Speakeasy Sastrería Martinez has unveiled its latest cocktail menu, designed to champion local Peruvian ingredients.
The new menu, called Collection 24/25, will launch this month (May), comprising 18 signature serves.
The team at Sastrería Martinez, led by bar owner Diego Macedo, has been designing the new drinks list for the past year. Together, they have selected more than 30 varieties of native fruits and herbs from across Peru, which they turned into tinctures, cordials and distillates in the bar’s laboratory.
“Peruvian ingredients are so unique, especially in the ways that they can be used in the kitchens to show what we have with our amazing cuisines,” said Macedo. “But in terms of our cocktails, we are using different kinds of fruits and herbs that are not even being used yet in the kitchens of Peru, which I think is one of the most valuable parts of what we’re doing.
“We’re taking fruits from throughout Peru, from the jungles, the highlands, the coast etc, and bringing truly unique flavours to our cocktails because you can’t get those flavours anywhere else.
“We’re also utilising different techniques to really showcase and make the most of these ingredients, such as infusions and redistillations, tinctures, cordials etc, so that these flavours of Peru, which are still minimally explored, are really celebrated as much as possible on our menu.”
Collection 24/25: the cocktails
The styles of drinks span everything from long and refreshing to short and bright with a higher alcohol volume.
Two cocktails that have featured on each of Sastrería Martinez’s menus have been revamped for this new iteration: Mr Martinez, and Mrs Martinez.
Mr Martinez is an aperitivo-style cocktail, made with Ron Zacapa 23 rum, and papaya arequipeña, a Peruvian fruit that grows at Arequipa, which has a juicy and slightly sour pulp.
Meanwhile, Mrs Martinez is a Highball-style drink, made with Chivas with tamarind and two fruits from the Peruvian jungle: taperibá, an acidic fruit with mango-like flavours, and lemon mandarin.
Other libations include the Ledesma, created as a celebration of the grape. The Sour-style cocktail features Pisco Barsol, Pedro Ximénez, mistela, Amazonian burgundy grape and lacto-fermented grape. Deep crimson in colour, the cocktail is topped with a ‘fluffy’ pisco foam.
The cocktail menu is complemented by a selection of bar snacks and small plates. New additions to the menu include cochinillo, a suckling pig with loche and sweet potato. Additional offerings include shrimp tartare, truffled duck spring rolls, and Campari and red berries panna cotta (made with Campari 0.0%).
Opened in May 2002, Sastrería Martinez aims to transport guests back to the Roaring 20s. The speakeasy is hidden behind a tailor shop façade, with the Spanish word ‘sastrería’ meaning ‘tailor shop’ in English.
The bar was shortlisted for the Bareksten Best Bar Design Award in The World’s 50 Best Bar Awards in 2023.
Earlier this year, The Spirits Business went on a Peruvian tour of eight pisco bodegas.
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Author: Melita Kiely