Dorelli: Bartenders should go against the groove. What we do is up to us. You need the standard colours, but to create fantastic pictures you need all the colours available. To me craft gins are my favourite – I know they cost more but we are salesmen, we can sell anything to our customers.
What are the new gin cocktail trends across the world?
Schneider: London is very different from anywhere else in the world. Here gin is mostly still used in classics. In Germany everyone is super-crazy about gin & tonic – it has a different status to here. Bars will stock seven or eight tonics with all kinds of garnishes. In France, cocktail culture only started five years ago so there is not a lot of consumer knowledge about classics. Everything is new, original drinks, and it’s very exciting to work there.
Stephenson: The craft cocktail renaissance has gone hand in hand with the resurgence of craft distilling. More than half of the cocktails in the Savoy cocktail book were gin. That tells us a lot [about the relationship]. A greater range of gins makes it more fun.
Palazzi: A few years ago only Italians drunk Negronis, now it’s one of the most popular at Dukes. But you can take classics and twist them. Young people are more interested in cocktails than when I started – they are ready.
