Giulia Cuccurullo, head bartender at Artesian, says making memorable drinks is about telling stories.
As bartenders, storytelling is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal – not only in the way we communicate, in our creative output too. The drinks we serve and the menu they are ordered from must also have narrative.
Our minds, as humans, are programmed by stories and programmed to tell them. For millennia, this was how information and knowledge was passed from generation to generation. It’s how our minds make sense of things – with this connective framework we remember the journey and therefore the destination. Take a random bunch of things – an orange, an aeroplane, a lion – right now your brain is working to bring them together into some order, a story.
But not all stories are equal. Have you ever wondered why you remember some stories and completely forget others? What is it that sets out the memorable ones from the less so? It’s the success of the connection. If it resonates emotionally, the story has a chance of becoming a memory.
Unleashing your inner raconteur
If you think you suck at telling stories, well, I wasn’t any good either. But that all changed when I started participating in cocktail competitions – I had to learn how to build a story around my drink and in doing so I discovered that stories have patterns, rules and structure to help the audience along. Only once you know the rules, you can break them.
Storytelling in drinks involves crafting a narrative that captures the essence of the drink, its origins and how it connects to the guests’ experiences. It’s the same process the more you zoom out – perhaps to the menu or bar theme. The first thing to establish is the main message you want to share. If you cannot express it in one sentence then it’s not the right message. Then you need to choose your main character. It could be the ingredient, the entire cocktail or it could even be the message itself.
While some start with the ingredients and build a story around them, I usually start with the message and then let the ingredients fall into place. Now for your narrative arc (yes, this applies to cocktail stories too). It could be about how you discovered an ingredient or drink and why it grasped your attention, what is interesting about it, its transformation, or the way it grows. Incorporate elements of conflict, resolution and personal growth to engage the guests. If you (like me) want to start from your message then it’s all about why it is important to you and how it translates to the ingredients through taste, aroma and appearance.
There may be an added dimension – a competition brief, or perhaps your drink has to fit within the context of a pre-determined menu or bar theme. Far from restricting you, these parameters can funnel the creative process. Let’s say your message is that you believe it’s important to ‘eat green’. Every choice for the drink you make will be in sync with the message – from the colour to the garnish to the vessel. You might end up with a green-hued, spinach-infused cocktail served in a Popeye-esque can – narratively it all makes sense, even if it doesn’t sound the most appetising.
A better example might be from our new menu, Alter Ego, at Artesian. We wanted to push the boundaries of single ingredients to produce unassociated flavours. We started manipulating ingredients in different ways and directions to see what we could find. We lacto-fermented raspberries, which gave us the flavour and aroma of fresh passata, taking me, coming from Naples, to the base of a pizza. From here we made a non-alcoholic drink called Pizza, where the flavours of basil and mozzarella came after the chosen direction of the narrative.
If you choose your route well the story should come together with what’s inside the drink. The beautiful thing about developing drinks or menus around stories is that you can keep it classic or go crazy, but the message will always be clear and memorable because your choices make sense. And a tasty, memorable drink is where the story ends – bartender and guests all living happily ever after.