The Sun Tavern, on Bethnal Green Road since 1851, has lately celebrated three years after its latter renovation with the launch of a new exciting cocktail menu.
Andy Kerr, one of the owners and the operations director of the bar, took care of it and the result is something very creative and extremely unique.
Apart from an interesting selection of fine ales that come straight from local breweries, The Sun Tavern is also well-known for its great collection of Irish Whiskeys. And to stay within the Irish theme, this bar is the only one in London that has a bottle collection of a particular moonshine whiskey with a troubled past: Poitín.
The inspiration for the new cocktail menu has surely come from this almost forgotten spirit.
“We always get a lot of attention for our cocktails,” Andy said. “So when thinking of a new menu, we thought why not to create cocktails with indigenous spirits from around the world?”
And here they now serve seven new creations that will make the drinker travel from Asian to South American tastes, sip after sip.
Andy continued: “These cocktails are made in a classic style, so you won’t necessarily notice every ingredient inside. We could have used normal spirits, but we thought that choosing these different flavours it would add something different.”
The Cocktails
The Penelope’s main spirit, the only long drink on the menu, is Arrack, a distilled alcohol typically produced in South and Southeast Asia, which is made from either the fermented sap of coconut flowers, sugarcane, grain or fruit, depending on the country. Mixed with a French Vermouth, Dolin Dry, and Amontillado, a Spanish sherry is an easy-to-drink cocktail where the coconut sweetness, the lime sourness, and the Angostura bitterness play a contrasting and pleasant game in the palate.
The Root of It is definitely the cocktail for the tough type. Mixed as an Old Fashioned, it contains the infamous Poitín together with Italian Amaro Averna and Ruby Port from Portugal.
The Balkan Promise is a pinkish potion with two main spirits that have hardly been mixed together before: the East-European Slivovitz and the Peruvian-Chilean Pisco. Together with plum and vanilla syrup is definitely one of the best from the menu.
The Three C’s stand for the Brazilian Cachaca, the Italian Vermouth Cocchi Torino and the French liqueur Green Chartreuse.
In the Amrita cocktail, there is the Meade, which is a kind of honey wine produced in ancient history throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.
In Sir Banks Fizz you can feel the distinctive smoky taste of Mezcal, the Mexican spirit made from the agave plant, which is blended with a tiny note of fennel and cumin typical of the Kummel, a liqueur originally produced in the Netherlands. The Eucalyptus syrup gives the final herbal touch to this peculiar drink.
Grappa is the main ingredient of Bianca which, despite the usual strong flavour of the distilled, has a really enjoyable taste, given by lemon and honey.
Recommended: The Balkan Promise, The Penelope, and Bianca. Sir Bank Fizz for something unique.