Some 35 years ago, people in restaurant circles started talking about ‘molecular gastronomy’ – approaching the kitchen from a chemical perspective – and before long most of us had seen Heston Blumenthal wielding a syringe or creating a tasty foam using lab equipment. Inevitably this trend evolved into the dark art of molecular mixology and for the last decade or so, The Alchemist has been at the forefront of this movement, starting in Manchester in 2010 and now with twenty venues across the country.
What The Alchemist offers is a heady mix of theatre, magic and forward-thinking ideas: their website is a dazzling display of graphics, buzzwords (Alchemist NFTs, anyone?) and constant evolution. And while their venues are known for great food, an excellent atmosphere and all the other things you’d expect from a cutting-edge bar, it all comes back to those cocktails and what they've called 'the dark arts of molecular mixology’. So we spoke to David Stanners, the head barman at the Newcastle branch in Eldon Square’s Grey’s Quarter, to find out a little more about what goes on behind the smoke and mirrors.
David is a man who clearly loves his work, talking about the cocktails and the ideas behind them with real passion. “It’s all theatre - we’ve got some interesting serves. The drinks aren’t just taken at face value - there’s an extra layer to them.”
As for the relation to molecular mixology, he explains that there’s a lot of science behind the drinks. “We use lots of different acid reductions and infusions. We just try to approach every drink as something you can take time over and really work out.”
One notable aspect of all this is that everyone is invited to take part. “Whenever a new menu gets devised, if anyone wants to put a new drink forward they can and it might get taken up on the new menu. I’ve got a drink on this new menu and I think maybe twenty of the drinks on the menu at the moment were developed by the bartenders themselves.” David is unsurprisingly very enthusiastic about his contribution to the current menu, a twist on a tequila and tonic called the T&T. “It looks like a stick of dynamite and it comes with a little flammable wick. There’s lots of smoke and things bubbling away and it’s delicious!”
For anyone new to The Alchemist looking for the ultimate cocktail, he’s quick to recommend the Dead Red Zombie. “It’s a twist on a classic zombie - lots of rum, fresh fruit juice, raspberry and passionfruit sugar syrup, lots of smoke and a shot of absinthe with maraschino on the side.” That said, his favourite cocktail is a simple, classic margarita.
The mixology scene is driven by trends as much as any industry – most spirits have their boom times for a while – but David explains that right now, sustainability is the big thing. “We’ll be coming out with a sustainable menu in the next two weeks or so and there’ll be some drinks that are fully sustainable. We currently have a drink on the menu made in an edible cup so there’s nothing wasted there. We work quite closely with some brands that, rather than sending out bottles, send out a tote bag of spirits and we decant these into bottles in-house to save on glass waste. And for every tote bag we buy, they plant a tree for us, so we’ve got a forest of Alchemist trees!”
Even the Alchemist website is a beautifully designed adventure, full of alluring offerings and exciting ideas – all well as the aforementioned NFTs, there’s merchandise and cocktail books, prints and vouchers, and they offer mail order cocktails and mixology classes. They even have webcounters breaking down sustainability targets and charity donations. The food menu is inventive and has the same attention to detail as the cocktails. In fact, everything about The Alchemist is carefully constructed to live up to the company motto: “theatre served”.
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