Café Royal unveils botanicals and tonics bar

London hotel Café Royal is to open a bar dedicated to botanicals used in gin production and different tonics, based on 1937 tome the Café Royal Cocktail Book.

Café Royal in London has opened a gin bar dedicated to botanicals and tonics

The Green Bar Botanicals & Tonics features the Gin Journey menu comprised of gins, tonics and garnishes from around the world.

Local and international flavours and traditions feature; a given example is Battersea-distilled Dodd’s Gin paired with Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic, chillies and lemon peel.

The bar also offers six Tanqueray gins (including Tanqueray Old Tom Gin, Tanqueray Malacca, Tanqueray Bloomsbury, and Tanqueray Rangpur), each used in different serves. The Kumquat Bubble, a signature cocktail of Tunes Bar in Café Royal’s sister hotel, The Conservatorium in Amsterdam, combines Tanqueray 10 with Kumquat liqueur, Fever Tree Lemonade, grapefruit and mint.

Further libations include, Portobello Road No.171 with Fever Tree Indian Tonic, blood orange and rosemary; Half Hitch with 1724 Tonic and cinnamon; Elephant Gin with Thomas Henry Indian Tonic, fresh ginger and lemon grass; and Monkey 47 Sloe Gin with Fever Tree Indian Tonic and orange peel.

In total, the bar offers 18 gins to pair with seven different tonics.

Alongside the gin offer, Green Bar Botanicals & Tonics will offer an Absinthe Experience, featuring a selection of spirits and cocktails, and Café Royal signatures, with base spirits including mezcal and Armagnac. A small plates menu will also be available.

The Green Bar Botanicals & Tonics opens as the UK gin craze shows no sign of abating. Earlier this week, the WSTA launched Scotland’s first gin trail to encourage tourists to swap whisky for gin.