There are wines that age under the sea as if they were underwater treasures, but distillates and cocktails had never been experimented with. This is Ultra Mare, a madness that could only spring from the mind of Diego Cabrera, one of our most renowned bartenders, and Gin Mare, the quintessential Mediterranean gin. Together with the marine biologist Helena Margot and the potter Álvaro Villamañán, they have submerged their cocktails in clay pitchers to macerate in the depths of Ibiza.

Ultramarine

It all started with this cocktail, yes. It belongs to the new Salmon Gurú menu, in Madrid, the space run by Cabrera and which is part of the prestigious The World's 50 Best Bars list. Inspired by mythology and ancient civilizations, the Argentine based this case on trade by ship from Greece to create a drink based on gin, mezcal, chamomile and lime cordial and rhubarb syrup that is stored for 48 hours in a clay amphora previously soaked in sea water. How to enhance this cocktail that became ipso facto a resounding success? "It occurred to us, in a bar conversation, to do it with a research and development project to find out the real consequences of a dive, six meters deep, on its content, on our gin", explains Javier Pérez Pin, responsible for Gin Mare business: “Haute and Mediterranean cocktails. It was a perfect puzzle."

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Helena Margot entered the equation. The biologist, Diego's gastrobotanical adviser and scientific diver, leads this nonsense: "The aim was that, through the mud of the pitchers, and after many studies and trials, the mineral salts from the sea entered by osmosis, in the right measure to that would provide aromas and flavors that would round off the content”, he details. The objective of all this is the standardization of the process, "afterwards taking it to fish tanks in which to recreate exactly the same conditions, with different calculations, and achieve the same impact anywhere", she continues. “The idea of ​​this work, once completed, is that each bar can have access to the effects achieved and verified; we want the aquariums and the result of this resting of the liquid in them to be one more element, part of our proposal and that of other premises”, says Diego Cabrera.

Craft

The craftsmanship, the care and the enhancement of what is nearby are fundamental pillars of all the members of this initiative. From the elaboration of Gin Mare, in the traditional way, in an old fishing village between the Costa Brava and the Costa Dorada, to the service of the drink, there is nothing invasive in any step. The amphorae do not sit on any living vegetation, the herbs used, in Ibiza or Madrid, are collected in collaboration with well-known farmers, says Helena... The specific origin of the clay with which the pitchers are made is even known: it comes from of Buño, in Malpica (A Coruña). Álvaro Villamañán is the author of the vessels that are the protagonists of this story and that have had to be created with great care to resist pressure. The potter came into contact with all this occurrence thanks to Tado, the pottery store and workshop where he sells part of his work. Diego Cabrera, in his desire to “make a neighborhood”, frequents the establishment to stock his Salmon Gurú, on the same street, with very special pieces.

There are twenty containers that have rested at the bottom of the sea and some still remain. “We introduced three cocktails: a Negroni, a Dirty Martini and the Ultramarine. With each one of them we fill three amphorae and we use one more to put only Gin Mare and another for our other label, Gin Mare Capri, which is going to be down there for a full year”, specifies Javier Pérez Pin.

The result

Diego says that "by achieving the right interaction between the outside and the inside by osmosis, the cocktail becomes something salty and provides an umami that you cannot stop drinking."

In Ibiza, these cocktails have already been under water for up to fifteen days and both Helena and Javier are impressed with how much their aromas have changed. "We have found the exact measurement, about four grams of sea salt per liter, and the taste of some of them is spectacular," says Margot. To see what happens with dry gins, we will have to wait a few more months.

And now that? These drinks are on their way from Madrid to Gurú Lab, Diego Cabrera's laboratory where they will end their journey. He will replicate the marine environment, with all the data collected and in a reduced format in the aforementioned fish tank, in smaller pitchers, and will continue experimenting with more and more recipes. “I want to create an ephemeral menu with underwater cocktails, also have some that are more fixed on the menu and make others even more daring: tikis, fruity ones, sours… Once all this aquatic transformation has been achieved and controlled, the range that opens up to us is immense. It's going to be awesome”, promises the barman: “We already have the score. Now the improvisation and the music begin”.