London Cocktail Week 2016 in pictures
London Cocktail Week (LCW) returned to the UK’s capital with a bumper itinerary packed with pop-up bars, masterclasses and cocktail tours. Pipped as Europe’s biggest cocktail festival, the event featured a plethora of drinks promotions, parties and activations aplenty for consumers, as well as seminars, tastings and competitions for the trade.
London’s Old Spitalfields Market was transformed into a The Cocktail Village for the duration of the week, boasting bespoke pop-up bars appearing as trucks, vans, tricycles, airport departure lounges, gin emporiums, hidden gardens, mobile bottles and even a chicken coop.
All manner of serves were up for grabs – Irish liqueur brand Baileys hosted a #PSILoveYou Freakshake Bar which celebrated the launch of new Baileys Pumpkin Spice by way of a collaboration with freakshake expert Molly Bakes, while gin brand Martin Miller’s invited cocktail lovers to put their pedal to the metal and blend their own post-workout cocktail.
A selection of botany-inspired high-balls crafted by the team at Ryan Chetiyawardana’s acclaimed London bar, Dandelyan, were also up for grabs – each drink was inspired by tales of hunters, gatherers, shamans and explorers.
Patrón Tequila brought seven award-winning international bartenders from Miami to Münich and San Juan to Singapore to Patrón Cocktail Lab to serve a series of curated cocktails inspired by their city. Little Red Door’s Remy Savage from Paris is pictured above.
Bacardi teamed up with London’s Rum Kitchen to recreate a taste of Miami in the Village – featuring flamingos, tropical decor and watermelon cocktails.
Renowned Italian bartender Simone Caporale, along with friends from Aqua Shard, Oriole, Chiltern Firehouse, Mr Foggs and 45 Park Lane, joined Italian heritage spirits brands for a unique pop-up – The House of Peroni presents Amare L’Italia. The bar offered a series of cocktails paying tribute to their creators’ love of Italy, inspired by ingredients hailing from the area surrounding Venice.
With so much going on at the Village hub – not to mention bartender takeovers and bespoke LCW serves featuring in esteemed bars across the capital – visitors could almost be forgiven for neglecting The World Class House – the biggest and best heart of the festival, which this year welcomed guests “Into the Unknown”. The ground floor boasted two bar areas – the Retro bar and the Future Bar – which featured eight World Class cocktails curated by Aidan Bowie and Ali Reynolds.
The top floor of the house hosted a #LoveScotch activation, a journey of four sensor challenges which invited Old Fashioned fans to look, listen, taste and touch to come up with their own bespoke variant.
At The Ketel One Kitchen, the vodka brand explored the ‘Bloody Mary of the future’ by challenging perceptions of flavour and temperature and introducing gastronomic garnishes. Pritesh Mody, of World of Zing, made recommedations with a range of rare and exotic spices.
The Tanqueray No. Ten Future Forest was filled with a range of herbs and botanicals prime for picking. Guests strolled through the forest, gathering ingredients along the way to create their own personalised gin cocktail.
Courvoisier teamed up with NOLA to highlight the Paris Golden Age and the historic cocktail culture from New Orleans in a bid to transport guests back to the 1800’s – and featured seminars spanning the history of pairing Cognac and gastronomy, to classic cocktail serves.
