Paragon, a new range of single botanical cordials for bartenders now available in Malta •

Created by Monin in partnership with Alex Kratena

Paragon, a range of single botanic cordials created for bartenders, which was launched by Monin in collaboration with Alex Kratena, internationally-renowned bartender and P(OUR) co-founder, is now available in Malta.

Paragon seeks to protect and promote rare botanical varieties from remote areas around the world, highlighting unknown aromatic essences and making them available for those who appreciate exceptional flavours for use in cocktails.

Created as a series of “botanical chapters”, which will become an encyclopedic collection of ingredients for bartenders, the first chapter focuses on pepper and pepper berries. Paragon explored every continent and encountered remote populations cultivating species for generations to source original varieties with distinctive flavours.

The result is the Pepper Collection, comprising three variants: White Penja Pepper from Cameroon; Ru Berry from Ethiopia and Timur Berry from Nepal, each presented in a 48.5cl bottle as a single botanic cordial.

To extract the complex flavours of each pepper ingredient Paragon uses a mix of technologies, including the unique use of supercritical CO2, along with infusion and alcoholate (distillation). Each technique extracts a particular element of the ingredients’ flavour profile, allowing for the recreation of the complete flavour spectrum. To create the cordials, naturally occurring and previously undiscovered gluconic acid, which is found in Cameroonian Oku honey, is used as a base. It has been chosen for its property of enhancing long lasting flavours without adding any additional tasting notes.

Alex Kratena, who travelled with the Paragon team to source ingredients in Cameroon before consulting on the production of the cordials comments: “Paragron is a new generation of cordials which bring a range of rare and daring new flavours to the repertoire of any bartender.”