Cocktail stories: Fig Leaf, Nipperkin
The Piña Colada gets a seasonal British makeover at London’s Nipperkin – but don’t expect to see it on the menu.
*This feature was originally published in the October 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
London’s Nipperkin bar has recently had a small makeover. It was previously underneath 20 Berkeley, a modern British restaurant, which has since been replaced by Nijū, a Japanese eaterie. As such, the bar has taken on a more Eastern leaning, inspired by Japan’s listening bars – as Angelos Bafas, head of bars at Creative Restaurant Group, which operates Nipperkin, explains, as he selects a new record from the bar’s growing collection.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the bar’s commitment to local produce – an ethos that is best typified by its substitute for a Piña Colada, which uses all-British ingredients to create a cocktail more tropical than you would expect from the gloomy UK. The Fig Leaf cocktail isn’t on the menu, though it’s a drink those in the know ask for time and time again.
“We have a couple of drinks like this one, which we think are going to become Nipperkin classics,” explains Bafas. “They are drinks we’ve had on the menu from day one, and people know them now. They’re made with very easy, homemade ingredients – nothing crazy, nothing fancy, nothing laboratory-wise, you just need access to the produce.” These will be kept off-menu, however, while the menu will instead list drinks that are a “bit more elevated”.
The Fig Leaf was originally created using Two Drifters Rum from Devon, but the bar is now using a rum from the Isle of Man. It is paired with a fig-infused plant-based cream, which was inspired by Bafas’ previous experiments with a fig leaf ice cream, and adds a creamy texture to the drink in a similar way that coconut cream does to a Piña Colada. Pineapple weed tastes “a bit like pineapple and camomile, altogether”, explains Bafas, but has the sustainable benefit of growing wildly and plentifully in the UK.
The issue with using seasonal ingredients is that seasons change – as the team learned last year. While they collected plenty of fig leaves in summer, which were then dehydrated and turned into cream, by September the drink’s popularity meant they had run out. This year, the team has been foraging in a secret location to harvest enough ingredients to hopefully last until November. So, if you’re reading this issue in October, you best get over to Nipperkin as soon as possible.
The Fig Leaf
Ingredients
- 50ml Two Drifters White Rum (or any other locally distilled brand)
- 30ml Pineapple weed cordial*
- 20ml Fig leaf cream**
- 20ml Ungarnished Sour Agent (can be substituted with 15ml lime juice and 10ml sugar syrup)
Combine the ingredients in a shaker, stir, then pour into a rocks glass with ice.
*Pineapple weed cordial
- 250g Water
- 100g Sugar
- 5g Citric acid
- 30g Foraged pineapple weed
Cook under vacuum for 30 minutes at 60°C.
**Fig leaf cream
- 500g Plant-based milk (Nipperkin uses soy)
- 20g Dehydrated foraged fig leaves
Cook under vacuum for 30 minutes at 60°C.
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