Autumn has arrived, that transition season between summer heat and winter cold. That season in which fresh and fruity scents of the summer give way to the undergrowth, represented by mushrooms, berries, aromatic herbs and beet.
Right there beetroot is the ingredient that Giovanni Allario, bar manager of Moebius – a large project in the Milan Central area, with a research restaurant and a tapas bistro – chose to create a seasonal drink, as per the practice of its mixing philosophy. The name, Solomon, is a tribute to one of the many stories of Moebius, the well-known French cartoonist from whom the place takes inspiration for the name of every cocktail on its menu, with the exception of the classics.
“Solomon was born from the desire to revisit the Aperol Spritz, a cocktail that is very popular both in Italy and abroad” said the bar manager. “In my twist, I chose not to include wine, because it is the strongest reference to this drink. If present, everyone thinks that the cocktail is a bad copy of the original.”
Starting from this premise, to Aperol Giovanni Allario adds umeshu, a Japanese liqueur obtained from the maceration of green and unripe Japanese plums of the ume variety in alcohol. Used for its acidity and sweetness, the alcoholic base aims to counterbalance, together with the raspberry, the earthiness and roundness of two typically autumnal ingredients: cocoa, which suggests a sweetness that is actually absent in the drink, and beetroot, present here in the form of an extract, while its waste, once dehydrated and pulverized, becomes the protagonist in other cocktails. The cocktail is also a reference to another classic Italian aperitif: Campari Soda, because the drink is gasified and served in the glass of this drink. Result? A more interesting and less sweet alternative to the usual Spritz.
Recipe
Ingredients for 1 drink:
- 45 ml Aperol with cocoa
- 15ml Umeshu
- 7.5 ml Beetroot juice
- 60 ml Raspberry water
- 7.5ml Verjus
- 15 ml Water
Assemble the elements inside a shaker. Filter the cocktail to obtain a clear, translucent and intense red result. Gasify. Serve in a Campari Soda or highball glass. Add ice cubes.
The bar manager
Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1991, to a Venezuelan mother and an Italian father, Giovanni Allario he moved to Italy as a child, when his father had to move to Genoa for work, the city where he spent his childhood, except for a year in Mexico. At university he enrolled in Industrial Design and, after an Erasmus in Spain, he decided to stay, but not to immediately do the job he had studied for. The passion he had for mixing pushed him to take a course to become a barman, after which he began working first in a school in the sector in Barcelona and then as a barback in some cocktail bars. A final experience in a Genoese café - where the speed of service significantly improved - separated him from the big step: the move to Paris. “I thought I would stay for one or two years, but instead I stayed for six years”. In the capital, he followed the opening of Danico – the city's most innovative cocktail bar – as a barback and waiter, in 2014-15, and then joined the staff of Le Syndicat. Having also entered here as a barback, he climbs up all the hierarchies until he becomes bar manager. “We only mixed French spirits and we were one of the first cocktail bars in the world to do this type of work.” After five years, in which the level of the mix proposed also grew significantly, to increasingly focus on a seasonal product, he returned to Italy, this time to Milan. At the call of Lorenzo Querci, the owner of Moebius, responds presently and on October 25th he begins his adventure as a bar manager.
