Not just for drinkers, the doers in life will also find fun in Orchid’s mixology classes, where you can learn the history of cocktail making, as well as have the opportunity to get behind the bar and make cocktails yourself.
Other events include gin tastings, where you can boost your understanding of gin and, of course, try some different falvours too.
Also, and a welcome expectation in a Scottish cocktail bar, whisky tastings run through the history of Scotland’s famed spirit, its production methods as well as its versatility.
The brains behind Orchid have developed two other operations in Aberdeen including 99 Bar & Kitchen as well as gin distillery Porter’s Gin.
Orchid’s cocktail menu changes often, but its current one includes Bison-Grass-Hopper, made using Zubrovka, clarified milk, pineapple, white chocolate, mint tea and mint oil (£8); Roasting in Cuba made with Burnt Butter Havana Especial, Dubliner Honeycomb Liqueur, toffee popcorn syrup and whole egg (£8); and Smoke ’Em If You Got ’Em made using El Jimador Tequila, Cointreau, Kilchoman Bramble Liqueur, smoked agave, citric acid and orgeat (£8).
Of its menu, the cocktail bar’s website says: “In 1862, professor Jerry Thomas wrote How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon Vivant’s Companion, which was the world’s first cocktail book.
“Within the book, there are over 200 recipes for what the professor calls ‘fancy drinks’, each separated into 12 categories.
“In 2003, Gary Regan wrote The Joy of Mixology and redefined the cocktail families for the recent resurgence of the cocktail world.
“This menu is a marriage of both, taking four categories from each book and designing drinks around them. Each drink therefore is entirely different from the last, meaning there is a drink here for everyone.”
It’s not all about cocktails, though; there’s a nice range of bottled beers and ‘tinnies’, as well as schooners of lager and a petit range of wine and a healthy selection of Champagne.
