Cocktail stories: Shadrach, Mimi Kakushi
Dubai’s hottest drink is also its coldest, as Manja Stankovic of Mimi Kakushi explains about the bar’s signature Martini, the Shadrach.
*This feature was originally published in the December 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
‘How do you like your Martini?’ is a question drinkers are asked often, garnering responses of various preferences. One carved out of a block of ice, served at 20°C, however, is something that only happens at Dubai’s Mimi Kakushi – a bar inspired by Japan during the 1920s, a period when US jazz culture had just been introduced into the country.
Mimi Kakushi uses this theme in its Kikuchi menu, where each drink on the 11-strong list is paired with its own piece of music. The bar’s trademark is the Shadrach, a gin Martini in essence. Dubbed as one of the world’s coldest Martinis, and served at the subzero temperature mentioned above, beverage manager Manja Stankovic tells us that people come to the bar, and even Dubai, just for this drink.
“It’s become an iconic thing, almost like with the Singapore Sling in Raffles Shanghai,” he says.
Considering the bar’s Japanese characteristics, Stankovic explains that the team wanted to incorporate ice, “but in our own interesting way that’s not been done before”, as ice has always been a big pinnacle of Japanese craft bartending. “The Martini on its own is a drink that is all about the temperature and how cold it gets,” he says. Therefore it made perfect sense to combine the two. “We came up with an idea to do a pre-batch Martini, which is based on The Botanist gin, vermouth, and a slight infusion of ume, a Japanese plant.”
The bar first pre-bottles the Martinis and freezes them within a massive block of ice. “We make almost like an apartment building of Martinis, which we freeze layer by layer, then cut individually,” Stankovic notes. As you’d expect, dealing with this much ice “can be a problem”, Stankovic laughs, “every night we sell maybe 10, or maybe 50 – you just never know – so it requires a lot of preparation ahead of time,” he notes. The team have got the system down now though, after a tough beginning, and freeze the block for a week. “You could call it a bit of a process, what happens at the back of the house,” he says.
With this part done, what happens in front of the house could then be described as theatre.
Of the presentation, he explains: “It feels like an orchestra, in a way; we will bring it to the table via a trolley (it’s always served via a trolley, even if guests order at the bar), and carve it out of the block with Japanese ice-carving tools. We do a nice long pour and you can really see the viscosity of the liquid. It’s almost like sugar syrup in a way, because the liquid is so frosty. It’s very elegant when it gets poured out slowly.”
It is then aromatised with the bar’s own perfume, made from a blend of citruses. And, of course, the cocktail is not complete without the music; Shadrach is the name of a song by famous JapaneseAmerican jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the drink is presented with one of her classic compositions.
“It had to have a classy element, like a Martini,” Stankovic says.
Shadrach
Ingredients:
- 60ml The Botanist Islay Dry Gin
- Japanese ume 20ml
- Mancino Vermouth Secco
Method: The Botanist Gin is slowly dripped through Japanese ume, with a touch of Mancino Vermouth Secco. The mixture is poured into bespoke bottles, which are stored in ice at 20°C until it is served.
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