A
s the late Kingsley Amis
- Martin’s dad – once
declared, “Drink is a
contentious subject.”
Take the world of
cocktails, ever torn
by unresolved controversies that may
appear minor to the outsider but are of
paramount importance to serious drinkers.
“I have seen grown men close to
blows over whether you should or should
not bruise the mint in a Mint Julep.”
Amis speaking again.
There are the classicists, such as British
food and wine writer and broadcaster
Matthew Fort, who says, “Am I alone in
finding that the modern habit of tinkering
around with classic cocktails is pernicious?
Heaven knows, it’s hard enough to find
the original made properly before you
start messing about. Classics are classics
for a very good reason. Leave well alone.”
And then there are the avant-gardists,
keen to push cocktail creativity to the
limit. Like the mostly Milanese mixologists
who have got Italian booze buffs smacking
their lips recently with their cocktail
salati: salty cocktails flavoured with
pickles, molluscs, crustaceans, plain
salt, salts aromatised with dehydrated,
crushed herbs, even seawater.
The phenomenon exploded earlier
this year with a barrage of publicity in the
media, and at traditional springtime food
and wine and beverage events such as
Vinitaly in Verona and Identità Golose in
Milan. The latter’s cocktail connoisseur
Luigi Barberis went so far as to say that,
“After decades of darkness, a veritable
mixology revolution is under way.”
Call me naïve but I couldn’t fathom it
at first. As the summer approached I was
having surreal nightmares of imbibing
brine on the beach, of sipping seawater
by the seashore. Surely there was no way
a salty drink could be thirst-quenching,
surely an ice-cold lager was a better
option. (Though as chance would have it,
the newly revived Sicilian brewery, Birra
Messina, is now marketing a pale ale
flavoured with Trapani sea-salt crystals.)
Recipes MATTIA PASTORI
Photography ROB SHAW
Styling AIMEE JONESShaken, stirred or salted? The tide is turning on the
marine- avoured cocktail, writes JOHN IRVING.
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64 GOURMET TRAVELLER
PHOTOGRAPHY ROB SHAW. STYLING AIMEE JONES. TERRAZZO TILE IN GREY FROM TERANOVA. VERITAS COUPE GLASS FROM RIEDEL. BARON SHAKER IN GOLD, COLUMN BARSPOON IN GOLD & GINZA JIGGER IN GOLD, ALL FROM BAR GEEK. STOCKISTS P176.