Presented in partnership with Roku Gin
Travelling the world via The World’s 50 Best Bars, 50 Best packed its passport and linked up with Roku Gin to find stunning local serves for every season. With each cocktail designed to complement Roku Gin’s six ethereal Japanese botanicals, five esteemed bartenders share their top cocktail recipes for seasonal drinking in their locale
Drink Kong, Rome
Winter: Roku Apple
Seasonal ingredient: Apple
With its Blade Runner-inspired, neon-illuminated backbar, Patrick Pistolesi’s Drink Kong is Italy’s highest-ranked bar in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2022. Matching the bar’s aesthetic, its menu is ultra-fashionable and forward-thinking, playing jovially with colour, style and technique to create truly memorable serves.
Pistolesi’s cocktail works in tandem with the cherry blossom and tea botanicals within Roku Gin, pairing with the bar’s seasonal apple Kong cordial, which is infused with cinnamon and sparkling water. Together, they create an ideal winter warmer highball to sip on a cold day in Rome.
Roku Apple
Ingredients:
45ml Roku Gin
30ml apple cordial
40ml Kong cordial
Top with sparkling water
Serve in highball glass with long ice
Maybe Sammy, Sydney
Spring: Jacaranda
Seasonal ingredient: River mint
Aiming to give its guests a taste of the Grand Hotels of old Europe injected with a touch of jazz-age flair, Maybe Sammy is leading the charge for bars in Australasia through its astute cocktail and hospitality offering, which saw it crowned as The Best Bar in Australasia in 2022.
Drawing inspiration from the Jacaranda trees in Australia, this cocktail chooses a bright and fruity profile to match the tree’s majestic lilac blossom. Working alongside the floral botanicals within Roku Gin, the cocktail combines the spirit base with a river mint – a smaller and more delicate variety of the herb native to Australia – and basil cordial with apera wine to create a taste of Australia in bloom.
Jacaranda
Ingredients:
45ml Roku Gin
15ml apera wine
15ml strawberry gum and cucumber verjus
5ml river mint and basil cordial
Stir and serve in a coupette glass. Garnish with micro basil, balsamic vinegar and pickled strawberry
Sips, Barcelona
Autumn: Autumn Dream
Seasonal ingredient: Pomegranate
Opened just two years ago by cocktail heavyweights Marc Alvarez and Simone Caporale, Sips has quickly gained a reputation as one of Barcelona’s hottest cocktail bars for its showstopping creations served in unique whimsical vessels. It made a meteoric rise to No.3 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2022.
This autumnal tipple captures the aura of Barcelona and the Mediterranean as it shifts from summer into autumn. Mixing seasonal local pomegranate juice with Roku Gin, sherry and a zesty touch of lime and orange flower water, this effervescent drink is shaken and strained twice, then served in an ice-cold coupette glass for a refreshing fusion of Barcelona and Japan.
Autumn Dream
Ingredients:
40ml Roku Gin
15ml sherry
10ml lime
60ml pomegranate juice
2 dashes orange flower water
Shake and double strain into a coupette glass
Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo
Winter: Hot Buttered Roku
Seasonal ingredient: Yuzu
Winner of Asia’s 50 Best Bars Legend of the List Award 2022, Hiroyasu Kayama’s Bar Benfiddich has a long-held reputation for astute cocktail creation. Within his small but mighty drinking den, Kayama-san champions Japanese ingredients, many of which comes from his family’s farm 90km north of the bar.
This cocktail, the Hot Buttered Roku, is a continuation of Kayama’s philosophy, where Japanese pear and yuzu juice are gently mixed with Roku Gin, butter and syrup before a red-hot metal brasier is plunged into the concoction. The superheated metal emulsifies and enhances the concoction, accentuating the flavour and aromas of the yuzu and Japanese ingredients imbued in the gin.
Hot Buttered Roku
Ingredients:
45ml Roku Gin
70g pear puree
10ml yuzu juice
5g butter
1tsp simple syrup
Stir together ingredients, heat with red-hot brasier and garnish with yuzu peel
Manhattan, Singapore
Autumn: Between the Leaves
Seasonal ingredient: Jackfruit
Rusty Cerven’s Manhattan Bar has become a stalwart of the Singaporean drinking scene since it first opened its doors in 2014. Now a two-time No.1 of Asia’s 50 Best Bars and regular on The World’s 50 Best Bars ranking, its cocktails have been lauded for their delivery of a timeless yesteryear drinking experience with touches of modernity.
Cerven’s creation, Between the Leaves, gives guests a taste of autumn in Singapore, utilising the native jackfruit harvested in March to September each year. Using the spiky fruit’s complex flavour blended with champagne to form a cordial, vetvier liqueur and aromatic orange bitters, the drink compliments Roku’s east-Asian botanicals for a floral and easy-drinking libation.
Between the Leaves
Ingredients:
45ml Roku Gin
25ml Jackfruit and champagne cordial
10ml Vetiver liqueur
2 dashes Mandarin orange bitters.
Stir and serve over an ice block and garnish with dehydrated jackfruit.
Fancy touring the world via cocktails? Watch all of the perfect serves for the changing seasons here
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