Cocktail envy is taking over the world’s hottest bars with each bar tender striving to make a more exclusive and expensive drink than the last. Whilst liquid bling guarantees you a trinket to take home, these five cocktails make their entrance into this list purely on cost of alcoholic ingredients.
1. The GiGi, GiGi’s Mayfair, London, £8,888
Created for iconic singer Grace Jones by GiGi’s Mayfair restaurant, this champagne cocktail is a lavish mix of bubbly, cognac and bitters. Whilst the recipe is traditional, the cost of the ingredients is not. The GiGi is concocted from a bottle of 1990 vintage Cristal and a bottle of 1888 Samalens Vieille Relique Vintage Bas Armagnac, and garnished with flecks of gold leaf for extra decadence. The price tag is around the same as a Rolex Submariner and it currently holds the title of world’s most expensive cocktail.
2. Winston, Club 23, Melbourne, AUD$16,000
Club 23 in Melbourne, opened by Shane Warne in 2011, has since seen a host of A-list stars walk through its doors. At a cool $16,000 the club’s Winston cocktail must be ordered at least two days in advance because of the labour intensive garnish, which includes chocolate nutmeg dust, poppy seed essence, rose essence and coconut.
A dash of Grand Marnier, a soupçon of Chartreuse, a hefty dose of cognac and a dash of Angostura Bitters, and you have the Winston. The hefty price tag comes from ultra-luxe ingredients, which include Grand Marnier Quintessence and Chartreuse Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolonge. Most expensive of the lot is the 1858 Croizet cognac, which costs almost AUD$200,000 a bottle.
3. Salvatore Legacy, Playboy Club, London £5,500
Mixed from 200 year old ingredients, this godly nectar will set you back £5,500. Dreamed up by celebrated mixologist Salvatore “The Maestro” Calabrese, the beverage uses 1778 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, 1770 Kummel Liqueur, Dubb Orange Curacao circa 1860 and two dashes of Angostura Bitters circa 1900s. Created for his self-named Salvatore’s Playboy Club in London, “The Maestro” himself also has a personal cognac collection worth more than £1 million. Enthusiasts travel from around the world to sample his collection that dates back to 1770.
4. Old Fashioned, Skyview Bar, Dubai, AUD$7,388
It seems only natural that Dubai should make an appearance on this list. Skyview’s luxury version of an Old Fashioned consists of 55 year-old Macallan Scotch whisky, ice made from the water used at their distillery, an exclusive dried fruit bitters and passionfruit-scented sugar. There were only 10 made and all were served in a glass produced in the French town of Baccarat emblazoned with 18 carat gold and the Burl Al Arab logo.
5. Ritz-Paris Sidecar, Bar Hemingway, Paris, 700€
A classic Sidecar served up with a slice of history – the cognac in this cocktail has survived World War II. The Ritz Hotel’s Bar Hemingway blends Cointreau, lemon juice, and a champagne Reserve Cognac that was bottled somewhere between 1830 and 1870. It was saved by German soldiers during the occupation but the grapes used to harvest this lavish liquor are no longer in existence so you’ll need to get to Paris quick before the last of it dries up!
