For this year’s London Cocktail Week, The London Essence Company is opening a week-long immersive pop-up called The Light House, which combines multi-sensory light installations with low-calorie cocktails. They’ve recruited some of the best bartenders in the world to shake up the drinks each day, including Yann Bouvignies from Scarfes. He’s taking charge of the bar on 3rd October and he’s created four cocktails using The London Essence Company’s tonics, gingers and sodas (made with distilled essences and naturally sourced sweetness), meaning they’re all under 150 calories.
The cocktails at Scarfes are far from your standard drinks and Yann has taken that same inventive approach with his serves for The Light House. The Under Wood, his take an on aperitif, is made with vermouth, peppermint tea-infused St Germain, London Essence Classic Tonic and soil distillate (yes actual soil from the ground) and his version of a spritz, the Wild Honey, contains propolis-infused Hendricks, St Germain, jasmine, lavender, lemon, grass, and London Essence Ginger Ale. If you’re partial to a Negroni, you’ll love the first one and if you’re not quite ready to let go of the summer spritz, the Wild Honey will slip down a treat.
Yann is also big on sustainability and low-waste, and this is reflected in his other two cocktails. The Camouflage is pine nut-infused Reyka Vodka, pine needle and apple wine, suze and London Essence Soda Water, and he’s taken reused those pine nuts from the vodka to create pine nut milk for the non-alcoholic Winter Milk, which also has Seedlip Garden 108, speculoos, blackcurrant and hibiscus, and London Essence Rhubarb and Cardamom Soda in. Pine nut milk and speculoos biscuit syrup…don’t see those on any old cocktail list do you?
[easy-image-collage id=118258]Even though they’re all light on the alcohol (and the calories), the cocktails certainly aren’t short on flavour. We’ve tasted them so we know…they are GOOD. These cocktails are only available at The Light House on Wednesday 3rd October, so if you wanna try them you’d better book your tickets asap.
Tickets to The Light House cost £12 and that gets you two cocktails as well as entry to the installation.
[maxbutton id=”335″] Weds 3rd October 20185-7 Grape Street, London, WC2H 8DW
londonessenceco.com