Cocktail of the Week: The Dorchester’s ‘Jade’ Cocktail
To celebrate head bartender Giuliano Morandin’s 40-year anniversary at the iconic London hotel, try one of the first cocktails he mixed…
Words: Jonathan Wells
This month, Giuliano Morandin — the charming, cheerful Bar Manager at The Dorchester — celebrates his 40th anniversary of working at the iconic London hotel. It’s been an illustrious four decades of drinking, with Morandin serving noblemen, superstars and worldwide celebrities during his tenure behind the bar.
“When I first started here,” Morandin tells Gentleman’s Journal, “in 1981, the bar had just been redesigned. And it was absolutely gorgeous. It was very different to how it looks now, with the bar up at the top, and a tableau of tiles with flowers and birds behind it, done by Alberto Pinto. We had a big piano, a little dance floor, and tables all around.”
“I first started here in 1981…”
Those were halcyon days for the bartender. But, while a forty-year anniversary is traditionally celebrated with a ruby, the cocktail we’re using to celebrate Morandin’s milestone takes on a different hue. The gemstone jade gives this vibrant, verdant cocktail its name — and a mixture of fruity liqueurs, champagne and gin infuse it with bold, unforgettable flavours.
Fittingly, the ‘Jade Cocktail’ is also one of the first recipes Morandin mixed to life after joining The Dorchester team four decades ago. And, with a hint of late-seventies chic swirled together with early-eighties bombast, it’s the perfect fluteful to raise in celebration to the Italian’s long, successful and incredibly palatable career.
Ingredients
- 25ml Gin
- 25ml Midori
- 10ml Blue Curaçao
- 10ml Lime Juice
- Two Chunks of Honeydew Melon
- Champagne
- Black Pepper (to garnish)
Method
- Begin by muddling the melon in a shaker
- Fill the shaker with ice
- Add the gin, lime juice, Midori and Curaçao
- Shake confidently and double-strain into a champagne flute
- Top up with champagne
- Garnish with a black pepper-dusted slice of melon
Want more cocktail recipes? Here’s how to make Jack Savoretti’s ‘Portofino & Tonic’…
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