Small BusinessToasting an accessible spirit
Mixologist Max Warner makes us cocktails with Chivas Regal
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Max Warner, the mixologist with Chivas Regal, opens his session on making cocktails with Chivas, with a bit of a joke. Each one of his quips, however, fall flat on the attending bartenders. No one cracks a smile. It is a bad case of humour getting lost in translation.
But that does not faze a rather happy Warner even though, by his own admission, he is suffering from jetlag.
Warner was inspired to start his career as a chef by his mother, who worked for several years as a chef at 10, Downing Street, while Margaret Thatcher was the British Prime Minister. Says Warner, “She wasn’t a trained chef and she not only cooked for the Prime Minister’s family but also for the state banquets that were held.”
Warner trained as a chef at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he specialised in classic French cuisine. Later, however, he gave up his chef’s cap to become, first, a bartender, then a bar owner, and, finally, a mixologist. He says he found being in the kitchen a lonely job. “As a chef you don’t meet people. You just work very long hours. I like meeting and interacting with people.”
Warming to the subject of people, Warner says he has the knack of knowing what drink a person is likely to enjoy. This little gift comes in rather handy in his present job as a mixologist for Chivas.
Explaining what he does, Warner says, “My job is to bring a brand to life.” And that precisely is what he is trying, with whisky which traditionally is associated with old men.
To make whisky more accessible, Warner has devised cocktails which use this spirit as the base. “Cocktails,” says Warner, “are again big all over the world. People go to certain bars for their cocktails.”
Making a cocktail is an art form now, even though in the early years cocktails were served first to mask the taste of unpleasant alcohol, and then in the Prohibition years to hide the alcohol.
The idea behind using Chivas for cocktails, of course, is neither to mask the taste nor to help hide the alcohol. Warner says, “Cocktails makes a spirit more accessible. I am helping to recruit the aspirational drinker by doing these cocktails.”
I remind Warner that India loves its whisky on the rocks and may not wish to dilute it with other drinks. To this, he responds, “I find the people here are very progressive and contemporary.”
With that, he raises his glass of Chivas 18 and smiles, probably secure in the knowledge that someone in some bar in India will soon be asking for one of his cocktail creations.
FAVOURITE RECIPES
CHIVALRY
1 highball glass
45 ml Chivas Regal 12 years
45 ml apple juice
45 ml sparkling mineral water
10 ml fresh lemon juice
5 ml elderflower cordial Caramelised apple crisp
Add all the ingredients to a tall glass and just stir.
ALGONQUIN
1 Champagne flute
50 ml Chivas Regal
30 ml Lillet Blanc
30 ml pressed pineapple juice
2 dashes of Peychaud Bitters
Raspberry for garnish
Add all the ingredients together except for the raspberry. Shake well and strain it before pouring it in the flute.
CHIVAS MOSQUITO
50 ml Chivas Regal 12 years
4 wedges fresh lime
8 mint leaves
2 tsp sugar syrup
Crushed ice
Slash of soda (optional)