At Dandelyan—the award-winning bar located at Mondrian London and tended by decorated mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana—the cocktail menu reads like a field guide for drinks. Beautifully designed, the list is divided into six sections which explore botany through the ages: Hunter, Gatherer, Shaman, Explorer, Dandelyan Classics and Booze-less. Each drink is accompanied by a brief history of its ingredients, a few handy adjectives to let you know what you’re ordering and the time to imbibe. The Love & Money, for instance, is best enjoyed as an “early evening pick-me-up” and is described as “zesty” and “fresh sour.”
“The drink comes from the ‘Gatherer’ section of our menu. Within the section we were exploring our species’ history of gathering, but also how this evolved into agriculture, markets and societal collaboration. We found references throughout history of special roles certain plants had in this development,” says Chetiyawardana, who also goes by Mr. Lyan.
“One was the Roman Empire and its use of ‘silphium,’ a now extinct plant that many civilisations held in very precious regard,” he says. The shape of this once-valuable plant is what we now recognize as a heart, and it is a distant relative of fennel, which plays heavily in this cocktail.
LOVE AND MONEY
25 ml. Parsley wine*
30 ml. Ketel One vodka infused with star anise and fresh fennel
15 ml. Red grape juice
20 ml. Lemon juice
15 ml. Sugar syrup
25 ml. Egg white
*Infuse peeled parsley root into a dry white wine, then strain.
Add all ingredients to a shaker, ‘dry’ shake without ice, add cubed ice and shake hard. Double strain into a chilled coupette and garnish with carrot powder.
