Cocktail

fla

ir6

1

Mixology

Ph

ot

os

st

éP

ha

nie

La

co

mb

e

A significant trend in

the last twenty-five years,

cocktails are making

a strong come back

in consumption habits

for wines and spirits.

This phenomenon is

explained by the arrival

of a new type of barman!

Known as a “mixologist”,

he or she creates new

mixtures based on spirits

and different ingredients,

combining, like a chef

in a restaurant,

traditional recipes

and the most inventive

creations.

Claire Smith is a mixologist. After long experience

acquired behind the bar, she joined Millennium as head

of communication for the brands Belvedere, Chopin and

10 Cane. A seminar on cocktails held in Paris by the Moët

Hennessy MIS team (Marketing Intelligence Team), gave

her the opportunity to present the cocktail world as it goes

through this revolution.

A brief look at the past. The etymology of the word cocktail

contains so many interpretations, legends or weird inventions

that we can not be certain of much. One thing that is certain,

however, is the American origin of this many faceted drink.

In the 1800s, the term designated a mixture of spirits,

sugar, bitters and water. Among the earliest creations that

experienced a moment of glory, should be mentioned a

cocktail with absinthe and orange bitters and the Martini,

Julep, Mojito and Daiquiri, all of which have remained great

classics.

In the mid nineteenth century the fashion for cocktails

became an absolute craze. New forms of transport were

on the rise and journeys by train or steamer provided the

opportunity for elegant and fashionable society to share a

way of living in which cocktails found a natural place. It was

equally during this period that the first ice machines and

shakers appeared.

The entry into force of the 18th amendment of the American

Constitution on 16 January 1920, establishing the prohibition

of alcohol, ironically led to the cocktail’s real consecration!

Trade in alcohol made at clandestine distilleries and the

simultaneous sale of bootlegged spirits prospered alongside

secret consumption. The best solution to disguise the taste

of spirits that were often of mediocre quality was to add

ingredients with more agreeable aromas, hence the new

craze for the cocktail. For the first time, women participated

in this new mode of consumption which, after its birth in the

United States, spread to Europe via the United Kingdom.

By 1933, at the end of the period of Prohibition, the attitude

towards alcohol consumption had become more relaxed.

Bar accessories, such as the shaker, became fashionable

objects, which appeared in films or could be bought for

the home. In the 1940s, the cocktail dress, less formal

than an evening dress, made its appearance. In the 1950s

and 1960s, cocktails became ever more inventive. During

the following decade, however, the cocktail lost ground to

beer, before making a come back in the 1980s. In 1988, the

film Cocktail, by Roger Donaldson, starring Tom Cruise,

explored the barman’s profession. This revival in the

cocktail’s popularity was nevertheless more an expression

of style than a gastronomic process.

One thing is certain: the American origin of this many faceted drink.

&

fla

ir6

2

Beginning in 1995, a new trend originating in London, has paid

more attention to gourmet creativity. Melbourne, New York

and Tokyo have lost no time in following the British capital.

Mixologists are using fresh fruit to reinterpret traditional

cocktails in a style that is more luxurious and sophisticated

and which also uses the best quality ingredients. These

different ingredients have to harmoniously complement

each other so that no one dominates the others and so that

each of them enriches the overall mixture. An important

recent trend has been the cocktail world’s increasing

attraction to women. In 1998, the TV channel HBC showed

the series Sex and the City which explores the lives of four

single women in their thirties in New York each of whom

has a taste for Cosmopolitans.

Today the foremost barmen or mixologists work as

consultants or spokesmen for different brands. This is

the case of Ben Hehir in London who creates cocktails

for Belvedere, 10 Cane and Glenmorangie. The extremely

creative and experienced Australian mixologist has worked

for prestigious London establishments such as Met Bar

Rockwell, and Joël Robuchon’s L’Atelier in Paris. His principle

is to remain faithful to the spirits he works with allowing

the natural elements that compose them to express their

character. He has invented the Glenmorangie “serves”,

various different ways in which to taste this Scotch whiskey

without denaturing it. The best known mixologists, such as

Jonathan Pogash or Toni Abou-Ganim in the United States,

are almost as well known as the great chefs with whom they

work increasingly closely. Their new slogan has become

“drink less but better”. The Hennesy brand, with its historic

presence on the United States cocktail and long drink market,

proposes through its program “Art of Mixing” ultra premium

cocktails prepared by house oenologists working alongside

mixologists.

More than just a fashion, the cocktail’s comeback is a

serious trend that involves an entire market “segment”. Bar

professionals, through their unavoidable influence, exercise

a central role in brand marketing and communication.

Guillaume Uguen

An important recent trend has been the cocktail world’s increasing attraction to women. Mixtures are getting more ophisticated.

claire smith and ben hehir

Mixologists who are as creative as the cocktails they make.

Molecular mixology analyses the physical properties of

ingredients and the reactions that take place when these

are mixed to create mousses, gels, vapours and cocktails

that blur the boundaries between drink and food. The

technique encourages “fresh thought about the manner

in which tastes and textures, and above all traditional

mixtures,” can be combined. Three techniques are

generally employed to obtain mousses with nitrous oxide

in a gelatine solution; caviars and pearles obtained by

spherification; this barbaric word is used when a liquid —in

this case a spirit or a liqueur— has its chemical components

adulterated to create a gel that is poured, drop by drop

into another chemical substance with water added to

it. As if by magic small semi-solid spheres are formed

which resemble caviar. Finally, deconstruction makes it

possible to decompose traditional mixes and to discover

them in a different light. For instance the three “solid”

cocktails proposed by Tailor’s in New York: the Cuba Libre,

a gelatinized cube —hence its name— of rhum and coca.

The Ramos Gin Fizz Marshmallow, a marshmallow with a

Gin Fizz base and the White Russian Breakfast Cereal, Rice

Crispies soaked in Kahlùa liqueur then dehydrated and

mixed with vodka and sugar!

Molecular mixology

When he first started, Ugo practised the profession of

barman on the trendy party circuit, where appearance

is more important than content. He exercised his flair,

juggling behind the bar to create cocktails. He did not

however wish to remain at this superficial level, and

decided to get to know every aspect of the profession,

its recipes, serving techniques and dosages. He travelled

to all parts of the world to discover unusual habits of

consumption. In London he discovered that when it came

to bars the English were very much ahead of the French, in

both the creation and serving of exciting flavours.

An epicurean and lover of good things, Ugo developed

a passion for mixology which he was one of the first to

practice in France. “The profession requires a constantly

creative state of mind. We practice the art of finding new

combinations and alliances between harmonious flavours,

working like a chef composing new dishes. Mixology

requires fresh products and premium alcohols. Knowing

how the latter are prepared favours inspiration. Mixology

is the gastronomy of the cocktail,” he explains.

Among the best Paris addresses he includes: L’Éclaireur,

Bouddha Bar, L’Expérimental, Le Tourville and Le Rival.

A good barman needs to listen to his customers and ask

them questions about their preferences and tastes. The

customer must feel that he is being listened to, advised and

recognized. He is prepared to undergo an unforgettable

personal experience if the exchange is worth while. “A

good barman must know how to communicate and have

empathy,” he says. “The profession is based on 20%

knowledge, 20% technique and 60% state of mind!”

Ugo Jobin and Moët Hennessy are often partners. At the bar

of L’Éclaireur, which he created with MH, three quarters of

the drinks served are Group products. MHD, Millenium and

Hennessy hold events there. Ugo Jobin employs a team of

nine people in France, and a further two people in Shanghai

where he has just opened an office, the Asian market

being extremely promising. He is resolutely positioned in

the world of luxury, premium products and taste. The field

is one that it is longer and more difficult to conquer, but

it also provides the means to differentiate himself and to

continue exercising his profession with passion. One of Ugo

Jobin’s main projects is to create a training school, made

possible through the support of Moët Hennessy. G. U.

Address Book

• L’Éclaireur, 10, rue Boissy-d’Anglas, Paris 8th, tel. 01 53 43 09 99.

• Bouddha Bar, 8-12, rue Boissy-d’Anglas, Paris 8th, tel. 01 53 05 90 00.

• Experimental, 37, rue Saint-Sauveur, Paris 2nd, tel. 01 45 08 88 09.

• Le Rival, 1, rue Marbeuf, Paris 8th, tel. 01 47 23 40 99.

• Le Tourville, 43, av. de la Motte-Picquet, Paris 7th, tel. 01 44 18 05 08.

Ugo JobinPremium mixologist

The science of cocktail hype

+,

High fashion in New York Citythe moët & chandon champagne cocktails on the list of

PDT, the return of traditional recipes such as the French

75 and cocktails with bitters, absinthe or the liqueur Saint-

Germain —made from the wild elderberry flower— in all

“mixology” bars”.

traditional and kitsch cocktails such as punches —served

by the ladle or the cup at Death & Co; the traditional

cocktail list at Smith & Mills; the Bazooka cocktail at

Tailors, a mixture of Vodka and bubblegum alcohol (!); and

lastly the return of island cocktails served in exotic shells

at Elettaria and PDT.

brewed cocktails such as Benton’s Old Fashioned at PDT with bourbon brewed with bacon and rhum brewed with

popcorn, gin brewed with roses, cognac brewed with nuts

or tequila brewed with pineapple and sage at Elettaria.

homemade products such as the pickles at PDT, ground

and strained to replace olive juice in Dirty martinis.

culinary cocktails with spices such as ginger or tamarind

at Elettaria.

Address Book

• Death & Co, 433 East 6th Street, tel. 212-388-0882.

• Elettaria, 38 West 8th Street, tel. 212-677-3833.

• PDT, 113 St Marks Place, tel. 212-64-0386.

• Smith & Mills, 71 North Moore Street, tel. 212-219-8568.

• Tailor, 525 Broome Street, tel. 212-334-5182.

The cocktail dress originated in the United States in the

1920s, as a clandestine garment. During Prohibition, women

invited to the highly successful clandestine cocktail parties

began to wear elegant dresses that were less formal than

evening dresses. After the Second World War, Parisian fashion

designers took the trend in hand giving the cocktail style

both official status and its extremely chic lines. Society had

been transformed by the years of conflict and dress codes

were now more flexible, reflecting less rigid human relations.

The cocktail party became a fashionable amusement, an

event at which it was important to be seen having a good

time, preferably wearing a little black dress, designed by Dior,

Balmain, Givenchy or Balenciaga. These gatherings became

the stage for the latest fashions in drink and clothing. The

two essential pieces of the new social puzzle would now

develop alongside each other, responding to the same logic

and illustrating evolutions in style and the best society.

Fashion, in the 1960s, was fun and experimental. Colourful

futuristic designs by Courrèges or Emilio Pucci’s made in

Riviera kaleidoscopes composed cool, youthful silhouettes.

Fashionable drinks, employing the same combinations of

daring tones, were sipped from glasses accessorized by

little parasols and coloured plastic mixers. The following

decade was, however, less sensitive to the charms of mixed

drinks. The flower power revolution was conducted in hippie

attire, holding a glass of wine. Nature was in fashion, and

the subtle complex art of the cocktail was for now put to

one side, although not for long, as in the 1980s cocktails

were once more revived. The cocktail party, as a meeting

of the fashionable, remained an opportunity for making

contacts that no working girl would pass up, just as she

would find it impossible to resist the spectacular silhouettes

sculpted by fashion designers. The same sophistication was

employed for shakers which appeared in fluorescent colours

that matched the fashionable shades. At the cinema, Tom

Cruise in the kitsch movie Cocktail aroused the senses of

the fashionable set with alcoholic mixtures that seemed to

come out of some artificial paradise.

In the 1990s the party changed in style with the arrival of a

period of minimalism, in which less is more gave the tone,

embodied in the pure style of certain American designers. The

contents of glasses reflected this new state of mind: instead

of gaudy ingredients, very high quality ingredients were now

preferred, irrespective of their appearance or colour. This

might have been dull, but in fact it rarely was. And then the

2000s proved that this maturity did not mark the beginning

of decline. On the contrary, the twenty-first century has so

far provided a clever and creative cocktail of fashion and

amusement in which women are calling the tune.

Before Sex and the City, no one wanted to drink a Vodka

Martini or a Cosmopolitan. The series which turned the

fashion scene upside down at the same time endorsed

the arrival of strong, glamorous and forceful women as

participants in nightlife that had up until then been dominated

by men. Following close on the heels of the heroines of the

series, this new breed of single women frequented clubs,

Fashion cocktail modeA short history from 1920 to our day

Dior haute couture Summer 2008.

Givenchy haute couture Summer 2008.