Cocktail chemistry

Edinburgh is in the spotlight. Eat your heart out London; New York do your worst. The number of superior cocktail bars this little city has to offer is enough to keep even the most avid cocktail connoisseur busy.

How did it come to pass that Edinburgh is consistently producing excellent bars? The Bon Vivant’s and 42Below Cocktail World Cup entrant, May Kongsrivilai, believes it might have something to do with the passion and enthusiasm bartenders in Edinburgh have: "Everyone is friends up here, we learn and feed off one another."

May, along with teammates Joey Medrington (Tigerlily) and Paul Graham (Bramble), have managed to secure a place in round two of the competition, taking place in London next month. If they get through, they can wave goodbye to the winter for a while as 42Below takes them to New Zealand to compete against teams from across the world.

42Below is shaking up vodka’s image, bringing it out from the shadows as an alcoholic accompaniment to age-old mixers. As a premium vodka, May is finding that bartenders and customers alike appreciate the taste and quality. Before I begin my cocktail master-class, I have a chance to enjoy some of the vodkas from 42’s range. Served with a dash of water to open up the flavour, drinking vodka straight has never been so pleasurable. All the choices are intrinsically New Zealand: kiwi, feijoa, passion fruit and manuka honey, and all release strong fruit flavours.

Choosing one of the more tricky vodkas in the range to mix, May prepares her own invention, 'Four Two the Floor'. She begins by giving me a lesson on the importance of garnish and how it should be prepared. Garnishes such as mint and zest open up the drinker’s palette as "the first taste is with the eye".

As my lesson continues, it is clear that the art of mixology is much like cooking: May 'builds' this cocktail in the glass, with no shaker required. A measure (25ml) of fresh lemon juice is added to a chilled glass followed by a half-measure of sugar syrup. In go two measures of feijoa vodka, and next comes something a bit different: tea. May uses a jewelled apple tea she found in Covent Garden, already brewed and chilled. After the two measures of tea are added, half a bar spoon of absinthe is tipped in. The drink is completed with cubed ice followed by crushed ice that is added to the top to insulate it. Back to the garnish, May tops off her creation with slices of lemon and orange, before twisting a slither of lemon peel over the glass to release those delicious citrus aromas.

The result is a cocktail both warming and refreshing; just as it was built, the drink unfolds taste by taste. Each flavour tickles the taste buds: the aniseed, smoky apple tea and feijoa. While this drink isn’t the simplest, May’s philosophy is 'the simpler, the better':

“That's how classics have become what they are. I like to create cocktails that can be easily replicated in every bar without having to produce a smoked horse hoof marinated orange foam type thing…."

Edinburgh’s bartenders are proving they have both the creativity and the talent. As far the 42Below World Cocktail Cup goes, the rest of the world better be prepared.