Feature

Cocktail stories: The Trebol, Flying Dutchmen

17 February 2023 By Alice Brooker

London Cocktail Week saw Amsterdam bar the Flying Dutchmen hop over to the English capital for a two-day pop-up stint.

Festival-goers who visited the bar were lucky enough to try out a drink that is a twist on the classic cocktail Clover Club.

Named Trebol, which translates to ‘clover’ in Spanish, the Flying Dutchmen’s drink is a riff on the original gin- and vermouth-based serve.

The bar worked in partnership with Tequila Herradura, a brand that suggested the “concept of colours” as a theme for the Flying Dutchmen to play with, explains Luke Jackson, bartender for the venue.

“We wanted to work with vibrant, colourful ingredients. We chose to work with common British summer garden ingredients, so red bell peppers, blackberries and celery feature in our menu. The twist here is fresh bell pepper syrup with blackberry liqueur, as opposed to raspberry syrup,” he says. The original idea involved a Mexican twist, but “some of the ingredients didn’t work out”.

The Trebol is a “pink, frothy drink”, Jackson adds, and Tequila “works well with savoury ingredients”.

Before arriving at the festival, Jackson had “batched the homemade syrup and brought it over from Amsterdam” himself. “I had enough for 220 cocktails,” he notes.

After just one day of being on the cocktail menu at the pop-up, the Trebol proved to be very popular, Jackson says. “I’ve already had to get the guys here to make some more syrup because we’re running low. It’s sold way better than we thought it would; it’s great.”

The “vegetal and fresh” cocktail works best on the menu at the end of summer, or during autumn – “or just whenever is the best time to get red peppers”, Jackson says. “It’s quite punchy, but has a creamy edge with the vegan foam. The pepper hits you straight away, a full mouthfeel, and it’s got a blackberry finish.”