Literature and Drinks. An excellent combination. Not just since Ernest Hemingway. Under the motto The Bitter Diaries, the exciting start of a reading series soon to be seen nationwide took place in Munich yesterday.
Ben Becker reads in a sonorous voice five thoroughly entertaining short stories written especially for these events. All of them have a connection to Aperol, Averna, Braulio, Campari or Cynar. Accompanying each story, Lukas Motejzik from Munich’s Zephyr Bar will serve five cocktails based on the appropriate spirit, forming a more or less direct link to the content and events presented in the story.
The reading series fits in perfectly with Campari Germany’s current Bitter beats boring campaign. Under this thematic umbrella, the house’s bitters are brought together and made accessible to a wider audience via an extensive recipe database, background information and interviews. At present, certainly an easy task, because good cocktails, especially with a slight bitter note, are absolutely in vogue.
My favorite of the evening was definitely “The Face”, a mezcal and Aperol based Negroni variant, served to the story “The application”. Grapefruit and dark chocolate on the cocktail are not simply garnish here, but support the aromatics immensely. Luckily, I was able to coax the following recipe for this drink from Lukas.
The Face
Ingredients
3 cl mezcal
3 cl sweet red vermouth (Cinzano Rosso)
3 cl Aperol
Grapefruit leftovers, a piece of dark chocolate
First, stir all the spirits in a mixing glass with ice cubes. Then strain the drink into a tumbler filled with ice, followed by garnishing with the grapefruit zest and chocolate.
While the reading in Munich took place live in the Goldberg studios, the following dates will use spectacular 3D hologram technology to bring Ben Becker virtually into the bars. A really successful concept, fabulous atmosphere and not least thanks to Ben Becker’s very free style of presentation a really nice event (by the way, organized by the dear colleagues david+martin from Munich).
If you can still get a seat for one of the upcoming readings, we strongly encourage you to do so.
September 19, Berlin, 20:00 at Reingold
September 29, Cologne, 20:00 at Harry’s New York Bar Cologne
01 October, Frankfurt, 20:00 Harry’s New York Bar Frankfurt
October 18, Hamburg, 20:00, Bar Rossi
Photos: Marcus Schröpfer / davidundmartin.com
