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When Elfi Fabritius, Aurélie Panhelleux and Julien Lopez opened CopperBay in 2014, they stunned others within the French cocktail scene with their idea: “cocktails, pastis and meals.” It’s the second phrase that caught out. Pastis is such a deeply conventional French apéritif—one which isn’t linked with France’s fascination with American-style cocktails that took maintain within the late nineteenth century—that it was uncommon to see the 2 sharing house on menus. At CopperBay, nonetheless, conventional pastis, together with its orgeat-laced cousin, the Mauresque, is simply as essential because the bar’s craft cocktails.
Pastis is a liqueur made out of anise, licorice and fennel that was initially launched as an absinthe substitute within the early twentieth century. It stays widespread in its native Marseille and in southern France extra broadly, in addition to all through the nation. Fabritius and Lopez are each from the south of France and reside in Marseille, the place certainly one of their three CopperBay bars is positioned. Whereas different basic apéritifs like Kir Royale or Picon Bière have fallen out of style regionally, pastis has maintained reputation and affordability, says Fabritius. “Everyone seems to be consuming pastis,” she says. “Each class of individuals.”
Historically, pastis is served on ice in a tall glass, lengthened with water, generally with varied syrups to additional taste the pairing. The Perroquet (“parrot”) combines the duo with mint syrup, the Tomate (“tomato”) requires grenadine and Mauresque (“Moorish”) is ready with orgeat. The latter—whose title is a nod to orgeat’s almonds and orange flower water, that are frequent flavors in North African delicacies—is the most well-liked and a favourite of CopperBay’s house owners. However “the common pastis drinker doesn’t normally like [the] Mauresque,” says Fabritius, “as a result of it’s too candy, you understand?”
The CopperBay group finds Marseille’s Distillerie de la Plaine to be one of many most interesting makers of pastis within the nation, and the bar proudly options the distillery’s merchandise in its pastis program. What, Fabritius thought, if this particular producer may create a pastis that captured the flavors of the Mauresque with out all of the sugar? Thus, the bar’s bespoke pastis, which they name Mauresco, was born. This particular bottling is produced with the basic pastis botanicals—star anise, licorice and fennel—plus tonka bean and orange blossom, which evoke the flavors of orgeat. On the bar, it’s served historically, with two ice cubes and diluted with water, and in some cocktails, such because the eponymously named Mauresco, which mixes the liqueur with gin, lemon, orgeat, a citron-dill cordial and egg white.
Not solely does CopperBay serve the Mauresco pastis to its patrons throughout three places, it additionally sells bottles to go—and it’s most likely made its means into a number of suitcases. Fabritius says that the Mauresco acts as a kind of emissary for each CopperBay and for French apéritif tradition extra broadly. “When we now have bartenders coming from overseas, particularly in Paris, we’re at all times providing them a little bit little bit of Mauresque,” she says. For her, there’s a selected satisfaction in serving an modern tackle this spirit from the south of France, as a result of, as she places it, “pastis runs via the veins of everybody residing in Marseille.”
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