The week in pictures
To commemorate the Moscow Mule’s significance in cocktail history and its impact on cocktail culture, Smirnoff vodka and Foodimentary are declaring 3 March as National Moscow Mule Day. Smirnoff vodka announced the date last week and welcomed guests to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Moscow Mule with a immersive cocktail party that took guests back in time to 1941 to explain how the cocktail became a pop-culture sensation. The event took place just miles away from where the cocktail was first invented on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip.
Chivas Regal has launched a new limited edition gift tin in Los Angeles in collaboration with audio producers LSTN Sound Co. Pictured is actor Wilmer Valderrama (left) and Joe Huff, founder of LSTN Sound Co at an event enjoying whisky cocktails and music through the Chivas Regal LSTN headphones. The initiative – Generosity: Amplified – features a range of activity aimed to raise funds for Starkey Hearing Foundation, including a limited edition Chivas 12 Year Old gift tin, a line of handcrafted headphones and a custom-designed luxury record console.
On Thursday, SB staff writer Nicola Carruthers went to The Stafford London hotel for an exclusive tasting of The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter 2. The ‘whisky brunch’ consisted of tasting five whiskies from the collection and a Q&A with malt master David Stewart MBE via a livestream.
On Wednesday, SB news, web & social editor Annie Hayes headed down to The American Bar at iconic London hotel The Savoy enjoy carefully crafted Half Hitch gin cocktails by esteemed bartender Dominic Whisson with the LDR London team. Half Hitch features black tea, bergamot, wood, hay, and pepper as key botanicals, and is crafted by combining copper pot distillation, vacuum distillation and handcrafted tinctures – resulting in an “exotic yet quintessentially British” gin that, as Annie discovered, lends itself to cocktail-making.
…Afterwards, the group moved on to Covent Garden’s hottest new hangout, Ping Pong. The stylish new bar and restaurant serving up delicious Dim Sum, contemporary cocktails and Chinese teas. While enjoying a mouth-watering array of bite-sized sharing plates, the trio sipped on a Prosecco-topped Black and Gold Tom Collins cocktail, created in association with luxury fashion house Julien Macdonald as part of a limited-edition London Fashion Week menu.
Pictured at the launch of the new Irish whiskey mentoring programme which will see industry leaders including Irish Distillers and Bushmills support and guide new entrants into the Irish whiskey category were (L-R) David Quinn, technical director, Irish Distillers, Alex Thomas, maturation manager, Old Bushmills Distillery and Bernard Walsh, chairman of the Irish Whiskey Association and CEO of Walsh Whiskey Distillery.
SB‘s deputy editor Amy Hopkins went along to judge the International Bartenders Association’s World Cocktail Championships 2016 in Tokyo Japan last week. Kenji Tsubokura (second from left) was crowned winner with his cocktail The Best Scene which contained Geranium Premium London Dry Gin, Giffard Elderflower Liqueur, Monin Yuzu Fruit Pureé, fresh lemon juice and one dash of Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters.
Over the weekend, the 10th anniversary of the UK RumFest was held at the ILEC Conference Centre in London. The event showcased more than 400 of the most diverse rums from across the globe, as well as seminars, presentations and live music.
On Wednesday, drinks industry event Boutique Bar Show returned to the Mansfield Traquair in Edinburgh, bringing new drinks brands, international speakers, guest bars and more. International speakers at the show include Leonardo Leuci of The Jerry Thomas Project in Rome who will look into the worldwide influence of vermouth and cocktail culture from the 1800s onwards and Marian Beke of The Gibson in London, who will share his experience and research on using pickled ingredients in his bar to create complex and cost-effective mixed drinks.
The Vault has appointed new bar manager, Chris Tanner to head up the hidden 55-seat basement cocktail bar accessed via a secret door at the back of Milroys of Soho, London’s oldest whiskey shop. Tanner previously worked at Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green and most recently as Head Bartender at Milk & Honey. Tanner’s menu will change seasonally and will feature original cocktails as well as twists on classics.
Cottons Notting Hill Gate has been officially awarded a Guinness World Record for the bar with most rums commercially available. The official Guinness presentation took place yesterday followed with rum punch, Jamaican patties and specialist rum cake.
Londoners can learn how to blend their own Scotch at a nine-week pop-up from drinks brand Chivas Regal. It has launched The Blend bar offering its popular “Art of Blending” experience at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane from 3 October. Participants learn the history and origins of single malt and grain whiskies before sampling top spirits from Speyside, Islay, and the Highlands and Lowlands plus a grain Scotch. They are then taught how to blend and create the Chivas Regal house style, before making their own to take home.
Bar and restaurant staff took part in races and other events nationwide in a celebration and promotion of front-of-house roles as a career. The National Waiters Day race in Hyde Park in London was the flagship event of the nationwide Front of House Festival, organised by The Springboard Charity. The annual race saw hospitality professionals run through the park carrying trays (pictured). The titles of fastest waiter and waitress both went to Prezzo Restaurants: Muki Hashahi and Julia Kazimirova. The team from Kensington Roof Gardens won the award for best dressed.
This October William Grant & Sons UK sponsored the Esquire Townhouse. The four day pop-up at Carlton House Terrace, invited guests to a series events, live talks, interviews, exclusive screenings and masterclasses, curated by the Esquire team; covering a range of topics including the world of style, drinks, sport, tech, travel, food and film. The William Grant & Sons UK portfolio of brands provided cocktails for guests at the star-studded launch event and featured in the cocktail masterclass led by The Savoy team.
To celebrate the launch of the Glenfiddich Experimental Series, guests were invited to The Experimental Bar, an immersive, sensory experience, allowing them to discover two new truly unusual and unexpected whiskies form The Maverick Makers of Dufftown: Project XX and Glenfiddich IPA. The hour long journey unlocked their senses though a series of different interactive, edible and ingenious experiments.
Silent Pool Gin is taking over the indoor garden of the Hoxton Hotel, setting up a hub beautifully decorated in teal hues and botanical motifs, for a week-long programme of exciting events from Monday 24 October. The East London-based celebration will be an immersive experience, which includes intimate tasting sessions, brunches, bespoke cocktails and award winning gin and tonic.
Edinburgh-based whisky brand R&B Distillers have teamed up with Harry’s Bar to create a Halloween cocktail inspired by the colony of rare brown long eared bats living on the Isle of Raasay, the site of R&B’s first distillery. The cocktail Bat’s Blood contains 50ml R&B Distillers Raasay While We Wait Single Malt whisky, 12.5ml Creme Cacao Brun, 12.5ml Chambord and a dash of plum bitters
