A Cocktail Of Elegance

We head for one of our favourite hotels, One Aldwych in London, for what is, virtually, the finest cocktail we’ve sampled, writes LOUISE TAYLOR

- Louise Taylor

IN my virtual reality goggles, I am flying over lochs, streams and verdant acres of the Scottish Highlands. The action cuts to champagne being poured, a cocktail being mixed, and soon I’m not in the Highlands, but heading towards the huge glass doors of the One Aldwych hotel in London. They swing open and I walk up to the Lobby Bar, where my cocktail awaits.

Show over, I remove the goggles and headphones to find that, during my Scottish distraction, virtual reality has become reality: the cocktail from that film is sitting right in front of me.

It may seem like a big production to herald the arrival of a mere beverage, but the Lobby Bar is nothing if not big on style, and if a hotel in the heart of London’s theatreland can’t make a drama out of a cocktail, then who can?

Since you ask, the cocktail in question – titled The Origin (£18) – is an absolute corker: Dalmore 12-year-old whisky, Merlet cherry liqueur, grapefruit juice, chocolate bitters and a dash of champagne, all sitting in a heavy tumbler with a lump of ice the size and shape of a golf ball.