July 2011
We had a lot of fun collaborating with conceptual food artist Lorie Jo Trainor Buckingham at last week’s Taste Full Space pop-up. The event included art, music and performance based around the structure of a 3 course meal of carefully prepared conceptual dishes that were immaculately presented, thought provoking and that tasted great.
The ‘Survivalist’ theme inspired so many ideas in our approach to creating cocktails for the event that it took us quite a few very long phone calls and sessions in the lab before we got our final selection together.
In the end we went with ‘the Survival of the Fittest’ as the basis for our welcome drink concept. This involved employing a more scientific approach to creating drinks with real health aiding properties that would prepare our guests for the events of the evening- help them survive!
The welcome drink was presented as a choice of power enhancing elixirs appropriately named ‘Harder’, ‘Stronger’, ‘Faster’ and ‘Better’:
Harder- A jelly of Bulldog gin, horny goats weed, red berries, elderflower and apple juice.
Stronger- Homemade frozen strawberry yoghurt with whey protein and an injection of Wray & Nephew over proof rum.
Faster- A pineapple and sage batida served with a capsule of guarana
Better- An effervescent vitamin C tablet dropped in a Grey Goose vodka ginger, citrus and clove mix.
Our main cocktail selection was named ‘The Natural Selection’ and included twists on classics renamed and remodeled after extinct animals:
Sabre Toothed Sour- Jack Daniels shaken with lemon juice, maple syrup and orange bitters served with an orange sharp toothed garnish.
Dodo Mule- Grey Goose vodka mixed with lime juice, ginger beer and clove bitters served with a fashioned physalis dodo head.
Megalodon Margarita- Calle 23 reposado tequila shaken with blue curacao, lime juice and agave nectar. Served with a floating orange zest life boat to recreate a scene from Jaws!
Mammoth Pitcher- Bulldog gin mixed with elderfower cordial, fresh lemongrass and coriander and charged with Rekordelig apple cider. Served in a big pitcher for 4-5 people.
Big thanks to Jay Ellwood and Nicol Mason at Chilli Marketing for supplying us with Rekordelig cider and Natalie Evans and Alice Cheung at J. Wray & Nephew UK for supplying us with Bulldog gin.
