Guillaume Jubien, mixologist and brand ambassador, tailors cocktails for the Indian palate.
The bar counter easily dwarfs Guillaume Jubien. But his compact and stocky frame is probably just right for the bundle of energy that he is. Taking a quick breather from mixing his range of signature cocktails, he exclaims: “You can never get tired doing this!”
Jubien can himself be described as a bit of a mixed bag. Born in France, he has spent the majority of his adult life trotting the globe. Today he works out of Shanghai, consulting as a mixologist, and he is brand ambassador for the liqueur Grand Marnier. He says what he wanted to do was to be able to interact with “Mr and Ms Everyone”, and bartending was the perfect opportunity to do that.
Ask him about his rise to his present position, and he dismisses it as the product of his “wild life”. But a little further prodding reveals that he was part of the team that set up the bar at The Metropolitan in London when it was launched.
“Those were the days when you tried outdoing everyone by coming up with the ‘coolest drink’. You went to all the bars to find out what people were drinking and trawled the markets to find exotic ingredients,” he laughs.
Jubien, though, went a little bit further than the markets. He developed a passion for photography that led him to travel Asia extensively. The sojourn even included riding through Kerala on a Royal Enfield motorcycle. He says he was fascinated by the spices he got to savour everywhere, and they made their way into his 1,000-plus recipes.
He is no stranger to Indian cuisine, and says he had enough variety to choose from while working in London. In fact, he was inspired enough to try garlic in his drinks when the audience included his colleagues. He says they were amazed by what it did to a drink — but he refrained from trying it on customers because “the flavour does tend to linger on”.
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Grand Marnier, which uses the essence of wild tropical oranges, takes some getting used to for the average drinker. The trick, according to Jubien, is to temper the sweetness, either by using spice — or you could even flambé the drink. I couldn’t help but ask him to concoct something truly Indian for me.
“I want to do something with masala... it should be strong enough for your nostrils... and tea... the combination of hot and cold should be fantastic,” he declares. Thus is born another new recipe.
FAVOURITE RECIPES
GRAND MASALA TEA
Freshly brewed, hot and strong masala tea sans milk and sugar
30 ml Grand Marnier
Dairy cream
Glass: Martini
Mix the masala tea and the Grand Marnier (use a quantity of tea inversely proportional to the size of your sweet tooth). Add the dairy cream. Shake with ice and strain into the martini glass. Garnish with cinnamon bark or vanilla.
GRAND MASTER FLASH
Slices of fresh ginger (enough for about 5 ml of juice)
1 wedge of orange
2-3 wedges of lime
50 ml Grand Marnier
Ginger ale
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Lime with a spring of mint
Muddle the ginger thoroughly and continue the process while adding the orange and lime. Add Grand Marnier. Shake and double strain to the highball glass over ice. Top up with ginger ale. This one is Jubien’s favourite.