like… well… a rather smart pub.

As for the drinks. If any pub we knew offered craft beers, a distinguished wine list and an exceptionally creative cocktail menu, then we would definitely be proclaiming it our local of choice.

From the pleasingly simple and unpretentious menu, presented on a small clipboard, we started with a couple of drinks from the Tiny Bevs section. A neat idea consisting of three bijou taster cocktails. Just the thing to start proceedings.

Charmingly described as ‘two classics sharing a bed’, my Gimlet Julep (mint, Dolin Dry Vermouth and Woodford Reserve Bourbon) was as clever as it was delicious.

Meanwhile, my date went with the Cool Cat (Flor de Caña 18 Year Old Rum, Dolin Rouge Vermouth, oloroso sherry, Noix de la St Jean and sesame), which was sensuous and nicely surprising thanks to the hint of sesame.

From the current House Cocktail section we followed with Cigarette After Sex (Agua de

THE COCKTAIL GUY DROPS INTO… A distinctly Parisian take on the British pub

The Cambridge Public House 8 Rue de Poitou, 75003 Paris, France thecambridge.paris 57 THE COCK TAIL LOVERS / ISSUE 46

Jamaica, Elephant Sloe Gin and Del Maguey Vida Mezcal). Perhaps only the French could get away with a name like that. But the mezcal certainly suggested a very pleasant post-coital moment.

And our Pan Con Cassouhuète (peanut, toasted bread, Flor de Caña 12 Year Old Rum and Amer du Viaduc) was a revelation. Not only is it created using leftover brioche (the team here are very big on sustainable principles), which is to be welcomed, but it also made for an incredibly rich smoothness that suggested the texture of a fine single malt whisky.

While The Cambridge is all about drinks rather than food, I heartily recommend trying a few of the snacks. Again inspired by pubs, there are the likes of sausage rolls and cheese pastries, both excellent, tasty and designed to ensure we didn’t leave but stayed for another very welcome round of fabulous cocktails. All to be enjoyed while forgetting about time and simply watching the world go by.

Something we’re always happy to do in our favourite pubs.

DIAL UP YOUR SERVES WITH

A PERFECT ALCOHOL-FREE OPTION OR A SWITCH UP TO YOUR CLASSIC COCKTAIL MIXERS A M O L A P D B C E N U T IN a or your

Pour 35ml of tequilaernative favourite alcohol altr ice. Add a into a tall glass ove pefruit, top squeeze of fresh grafruit & Mint. with INTUNE Grape

HOW-TO

TAKE THREE INGREDIENTS

By Diego Ignacio Villagrán Paredes, head of liquid research at Central and Kjolle restaurants, Lima Amazonian Citrus.

rest in it’s family, and lastly, an Amazonian honey that has a high citrus note and a small amount of spiciness to it. The honey is beautiful, it’s wild and multi-floral.

To elaborate our citrus apertif we only use three ingredients.

We have our sugar cane spirit made in Cusco at an altitude of 3,000meters by our research centre, Mater; Limón rugoso, an incredible Amazonian citrus with a thick skin that makes utilising the essential oils great, and produces an interesting juice that is not as citric as the

The process to make our Amazonian Citrus is quite simple. We use no preservatives or food colouring. We simply separate the citrus skins and boil them with hot water to

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remove the bitterness from the skin. We later sous vide the skins, juice, cane spirit, and Amazonian honey for two hours at a controlled temperature.

This way we obtain a beverage with a balanced bitterness and acidity. Finally, we filter with coffee strains to get a pure product and prevent it from evolving in time. It takes several hours but it is crucial for our final product.

STUDIO FRANTZÉN FIFTH FLOOR, HARRODS, 87-135 BROMPTON ROAD, LONDON SW1X 7XL. STUDIOFRANTZENLONDON.COM (£££)

The vibe: If you thought all department store restaurants had a whiff of the homogenised about them, you most certainly haven’t been to Harrods. Or more specifically, to Studio Frantzén at Harrods. Yes, you enter via the store but once inside, you’re transported to another place entirely, one that’s a very tasteful showcase for Swedish craftsmanship and artistry, bathed in soft lighting that washes the room in a warming, very flattering glow. Spread over two floors, it’s the first London outpost for multi-Michelin-starred Swedish chef Björn Frantzén and a very welcome addition to the scene it is too. The rooftop terrace with views over Knightsbridge is a destination in its own right.

MAINS & MARTINIS Three restaurants with central, open-plan kitchens making a big impression in London’s dining scene

The food: Don’t even think about eating here without sampling the warm laminated milk bread served with blond miso butter and honey. Sound good to you? Believe us, it tastes even better.

We followed this with a couple of grilled oysters accompanied by smoked butter sauce, herring caviar and dirty seaweed oil (pure heaven), before diving into a shared starter of roasted Orkney scallop with carrot ‘hot sauce’ xo, fingerlime and ikura.

Like everything we’d tasted, it was pure joy, pretty as a picture on the eye and every bit as delightful on the palate. Highly recommended on the mains front is the Studio Frantzén Caesar salad. Yes, salad! But this is no ordinary salad. For a start, it’s prepared with much aplomb at your table, and perhaps even more impressively, it’s a feast, comprising guinea fowl, misotogarashi, pine nuts and pork belly ‘kakuni’. Wonderful stuff.

The drinks: The cocktails, like the food, are heavily inspired by Nordic and Japanese flavours. Ingredients are many and varied, including the likes of lingonberry, sea buckthorn, liquorice, acid pandan and black garlic – though thankfully not all in one glass.

We tried the Wabi-Sabi (Nuet Dry Aquavit, Japanese melon, apple, nettle and citrus) and Loranga (Linie Aquavit sherry cask, carrot, dill, yuzu and shisho), both agreeably punchy yet bright, fresh and inventive.

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E AT & D R I N K

PADELLA

1 PHIPP STREET, LONDON EC2A 4PS. PADELLA.CO (£)

The vibe: Think the airiness, height and concrete ‘bones’ of an industrial loft space but cleverly softened with warming tones and relaxed seating. The result is a welcoming space that pulls in the crowds from lunch through to late evening. And with good reason: it’s affordable, friendly and fun, with four main areas (a bustling open kitchen, window dining, central restaurant and bar) all with their own level of theatre.

The food: Tagliarini with dried chilli, garlic and pangrattato; fettuccine with Cobble Lane Cured nduja, mascarpone and lemon; fettuccine with Scottish girolles – try reading that little lot without your mouth watering.

Particularly if you’re hungry. Or greedy.

Or both as we were on our visit.

We started with a crisp rocket and mint salad with Moscatel dressing, along with a deliciously oozy burrata served with Le Ferre olive oil – both fresh-as-you-like and bursting with goodness. The same can be said for our mains: tagliarini with Dorset crab, chilli and lemon, and the pici cacio and pepe, which we placed in the centre of the table and shared.

Bellissimo! The food here is homey in the best possible way and priced well enough to make dining here a regular habit – particularly when you’re carb-loading.

The drinks: £2 Negronis anyone? Yes, really. If you needed another reason to dine here, then this is one of them: order any of the fabulous freshly made pasta dishes on the menu between 5pm and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday and you can enjoy a bargain-priced Padella Negroni.

We also recommend the Padella Martini, served straight from the freezer, both created by Mr Lyan Studio.

Origin City

12 WEST SMITHFIELD, LONDON EC1A 9JR. ORIGINCITY.CO.UK (££)

The vibe: Smart but not too smart, providing the perfect setting for everything from formal business lunches through to casual after-work drinks.

It’s ideally located in the heart of West Smithfield, erstwhile home of London’s main wholesale meat market, and we love the fact that all of the butchery and charcuterie is proudly carried out in-house. Not for vegetarians.

The food: The focus is on pasture-toplate, nose-to-tail dining, shining a light on the heritage breed cows, pigs and sheep raised on the 600-acre organic family farm in Scotland. And boy, did we put them to the taste test. Our six-course Discover Origin meat feast commenced with a selection of excellent charcuterie, made from scratch in-house and served with the requisite pickles, followed by

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pastrami doused with Marie Rose sauce and a sprinkling of Old Winchester cheese. Next, grilled Morteau sausage, again made on-site and accompanied by lentils and sweet mustard, followed by chargrilled Texel hogget, curd and salsa verde – it’s well worth visiting for this dish alone. There’s more too, all gutsy but dainty and executed to perfection.

The drinks: At the time of our visit, the focus was on the classics; we had a fabulous Martini and Manhattan which we would definitely order again. The list now takes in signature cocktails with a Scottish lilt, including the likes of Highlander (grapefruit gin, bianco vermouth, Aperol, grapefruit juice and fresh mint) and Dundee Smoke (mixed berries, smoked ginger infusion, lemon, honey syrup and ginger beer).

IMBIBING COCKTAILS AT INDIA’S FINEST BARS As we begin to see more bars from the Indian subcontinent make a mark in the global domain, there’s a certain curiosity about the best watering holes in the region and what they have to offer, says Priyanka Blah

A

s you move between India’s cities, the bar scene undergoes a subtle transformation. It’s not just the language that changes – it’s the sights, the sounds, the food, the people and the way they socialise. But what remains constant is urban India’s thirst for good drinks.

Over the past decade, a growing appetite for sophisticated cocktail and social experiences has given rise to some of the finest bars in the subcontinent.

Globally recognised as one of the largest

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consumers of whisky in the world, and arguably the second largest consumers of the whisky highball, India’s urban spenders are now seeking drinks beyond the ordinary.

Food is an equally important part of the social experience, and choosing to dine and enjoy great cocktails in the same place is fairly normal, if not the norm.

This has led to a growth in restaurants with excellent bar programmes that have an identity of their own which are justifiably drawing attention from the global cocktail community.

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Sidecar, New Delhi

Highlighting native ingredients is key at Art Deco-styled Home

Sidecar features regularly on Asia's 50 Best Bars list

A regular on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, Sidecar is a coming-of-age story of one of the country’s only bartender-owned and -led bars that has achieved tremendous global attention. Yangdup Lama, a bartender for over 20 years, and his partner Minakshi Singh have managed to create a quintessential neighbourhood bar in the heart of India’s capital city.

With a diverse menu of crowd-pleasing dishes such as pork ribs and the ‘bartender’s fried rice’, along with weekly live music performances and pub quizzes, Sidecar has something for everybody. This all-day destination spans three levels, each with its own distinctive personality. The bar is on the second level, where a long wooden counter is reminiscent of mountain tea shops, drawing inspiration from Yangdup’s own home in the hills. The drinks are uncomplicated and clean, and the menu sees frequent updates from the team as they incorporate local, seasonal produce into the bar’s offering. Weekdays at Sidecar are perfect for perching yourself at the bar while you banter with one of the bartenders as they scurry about with ease, while weekends can get quite busy, as is to be expected from one of the top bars in the country. Ask for the Barley – a heady mix of scotch whisky, wheat beer reduction, vetiver and roasted barley. sidecarindia.com

Home, New Delhi

Once a members-only club, Home is now known as one of the top destinations for fine drinking in New Delhi, offering progressive drinks with sustainable principles at their core. Heralded by Santanu Chanda, the young bar team are committed to highlighting native Indian ingredients, sourcing the finest seasonal produce from the region to craft their masterpieces. The drink selection spans timeless classics to signature cocktails that use state-of-the-art techniques, so whether you’re seeking a glass of wine or a boundary-redefining cocktail, the menu has something to suit.

Dressed in an elegant Art Deco style, and with an impressive kitchen and a private dining option, Home is a great place to celebrate special events or simply escape the bustle of the city.

On a quiet weekday, you can sit back and engage in delightful conversation across the bar, while weekends see a flurry of activity ranging from stand-up comedy to live music. Either way, expect to be entertained and regaled by some of the finest drinks and hospitality in the city. home-delhi.com

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L

The Living Room at Masque, Mumbai

A quiet corner at The Bombay Canteen

Mumbai’s highly awarded restaurant Masque has long been celebrated for its exemplary cocktail programme, which has seen it secure a spot on this year’s Asia’s 50 Best Bars list. Leading the way is beverage head Ankush Gamre, who is one of the most progressive and talented bartenders in the country.

With an unwavering dedication to innovation and sustainability, Ankush and his team spend considerable time in the Masque Lab, developing new recipes and uncovering the best regional and seasonal ingredients.

Like Masque’s renowned dining offering, which celebrates India’s culinary landscape through chef Varun Totlani’s masterfully crafted tasting menus, the simple and elegant cocktail menu reflects the flavours of India. Featuring ingredients such as wild thyme foraged in the Himalayas and black garlic aged in-house, drinks are presented in the most contemporary styles using cutting-edge techniques making the bar a unique addition to Mumbai’s evergrowing cocktail scene. masquerestaurant.com

The Bombay Canteen, Mumbai

Through carefully crafted food and drinks, The Bombay Canteen gives you a real sense of the vastness of India’s culinary landscape. Its menu is an outstanding homage to the country’s regional cuisines, while every drink is a generous showcase of locally sourced and seasonal ingredients.

Through the years, the cocktail menu at this popular spot has evolved and transformed to tell stories that go beyond the realm of drinks. Each bar menu pays homage to the city, with striking design elements to bring its story to life, from a playful pop-up art book showcasing Mumbai’s Art Deco architecture to a guidebook that takes guests on a nostalgic journey back to the golden age of cinematic Talkies. The latest draws inspiration from the ‘People of the Promenade’, and celebrates the diverse crowds who are seen breathing life into the city’s iconic Marine Drive every day.

A timeless tribute to Mumbai’s Art Deco heritage, the bar itself is a beautiful place to spend several hours enjoying unique interpretations of India’s finest flavours, expertly crafted by Prantik Halder and his team. A must-try drink is the Rear View – a tribute to the city’s iconic black and yellow taxis, it’s a bold combination of black garlic, tequila, honey, ginger and lime. thebombaycanteen.com

Magnificently minimalist at The Living Room at Masque

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Palatial pleasures at ZLB 23

ZLB 23 at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru

Tucked away in a secret part of Bengaluru’s Leela Palace hotel, ZLB 23 is an atmospheric hideaway that draws inspiration from the opulence and old-world charm of a Kyoto speakeasy.

Decked out in deep red hues, the main entrance is through the ‘vault’ – this is the only area where pictures are permitted. As you enter the main bar through rich velvet drapes, hardwood floors and beautifully detailed wallpaper you’re immediately transported to Japan.

The interiors are warm and elegant, with luxurious furniture upholstered in fabric by renowned Indian bridalwear designer Sabyasachi.

The highlight of ZLB is, of course, the bar – replete with the finest Japanese whiskies and craft cocktails conjured up by a very talented bar team. Served in the most exquisite glassware, the drinks mirror the refinement of the venue itself, offering impeccably balanced flavours that venture beyond conventional boundaries. A delectable selection of food from the grill complements the drinks, and a live jazz band puts up a fine performance every evening to make sure the night is nothing short of perfect. theleela.com

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India is on the verge of a hospitality revolution and the subcontinent is set up for an exciting few years ahead with brands and consumers spending good money on fine drinking experiences. With some of the best bars on the continent located in the region, expect a steady rise in the number of bars opening across the country. Perhaps it’s time to make those travel plans…

PARTING SHOT

GOOD VIBRATIONS! The last word goes to the talented team at Hacha and their groundbreaking cocktail menu using soundwaves, vibrations and frequencies to disrupt liquids in a fascinating and truly unique way

The menu, like the process, is called Cymatics and comprises 12 drinks influenced by the baselines and vocals of artists including Little Simz, David Bowie, The Clash and Nina Simone.

Take your pick from the likes of Red Alert – brought to life by the beats of the Basement Jaxx track of the same name (The Lost Explorer Mezcal, red cabbage, hibiscus, yuzu, Empirical Symphony 6 and grapefruit). Then there’s Kendrick Lamar’s Mirror (pictured) – based on Hacha’s award-winning, crystal-clear Mirror Margarita (Patrón Silver Tequila, Hacha sour mix, cane syrup and grapefruit oils).

Available as a digital menu, it’s clever, creative, delicious and daring, and the cocktails absolutely rock. hachabar.com

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ON THE COVER...

Turning on the glamour at The Beaufort Bar

PLUS An exclusive interview with Christina Hendricks A peak behind the scenes at Gerry’s Wines & Spirits And 25 reasons to be a cocktail lover this season

ISSUE 19

Take your seat at the plushest cinemas in town

The Best of British Flying the flag for the best British cocktail ingredients

capital come out to celebrate our first birthday edition

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AUTUMN / WINTER 2017

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Martinis at the movies

The London Issue The finest bartenders in the

Shake it baby!

How to mix things up in style

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REASONS TO BE A COCKTAIL LOVER THIS SEASON.

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WINTER 2017

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SHADES OF DISTINCTION

The people, the places, the drinks

IN BOTTLES, PEOPLE AND DRINKS

With Dale DeGroff / Philip Duff / Simon Ford / Lynnette Marrero / Jack McGarry / Jim Meehan / Ivy Mix / Sean Muldoon / gaz regan / Julie Reiner / Audrey Saunders / Charlotte Voisey / David Wondrich / Naren Young and many more

reasons to brighten + 25up the season

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Every single back issue of The Cocktail Lovers magazine is available on digital. To get any issue simply scan the QR code or visit issuu.com/thecocktaillovers ISSUE 23

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RAYS YOUR GLASSES Summer special

FLIGHTS OF FANCY Cocktails in the sky

T IS FOR TEQUILA A guide to Mexico’s finest export

FRESH THINKING For modern drinking

HOW DO YOU TAKE YOURS? Diving into the world of drinks experiences

ON CO

With some of the brightest, most inspiring minds in the biz…

of the Cocktail + Tales on Tour Edinburgh Guide

Soaking up the sun

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The future of drinks 2016: A cocktail odyssey Trends to watch on earth and beyond

Space invader

A vessel that is truly out of this world

+ What Alex and Simone did next

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BAR GAZERS

SUMMER 2017

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DE RE

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Sip thr cap

Straight from Colombia’s exuberant Carribean coast, La Hechicera is a naturally unadulterated Extra Anejo rum with a promise: From barrel to bottle, nothing added in between.

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