Cocktail&Mixology

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

A significant trend in classics.

flair
One thing is certain: the American

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the last twenty-five years,
origin of this many faceted drink.
cocktails are making
a strong come back In the mid nineteenth century the fashion for cocktails
became an absolute craze. New forms of transport were

in consumption habits on the rise and journeys by train or steamer provided the
opportunity for elegant and fashionable society to share a

for wines and spirits. way of living in which cocktails found a natural place. It was
equally during this period that the first ice machines and

This phenomenon is shakers appeared.

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

explained by the arrival 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
of a new type of barman! simultaneous sale of bootlegged spirits prospered alongside
secret consumption. The best solution to disguise the taste
Known as a “mixologist”, of spirits that were often of mediocre quality was to add
ingredients with more agreeable aromas, hence the new
he or she creates new craze for the cocktail. For the first time, women participated
in this new mode of consumption which, after its birth in the
mixtures based on spirits United States, spread to Europe via the United Kingdom.
By 1933, at the end of the period of Prohibition, the attitude
and different ingredients, towards alcohol consumption had become more relaxed.
Bar accessories, such as the shaker, became fashionable
combining, like a chef objects, which appeared in films or could be bought for
the home. In the 1940s, the cocktail dress, less formal
in a restaurant, than an evening dress, made its appearance. In the 1950s
and 1960s, cocktails became ever more inventive. During
traditional recipes the following decade, however, the cocktail lost ground to
beer, before making a come back in the 1980s. In 1988, the
and the most inventive film Cocktail, by Roger Donaldson, starring Tom Cruise,
explored the barman’s profession. This revival in the
creations.
Photos Stéphanie Lacombe

cocktail’s popularity was nevertheless more an expression

of style than a gastronomic process.
 Molecular mixology
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
An important recent trend the series Sex and the City which explores the lives of four
has been the cocktail world’s increasing single women in their thirties in New York each of whom
has a taste for Cosmopolitans.
attraction to women. Mixtures are Today the foremost barmen or mixologists work as
getting more ophisticated. 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
flair
Rockwell, and Joël Robuchon’s L’Atelier in Paris. His principle
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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
Claire Smith and Ben Hehir
Mixologists who are as creative as the
cocktails they make.
The science of cocktail hype
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!
Ugo Jobin
Premium mixologist
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.
+,
Fashion cocktail mode
High fashion in New York City
The 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.
Givenchy Haute Couture Dior Haute Couture
Summer 2008. Summer 2008.
A short history from 1920 to our day
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,