Spending a grand on an unforgettable experience might not feel extreme for people keen to shake up their routines. But what if it doesn’t involve falling through the skies, or even going outside at all?
“A life-changing experience” is the promise of one Belfast hotel’s £1,000 (€1,200) cocktail, launched as part of a new drinks menu.
According to the Merchant hotel, the cocktail is a “masterpiece Irish whiskey, aged in rare French Tronçais oak casks, delivering elegant notes of honey, toasted almonds and delicate spice”.
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Its main ingredient is Midleton’s rare Irish whiskey Forêt de Tronçais, that costs €4,800 a bottle. To keep the flavours light and showcase the Midleton, it is served with Antica Formula red vermouth and Dubonnet, a fortified wine.
‘Masterpiece of Irish whiskey’: Belfast hotel launches £1,000 cocktail
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The Merchant bar’s general manager, Aaron Dugan, said: “What makes it special is that there are only 1,000 of these bottles of whiskey made and very few were available to buy ... we were invited down to taste it, which is really rare, normally you don’t get to taste things that are so expensive.
“It’s between 13 and 37 years old so it’s very, very old whiskey. You are going to get a lot of oak wood, cacao and deep vanilla flavours.”
A £750 mai tai previously earned the decorated city centre hotel the title of world’s most expensive cocktail, according to Guinness World Records. That was later taken over by a cocktail sold for £8,583 in Melbourne, Australia.
The new menu also includes a collection made with rare whiskeys by Midleton and Michter’s, and a Macallan whisky, which start at £785 and go up to £1,000. – Guardian
