by Charly Suggett
As if London Cocktail Week didn’t offer up enough delights in itself, sometimes an event like this pops up to shake up the schedule.
Angostura Caribbean Rum has teamed up with Butterfly expert Luke Brown and created a Butterfly haven encased within a pop up bar in the heart of East London’s Shoreditch.
With over thirty years of experience, Brown has created the space with the upmost care and attention to detail to ensure that the butterflies are completely relaxed and at home in their temporary surroundings, with blacked out windows and artificial sunrises to boot.
If the humid atmosphere of the butterfly enclosure gets a little too steamy, you can simply check yourself out in the mirror for any who may have taken a liking to you before stepping out and swiftly propping up the bar, sampling rum and bitter based cocktails named after butterfly species who flutter just a few feet away from you.
In case you need a brief summary, Angostura is a Caribbean Rum producer who also lead the market of bitters. They have been in the business for 190 years so it’s fair to say that they know their stuff and with a butterfly perched upon their logo, it seemed natural to bring the two together for a great event to round off the end of London Cocktail Week. How else will they top it all off? Well, with a rigorous cocktail-off between 2014’s winner of the Angostura City Sessions and any mixologist who may choose to challenge him. There will be three rounds and three cocktails which will be decided by the spectators and a heavily gilded belt will be awarded to the winner.
Masterclasses will be held between 3pm and 4pm including ‘A Bitters Heart’ on Friday, £9, (16 places) and ‘Nectar and Nous’ on Saturday, £9 (16 places, you get the idea) which can be purchased through the London Cocktail Week website www.londoncocktailweek.com/events . Alternatively, entry to the space itself is free if you prefer to sit and marvel at the Owl butterfly and the Blue Morpho Elixir flying around you.
The pop up bar and Butterfly house can be found at 31 New Inn Yard, Shoreditch, EC2A 3EY, between 12 noon and 11pm until Sunday 12th October.
