London Cocktail Week 2014

London Cocktail week has passed once again and we few, we happy few, we band of gentlemen made it our third year of consecutive attendance. So after days of waving wristbands in bartenders faces and demanding cheap cocktails how did this year compare to the previous entries ?

Let us start by saying that this year had a record number of bars participating. The event has grown over the years and spread from Seven Dials all over London like a spilt Martini on a table. With such a magnitude of bars it makes it impossible to try them all, this being said we ended up focusing on West London in the traditional area of Seven Dial and Covent Garden.

On the whole it was another good year for cocktails but there are one or two minor negative things we could nit-pick about. Previous years had a good selection of free tastings and classes to entice people to new brands or simple educate them on what’s out there. These were rather thin on the ground this year with the new trend seeming to be charged admission to special events ranging from £5 - £40, this on top of your £10 wristband. There also seemed to be dramatically less street vendors this year, in fact on the Saturday I saw none. Whether this is a new direction or a one off for this year remains to be seen.

These issues aside how was the actual experience ? Well rather good.

Starting with our complimentary Ketel One punches at the hub we moved on to the Famous Grouse hub down the street. Here we sampled the range of Grouses from original Famous Grouse, Black Grouse, Naked and Snow as well as a ginger ale cocktail. My favourite is still the Black Grouse by far.

Sticking with the pop-up theme we moved on to the Hendrick’s bone shaker yard. Here I sampled a Gin and rose drink that was extremely easy to drink and something I will be attempting to recreate in the future, as well as a Hendrick’s gin fizz that was served in nifty little pre-mixed bottles. 

Around the corner from there we had a few fruity Monkey Shoulder numbers and one that had tea in the mix (as well as a rather scrumptious Haggis toasties on the side).  

One little gem we almost missed because we thought it was closed was the El Dorado rum pop-up. Or in this case perhaps the term pop down is more apt since it was in a basement. With a mural of Incan temples adorning the walls and a rainforest vibe the atmosphere was interesting. Perusing the menu we saw a tasting flight of 8,12 and 15 year old rum paired with cheese. Rum and cheese – really ? I hear you cry, it crossed our minds too, but believe me it worked. Without going into tasting notes my favourite was the 12. We also had a cheeky sample of the 21, but for my tastes it was closer to a Bourbon than a rum.

Rum and Cheese

Street vendor wise on the Friday we sampled Pink Pidgeon rum, which is a little bit sweet for my taste, Drambuie hot toddies and Disaronno sours.

Van Gogh Havana

What about the actual bars ? We decided to hit Joel Robuchon early, mostly because the last 2 years we’ve been politely rejected but it seemed third time lucky this year ! On offer there was the Van Gogh Havana which consisted of Absinthe, gin and bubbles with almond liquor, the predominant taste was absinthe.

At Adventure Bar we sampled the Appleton Dreamcatcher which was a rum, raspberry and passion fruit drink with a fortune cookie on the side. A nice refreshing drink but not overly strong.

Over to Casa for a tobacco old fashion, which was Bacardi based with tobacco bitters, not a bad cocktail but I think I’ve had better old fashion’s.

Flesh & Buns offered up the Hokuto Sour made of Hakushu Japanese Whisky, sake, chocolate bitters. I was a little watery to be honest, but the bitter chocolate taste was nice.

Entering Circus and making our way past a lithe gentleman vigorously hula hooping on stage we ordered the Xuan Wu  - Absolut blue vodka, honey puree, Chinese spice syrup, orange and lime juice with watercress and Sichaun pepper garnish. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour but many of the flavours seemed to get a bit lost in the drink.

Hokuto Sour

Dirty martini offered up the Lady in Red which was a pretty standard Gin, blood orange and strawberry syrup sweet drink.

Dum Jam Wray & Nephew Reggar was an interesting over proof infused rum punch, which was pumped from a canister. The cocktail was nice and I’d like to return to try their food in the future.

So there we have it, that’s another London Cocktail week over and done with. Is it too early to book tickets for next year ?

The Gentleman