Toasting the Blue Angel

01 October 2014 - 02:13 By Andrea Nagel
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There comes a time when the upper echelons of society seem within reach.

Facing another working week, it's hard to imagine getting there, but eventually a little luxury feels well earned. In The Savoy Hotel in London, the travails of the working class are so far from reality that they almost cease to exist.

Built on the banks of the Thames in 1889, The Savoy became London's first luxury hotel. In the 1920s, the establishment embraced the Art Deco movement and celebrities like Errol Flynn and Coco Chanel were frequent guests.

It was to this hotel that we retired on a recent trip to London to see how the other half lives.

There are two bars at The Savoy: the American Bar, regarded as one of the best cocktail bars in London; and the Beaufort Bar, the hotel's former cabaret stage. For pure indulgence, the Beaufort seemed the better bet.

It serves each drink in era-specific vintage glassware, and pays tribute to The Savoy's most famous guests. I chose the Blue Angel, inspired by Marlene Dietrich.

Watching award-winning bartender Chris Moore make the libation, we heard the story of the Bombay Sapphire, Martini Dry, Cointreau, lemon sorbet and Dom Perignon concoction from the lips of its creator.

Champagne was Dietrich's favourite tipple. She would drink it between takes, with lemon in her mouth to keep her famous cheek muscles taut for the next scene. Bombay Sapphire gin contains 12 rare herbs, signifying in the cocktail Dietrich's complex personality.

The drink combines the flavours of the gin with the delicate pop of the champagne, and a frozen scoop of lemon sorbet to be spooned into the mouth as you sip. It's more than delicious. It is stupendously good and easy to drink. So we had three each.

It is rude to ask a bartender to name his price in this kind of place. The bill came to 3 x £50 each. That's about R2750 a person, and we weren't even drunk. Bottoms up to cocktails in London.

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