hrough an appreciation of tasting of various flavours, carefully infused, mixed, whisked, stirred, strained and served together, Der Raum cocktail degustations begin weekly.

Cocktail degustations have been held over at the Richmond cocktail bar for a number of years now, running once every couple of months. But when they started booking out well in advance the barmen over at Der Raum decided to make this an even more regular event. Starting this week, Der Raum will be offering a select five course degustation on Saturday evenings for bookings from 5pm-6.30pm.

“The demand is high. We found our degustation events constantly sold out months in advance, and frequently found guests asking us to provide similar menus to smaller groups, especially interstate and international visitors”, says Der Raum manager Matthew Rees.

The drinks included are at the cutting edge of their craft at Der Raum and are often quite difficult to prepare under normal service conditions, so space is limited to 15 people per sitting. The week’s cocktails are continuously being worked on and not finalised right until the last minute, so there is no printed menu. Each course is revealed to the guest once they have arrived at the table so it's always full of surprises.

Sometimes you might get something that looks more like a decadent desert than a cocktail, like the Nitro Xocolate Flip, a nitro whisked tribute to the Oaxaca desert 'chocolateatole'.

“We’re really challenging what defines the term ‘cocktail’ with these drinks,” Rees comments. “Parts of the menu will change weekly, providing a chance for guests to test drinks currently in development. With four seasonal menu’s to produce each year, there is no end to new drink creations. Guests are essentially shaping the Der Raum menus of the future.”

www.deraum.com.au