Botanist Bar Team

Team members: Grant Sceney, Jeff Savage & Max Curzon-Price
Bar: Botanist Bar
Country: Vancouver, Canada

Winning cocktail: Into the Æther

45ml BOLS Genever
22ml Team-made Vermouth *
22ml Cold pressed White Tea
7ml BOLS Maraschino
1 Barspoon Peated Scotch Whiskey
1 Barspoon Salt Water (5%)

Method: Combine all ingredients and stir with ice until chilled and properly diluted. Strain into a chilled glass, and express a fresh grapefruit zest over the cocktail. Discard the zest, and serve.
Advanced Serve: Set up levitating glass box with dry ice infused with grapefruit and chamomile essential oils. Pour cocktail into chilled levitating glass. Discuss the inspiration behind the drink and the significant role that Bols Genever plays as the hero ingredient. Allow guest to take the drink from its levitating base and enjoy.

*Team-made Vermouth recipe:
750 mL Pinot Grigio (Botanist Bar Team uses Abbazia de Novacella)
250 mL Fino Sherry
150g Superfine sugar
5g Spruce Tips
5g Sage Leaves
5g Juniper Berries
5g Citric Acid
1g Dried Wormwood
0.5 g Whole Dried Chincona
1 Lemon Rind, zested

Combine wine, spruce tips, sage leaves, juniper berries, white tea, wormwood, chincona bark, and lemon rind together in a vac seal bag, seal and sous-vide for 2 hours at 70 Degrees Celsius for 2 hours. Allow to cool. Mix in sherry, sugar, and citric acid and store in fridge until use.

Inspiration:
Into the Æther fits into Botanist’s Laboratory cocktails, which all embody a specific element of nature (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water), and are all elaborate presentation pieces in their own right. Into the Æther raises the bar in terms of its show stopping presentation and attention to the primary ingredient, Bols Genever. Inspired by the fifth element, Spirit, the drink is clear, with an emphasis on bold and surprising flavors.

Botanist Bar team’s vision for the drink is to showcase how teamwork and team spirit is the underlying driving force behind the cocktails and experiences they leave their guests with. Into the Æther is the direct result of teamwork – from the team members that gather ingredients, to those responsible for the mise en place during the day, to those that create the drink, to those who eventually pour it – it embodies the spirit of a team. The cocktail is built on the team’s collective vision, and brings together ingredients foraged from their natural surroundings in Vancouver, which showcase the natural bounty of British Columbia, Canada. The Botanist Bar Team believe that though it takes one bartender to make a drink, it takes a team to create an experience.