The 2025 Top 50 Cocktail Bars event is just a couple of weeks away and for the event we’ve teamed up with 2024’s Bar Team of the Year, Couch in Stirchley to create an incredible drinks menu for the evening.
Don’t forget to buy your tickets to celebrate with us all at the Underglobe in London on Tuesday 11 February!
Jacob Clarke, owner and bartender at Couch has kindly given us a rundown of what drinks to expect on the night.
The first menu we ever launched at Couch was inspired by all thing’s music. Years ago, I was walking down the road to meet Katie at a local pub listening to ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp-Dressed Man’. I was rockin’ out while thinking about menus and drinks, because I’m a sad loser, and it dawned on me that I could do a highball inspired by a Tuxedo No. 2 (The Sharp-Dressed Man! Get it?). When I finally got to Katie, I was going on about this idea for a drink that could be garnished with a bowtie and she looked at me like I was a complete idiot. Needless to say, that drink never made it onto what would eventually become Couch’s debut menu (after all, it was a trash drink in the end). However, this thought inspired our very first menu and now we have brought it back, updated, upgraded and reimagined, over five years later.
‘Couch Remastered’ dropped in the first week of January this year and celebrates iconic hits from a multitude of genres, spanning over 50 years of music. The majority of the drinks being served on the evening of the Top 50 are taken directly from this menu.
With the ‘Summertime Blues’, Vapoura Chapter Two Rum, Rosé Vermouth and Mastiha make up the boozy base of this. This is then modified with a ‘Greek Salad’ cordial, consisting of watermelon tea, mint and seasoned with oregano. It is designed to taste like a summer spent in Chios.
‘Misty Mountain Hop’, taken from Led Zeppelin IV, is our curve-ball sazerac serve. Courvoisier VSOP, Honeyed Woodruff and Smoked Blackcurrant form the base of one of the most complex serves we have ever developed. God yeah.
The ‘Picante’, taken from our Couch Classics section of the menu, has been a staple since its inception early last year. Consisting of Herradura Tequila, Smoked Tiger’s Milk and Pickled Pineapple, this savoury, tart and spicy serve has become a firm favourite amongst our locals and guests.
Everyone has an opinion on music and this menu has regularly inspired passionate debates and discussions amongst friends and strangers alike. It allows conversation to come more fluidly and enables us to develop a connection more naturally with our guests. Overall, this menu holds a special place in my heart as it champions exactly what we set out to do in the first place - bring people together.
