Forum

I've had a flick through old specs, but the closest I can find is instruction to through whole fruit into the shaker (such as orange slices of a Devil's Share or various fruits for different Pimm's Cup variations. This said, I do distinctively remember circa 2006/7 when Sasha was checking up on us, I was running the Red Room and Avery Glasser (of Bittermen's bitters) was paying us a visit and generally geeking out with Sasha. Sasha being something of a purist challenged the need for an ever-expanding range of bitters with wacky flavours at the bar, and put forward the case that all you really need for classics are Angostura and Peychaud's. He asked me my thoughts, and having come off the back of winning the Angostura comp (which I believed you judged) in London to celebrate the release of Angostura Orange, I told him I did think that although some ranges were getting a little excessive, there was a place for other flavours... orange being a case in point that does indeed appear in a lot of classic cocktail recipes. He challenged me to make a martini with orange bitters, then did the same by adding the zest into his mixing glass. This was the first time I'd seen this done, and I was surprised how effective it was. We went through drinks by adding different types of classics and adding different types of zests. It wasn't referred to as a regal shake, but he may well have taken the idea over from NYC, since the cross-pollination of the two bars wasn't unusual.