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From Concept to Craft: How We Build Cocktails at Nectar
- chrisarazim
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 hours ago
At Nectar, cocktails are approached with the same care and intention as food in a serious kitchen.
As we take our first steps toward becoming an award-winning cocktail bar in Edinburgh, our focus is simple but demanding:to go beyond mixing ingredients and instead alter spirits, textures, and flavours through technique.
Our drinks menu is not built around shortcuts. It is built around preparation, experimentation, and precision. This often happens long before a guest ever sits at the bar.
Read our menu here
Mixing vs Crafting: Where the Difference Really Lies
Anyone can mix spirits, juices, and syrups. Craft cocktail making starts when you change the building blocks themselves.
At Nectar, many of our cocktails are created using advanced processes such as:
Infusions (to permanently embed flavour into spirits)
Clarification (to remove solids while preserving aroma and taste)
Milk punches (to soften, bind, and clarify complex cocktails)
Foams (to add texture, aroma, and contrast)
In several of our signature drinks, multiple techniques are used together to achieve the final result.
This is what defines our drinks menu, not complexity for its own sake, but purpose behind every step.
Signature Cocktails That Define Our Direction
Tzatziki Martini
Creamy · Greek · Adventurous
One of the clearest examples of our philosophy.
We begin by infusing Gin Mare, allowing savoury Mediterranean flavours to integrate directly into the spirit. The cocktail is then clarified, transforming a traditionally creamy, opaque concept into a clean, crystal-clear martini.
The result delivers familiarity and surprise at the same time: recognisable flavours, re-imagined through technique.
Chemistry Lessons
Fruity · Zingy · Surprising
This is often the drink that stops conversations at the table.
Although built on Woodford Reserve, Chemistry Lessons is served completely clear. Using a milk punch process, the cocktail is clarified to remove colour and solids while retaining flavour, acidity, and texture.
What arrives in the glass looks nothing like the traditional brown bourbon cocktail guests expect, and that contrast is entirely deliberate.
Warmth Within
Spicy · Warm · Silky
Warmth Within is our interpretation of a modern classic: the spicy margarita, rebuilt from the spirit up.
Rather than relying on chilli heat added at the final stage, we start by infusing Patrón Reposado with fresh ginger and chillies. This process allows warmth and spice to integrate naturally into the tequila itself, creating depth rather than sharpness.
The infusion gives the cocktail a layered heat: warming rather than aggressive, balanced rather than overpowering. Ginger adds roundness and aroma, while chilli provides a slow, lingering spice that unfolds as the drink develops.
The result is a silky, confident cocktail, which is recognisably rooted in the spicy margarita, but elevated through technique and restraint.
A Menu That Evolves Every Three Months
Our drinks menu is reviewed and updated every three months.
This rhythm keeps the bar creative and seasonal, and gives guests a reason to return regularly to see what has changed. Alongside the main menu, we also run monthly specials, allowing us to test ideas and respond directly to guest feedback.
From Monthly Special to Future Signature
One recent example has stood out.
Using The Deacon, a smoky whisky blending influences from Islay and Speyside, we created a bacon fat-washed cocktail. The process introduced richness and savoury depth while keeping the final drink clean and balanced.
The response from guests was immediate and consistent, enough that we are now actively considering it for inclusion in the next menu iteration.
Where We’re Headed
Becoming an award-winning cocktail bar is not about chasing recognition, it’s about building credibility, consistency, and craft over time.
At Nectar, every cocktail is shaped by:
preparation over performance
technique over trends
and flavour over spectacle
If you’re curious about what modern cocktail making can be, or simply want to drink something made with care and intention, our bar is always evolving.
And in three months’ time, it will look different again.
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