We’ve got the insider intel on the way to drink like a Londoner: with a perfect, trend-defining cocktail in a world-class bar.
drink like a londoner
THE FASTEST WAY TO BECOME A GIN COCKTAIL PRO
Emma Stokes, former bartender, current scientist, and the co-founder of World Gin Day, told us her three tips for exploring the diverse world of gin cocktails. She put it simply:
- “Find a good bar
- Sit at the bar
- Talk to the bartender. They’re the gatekeepers to delicious cocktails”.
THE SECRET BEHIND A PERFECT MARTINI
Alessandro Palazzi, the legendary bartender overseeing the London institution Dukes Bar London, gave us three quick tips to making the perfect martini. “Temperature, ingredients, and a good lemon. Perfect”.
what makes a great bar?
London is rife with world-class bars. Many of them, in fact, were masterminded by Jules Pearson. She’s the founder of digital magazine London on the Inside, and has overseen development of tonnes of London (and beyond…!)’s finest outposts. We asked her what makes a good bar great, and she kept it super simple for us.
“The secret to a great bar is music. And comfy seats are also really good… I think number one would be fast drinks. No one wants to wait ten minutes for a drink.”
Insider intel on the future of great drinks
If there’s one woman we wanted to ask about high end cocktails, it had to be our friend Benedetta Paris from the fantastic bar Happiness Forgets. With plenty of awards under her belt and a passion for creating new beloved serves, we needed to hear her opinion on cocktail culture and where it’s headed.
“What defines a high end cocktail… Balance, temperature and ice. Curiosity and breaking your own limits drives innovation in mixology…” We asked her what the next big cocktail trend was: “Something that I love: simplicity! I love simplicity in a drink.”
the number one cocktail mistaKe to avoid
We know a perfectly chilled drink is the difference between a good cocktail and a great cocktail. But when we asked Sly Augustin, foudner of beloved bar Trailer Happiness, what his cocktail no-no was, he had this to say.
“You’re gotta fill the glass with ice. But can I sip it without having the cube fall over me? It’s not Jenga, you knwo what I mean? There’s not a prize for balancing more cubes on top of the glass.”
