Paris-based bar Little Red Door has released a new cocktail menu inspired by “untranslatable words”.

Little Red Door’s latest cocktail menu “embraces the essence” behind words

The new menu, called A Way With Words, looks at phrases from “different societies and cultures that do not have a direct translation into English”.

The new list has been created by a multinational team, including people of French, Dutch, Swedish and Venezuelan descent. The menu will look at language barriers and go to the root of where certain phrases come from.

Each word that inspired the cocktails on the menu represents a certain emotion, feeling, state or ritual that in its native language sums up an entire experience, but in English needs a full description.

Each team member was tasked with finding out about the origins of a single word and its meaning, and then use their own understanding to translate the word into a cocktail.

Rory Shepherd, group bar manager, said: “We’ve told the story of these words through the medium we know best – cocktails.

“We’ve tried to embrace the essence behind each word and the reason it is within certain cultures’ dictionaries. So sit back, relax with your loved ones, tell stories and take your time.”

Launching today (4 April), the A Way With Words menu will be presented in both French and English languages.

The Little Red Door bar will also be undergoing a small refurbishment to “refresh the space”.

The bar team will take its new menu to bars around the world and will work in collaboration with venues to create drinks using the same concept. The first stop on the bar tour will be Fam in London from 12-14 April.

Click through the following pages to see a selection of the new cocktails.

Na’eeman

Arabic – A feeling of self-freshness. The Purity and ritual of cleanliness.

This “light and floral” drink is served straight up in a ceramic cup and garnished with a seasonal flower.

Ingredients: Fermented agave wine, apple verjus and mastiha soda

Pochemuka

Russian – Why is the sky blue? Why are strawberries red? Why does that person keep asking questions?

A take on the classic milk punch, this cocktail embraces “every flavour element of the strawberry’”.

Ingredients: Strawberry leaf-infused Belvedere, strawberry wine, strawberry moo juice

Mauri

Te Reo Māori – our connection to the world around us. We share a force of life, principles, emotions.

This “fresh and easy-drinking” serve represents the marriage of the sea and forest.

Ingredients: Porter’s Tropical Old Tom Gin, ocean plants, Baldoria Dry, bubbles