Creative cocktail duo mix up a storm to swill
Steamed mandarin fish with soy sprouts and soy sauce paired with osmanthus gel in a collapsible tube — it’s a fresh combination that arouses a taste of harmony.
The duo behind Guangzhou’s Hope & Sesame bar, Bastien Ciocca and Andrew Ho, are creating a seven-course cocktail dinner for Beijing social lounge Equis, in conjunction with its head chef, Paolo Belloni.
The pair started their bar in February 2016, and have continued to update their creative cocktail menus. They are bringing two of their signature cocktails to Beijing, together with four new mixes designed especially for this dinner.
One of their signature cocktails is the Angostura, in which Ciocca uses a five-year-old Flor de Cana rum, angostura bitters, a balsamic-vinegar reduction and lime. The vinegar is made very thick like a syrup to produce strong and sour flavor.
“Our guests may not like it the first time they try it, but it makes them want to try it one more time, and then somehow, another time after that. And that’s when they really start to like it,” Ciocca says.
“It’s like Sichuan pepper for me,” says Ciocca, an ItalianFrench mixologist born in Switzerland.
Chef Belloni has paired his 24-hour slow-cooked beef short ribs with the Angostura, since both the cocktail and the dish take a long time to make.
Belloni and Ciocca worked together by email to match the dishes with the cocktails, and they tried every combination of dishes and drinks before the dinner, making final adjustments for each pair.
“The dinner is not about one drink or one dish, but the balance of the whole dinner,” says Ciocca.
When Ciocca and Ho create a new cocktail, they always plan out the recipe on a computer before they go to the bar and attempt to make it, because they “know the flavors”.
They put photos of all the ingredients in their cocktails on the menu, and a guide to the strength, sourness and sweetness of each one to help their customers make their selections.
Ciocca and Ho are continually traveling around Asia as guest bartenders, and after Beijing they are heading to work in Bangkok, Seoul and Sydney before visiting Jakarta.
They also bring different bartenders from their team to each city they visit to get a feel for local bars and find new ideas.
Each time Ciocca works as a guest bartender, he invites his guests to visit Guangzhou.
“I always say come to Guangzhou. Guangzhou has a lot of great restaurants — then come to our bar. Guangzhou is very special. You can go crazy with cocktails as there are no limits there.”