Vesper Bar at The Dorchester is set to launch a brand-new cocktail list on April 26, 2024. Essentia celebrates the powerful connection between scent and memories, with each of the 11 new cocktails celebrating a personal experience from a different member of the Vesper Bar team, thereby transporting guests on an adventure with every sip.
The Vesper Bar team, led by bar manager Lucia Montanelli and head bartender Denise Elisei, have crafted a list of cocktails that heightens the senses by reflecting on aromas, experiences and emotions. Each cocktail has been built on the foundations of The Olfactory Pyramid, a concept that visualises a fragrance through three levels: head (top notes), heart (middle notes) and base (end notes). Building on this principle, the team have crafted unique cocktails, evoking a memory through the smells.
Scents depicted through Essentia include mushroom foraging in the forest, salty sea air from summers on a boat, picking summer berries, nostalgic childhood birthday cakes, thunderstorms, and leather-bound library books. With imaginative and creative mixology, the cocktails play on the senses, with scents and aromas evoking an experience and bringing the memory to life.
Highlights from the Essentia cocktail list include:
- Sunkissed Summers: a boat trip to Capri in the heat of Italian summer – Seatrus gin, rhubarb ‘sea water’, aloe vera
- Morning Sunshine: The beginning of spring, just as the days become longer, when the warm morning sunshine casts a vibrant prism of light reflecting off the table into a splendid rainbow all over the room – Enemigo Blanco tequila, Genever, lychee, kiwi, magnolia
- Thunderstorm: Rainy days bringing the promise of new beginnings. Patchouli dances across damp grass and the wet, heavy earth –Altamura vodka, oregano mezcal, passionfruit, Greek punch, patchouli
- Turning Pages: Hidden away in the corner of an antique library, a treasured leather-bound book was found. Open the pages to release a musty, sweet scent, tinged with vintage wine and earthy vanilla – Jack Daniels single barrel whiskey, cognac, white port, paper syrup, smoke
Birthday Wish, Timber, Morning Sunshine and Forbidden Berries are all available as non-alcoholic cocktails.
The new cocktail list launches on 26 April and will sit alongside Vesper Bar’s signature Vesper Martini. Served in a delicately styled glass featuring the same scallop shell design motif as the bar itself, the Vesper is a shaken cocktail of gin, vodka, a touch of sherry and a spritz of lemon.
During The Dorchester’s recent renovation, Swedish architect Martin Brudnizki redesigned Vesper Bar taking inspiration from the spirit and elegance of the roaring thirties. Ornate design runs throughout, including a 1930s Palladium leaf ceiling creating a warm effect for Martini hour. A series of Cecil Beaton pieces are hung within the bar, honouring the long-standing connection between Beaton, Brudnizki and The Dorchester.
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