Cocktails in Edinburgh

Some cocktails are built from a technique. Some are built from an ingredient. Some are built from a conversation between bartenders who push each other toward something neither would have found alone. The Laterna was built from a memory. Kyria Stella and the house on Voulgareos Street On Voulgari Street in Thessaloniki, there is a cocktail bar called Laterna. It has outdoor seating, a neighbourhood warmth that most bars spend years trying to manufacture and never quite achiev

There are cocktails on the Nectar menu that announce their complexity before you taste them. The Tzatziki Martini arrives looking like water and tastes like a Greek kitchen. The Local Connection arrives looking milky and tastes like a very serious cocktail. Both do the thing where the visual information and the flavour information take a moment to reconcile. The Florist does something different. It announces everything immediately. It arrives with a foam sitting across the to

The old fashioned is my favourite cocktail. It is Panos's favourite too. We agree on very little when it comes to what should go on the Nectar menu, which is why the drinks programme is as good as it is, but on this we have always been aligned. The old fashioned is the drink that, when everything else has been considered and ordered and discussed, is the one we both end up coming back to. Which makes it slightly embarrassing that it took us a year to put one on the menu. Not

One of the first guests to try the Bees Essence described it in a way that has stayed with me. They said they had never had a cocktail that keeps going the way this one does. First there is whisky. Then there is sweetness. Then there is spice. And as the spice fades, the other flavours come back. Not a diminishing experience but a circular one, each element returning in sequence, the drink still unfolding long after the glass is empty. That description is more accurate than a

Not every cocktail that makes it onto the permanent menu was designed to be there. Some are built with that intention from the beginning: a concept developed over weeks, a technique refined across many iterations, a name chosen before the recipe is finalised. The Old Beanut was like that. So was the Tzatziki Martini. Both arrived with a deliberateness to them, a sense that they had been thought about until they were ready. The Raspberry Paloma arrived differently. It went ont

The Local Connection is a white negroni. That is the most accurate short description of it. It is also not quite like any white negroni you have tried before, because two of its four ingredients are unusual enough to deserve a proper explanation, and because the technique used to finish it changes the experience of drinking it in a way that the description on the menu does not fully prepare you for. Start with what you know, or what you think you know, and work outward from t

There is a version of Edinburgh that exists in photographs and travel guides. The castle silhouetted against a brooding sky. The Royal Mile in full tourist flow. Arthur's Seat at sunrise. These things are real and they are genuinely worth experiencing. But the Edinburgh that the people who live here love is something slightly different: the city that appears in June when the days get long, in July when the terraces fill up and the light stays until nearly eleven at night, and

One of the things I enjoy most about being part of Edinburgh's bar scene is that the people doing the most interesting work in it are not far away. They are on the same streets, at the same events, in some cases a ten-minute walk from Broughton Street. Iain McPherson is the founder of Panda and Sons on Queen Street, which we have written about before as one of the best cocktail bars in the world. He has spent over a decade building a reputation for techniques that push what a

One of the questions we get asked most often is how we decide what goes on the menu. The honest answer is that the menu is never quite decided. It is always in the process of becoming something slightly better than it was. Every three months we reprint. Every month we run a special. Every week something new is being tried behind the bar or tested in the kitchen, quietly and without announcement, waiting to see whether it is good enough to earn its place in front of a guest. T

There is a moment with the Warmth Within that almost every guest experiences and almost none of them expect. The heat arrives, but not where you thought it would. Not on the lips. Not on the tongue. Somewhere further back, lower down, a warmth that spreads rather than stings and fades slowly rather than demanding immediate relief. It is the kind of spice that makes you want another sip rather than a glass of water. That effect is not accidental. It is the whole point of the d

There is a moment that happens at almost every table at Nectar when a clarified cocktail arrives for the first time. The guest looks at it. Then at the menu. Then back at the drink. Then usually at whoever is with them, with an expression that sits somewhere between confusion and curiosity. The drink in the glass looks nothing like the ingredients listed next to it. It is clear, or close to clear, when everything about its description suggested it should be cloudy, rich, or d

The martini is probably the most misunderstood cocktail on any bar menu. Not because it is complicated to make, but because the number of decisions involved in ordering one can feel overwhelming to anyone who has not done it before. The result is that most people default to a single combination they have heard somewhere, "very dry, shaken, straight up," without fully understanding what those words mean or whether that combination actually reflects what they enjoy. The martini

There is a particular moment in every cocktail masterclass at Nectar that Panos talks about more than anything else. It is not when the first drink comes together. It is not when someone nails the technique on the first attempt or produces something that tastes better than they expected. It is the moment when someone who arrived genuinely convinced they would be the worst person in the room takes a sip of the cocktail they made, looks up, and laughs. That moment happens at al

Some cocktails are created purely for flavour. Others are created because a conversation at the bar raises a question that refuses to go away. Mountain Chalet began with a question about garnish. Not a complicated question, but the kind that, once asked, changes how you think about every drink you build afterwards. The Visit That Started It Shortly after Nectar opened, Panos and I went to visit Panda and Sons on Queen Street. If you are not familiar with Panda and Sons, they

Some cocktails are created because a menu needs filling. Others arrive because someone set a challenge and the most interesting answer turned out not to be the one submitted. Fizz n Fig belongs firmly in the second category. It exists at Nectar not because it won anything, but because it survived something. And that story, it turns out, is more interesting than a trophy. The Competition That Started It The Diplomático Artisans of Taste is one of the more creatively demanding

Some cocktails are inspired by flavours. Others are inspired by techniques. The Lemon Cheesecake cocktail at Nectar is built around something more personal than either of those things. It is built around a memory. A specific evening, a specific table, and a dessert that took two days to make properly and became a family tradition almost by accident. This is the story behind it. The Thanksgiving Table Growing up, Thanksgiving was always celebrated at our home. Once a year, clo

Edinburgh is one of those cities that almost does the work for you when it comes to romance. The cobblestones, the candlelit closes, the way the castle catches the last of the light on a clear evening. Even a quiet Tuesday can feel like a special occasion if you end up in the right place. I have spent the last eight months running Nectar on Broughton Street, and before that several years eating and drinking my way through this city with genuine curiosity. I know what makes an

Some cocktails are built around tradition. Others start with tradition and then slowly evolve into something new. Beach Bonfire is our take on one of the most famous cocktails ever created: the Negroni. The classic Negroni is beautifully simple. It is made with three ingredients in equal parts: gin, Campari and sweet vermouth . Bitter, strong and perfectly balanced, it has been a staple of cocktail bars for over a century. A Negroni With a Sunset Twist When we started workin

Some cocktails come from inspiration. Others come from curiosity. Chemistry Lessons belongs firmly in the second category. The name of the drink is quite literal. When we created it, we were experimenting with a process that feels more like science than bartending. Why Bourbon Is Usually Brown The base spirit of this cocktail is Woodford Reserve Bourbon . Traditionally, bourbon carries a deep brown colour. This comes from the ageing process. The spirit is matured in new char

There is a particular moment that happens at Nectar when the Tzatziki Martini arrives at a table for the first time. The glass is completely clear. Not pale yellow the way a gin martini is clear, and not cloudy the way you might expect something containing yogurt and cucumber and dill to look. Crystal clear. The kind of clarity that makes you hold it up to the light to confirm that something is actually in the glass. Then you take the first sip. The flavour arrives in a seque