News

       Two bartenders and baristas set the stage for new ways to garnish drinks. By Lynette Dean and Natasha Hong.
       We see you behind the bar, having fun using a toothpick to create a heart shape with a few drops of Angostura bitters. But two bartenders and baristas recently turned the foamy crowns of their drinks into artistic canvases, giving guests even more reasons to snap a photo (or ten) of their creations on Instagram. The good news is that even if you’re not exactly artistic, one of our drink artists has a simple trick to help give your cocktails a painterly look.
       We first saw this decorative trend of bartenders being dressed as Picassos last year, when Rajendra “Rush” Limbu of The Artesian at the Langham Hotel in Hong Kong created a series of limited-edition cocktails inspired by iconic works of art to celebrate Art Basel Hong Kong.
       He used toothpicks to push food coloring into the foam of egg whites, creating intricate patterns like the swirling clouds in Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and the melting clocks in Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory,” as well as the clean lines and blocks of color in Piet Mondrian’s “First Painting.” In practical terms, these masterpieces take longer to make than standard drinks, so to meet demand, the bar produces limited-edition drinks and introduces menu items that are available by reservation only.
       Seoul barista Lee Kang-bin is another way that drink masters are creating foam canvases. He recently gained media attention for his “CreamArt” creations, in which he created intricate images of cappuccinos at C Through, a cafe in South Korea’s capital.
       To give himself enough time to paint his intricate paintings, he used cold glazes to achieve a consistent texture. For colors, Lee honed in on which syrups, food colorings, and sweeteners worked best and still had a strong flavor when sipped with cream and coffee. Using small cups as a palette, he smeared, swirled, and glided across his creations with mini spoons, ice picks, and even nail art tools to create lines and swirls.
       The barista isn’t actually trained as an artist, but with practice he’s gotten better at his craft. Drawing simple shapes like a bear usually takes just a minute, but creating world-famous cappuccino-sized masterpieces like Edvard Munch’s The Scream can take an hour, so he’s currently only taking pre-orders for three CreamArt coffee mugs a day.
       If you picked up our latest issue, Issue 06, you’ll have noticed the exquisite design of the Aqua Hong Kong Rooster Me Luck. An intricate pattern of swirls and flowers sits delicately on a layer of egg white foam, a technique invented by bartender Simone Rossi. It’s one easy way to adopt this trend in your own bar, even if you didn’t study the art in school.
       To achieve the effect, the Italian bartender first asked a local bakery if he could print designs on cake icing, “but it melted too easily,” Rossi said. “Later, we discovered that you can print designs on rice paper and then eat them.” So the bar purchased a printer and edible ink cartridges to print designs on rice paper.
       During the preparation, the bartender carefully trims the paper with dry hands and keeps the cut-out circles dry. When a customer orders a drink that includes gin, Cocchi Rosa, matcha, lemon, yuzu, and Chinese white peach puree, he carefully covers it with a sheet of paper to achieve the final beautiful effect of the cocktail. Rossi says the best way to create this effect is to put it on top of egg whites, “because the foam will mix with the rice paper. You put it on top and it melts and stays in place.”
       Okay, there you have it. Three easy ways — well, one easy and two hard — to turn your drink into a masterpiece. We all know the positive impact a good social media photo can have on drink sales, so a beautiful drink that’s easy to make can only mean good things for your bar.