Candelaria, Paris

Candelaria 

My first steps from The Experimental Cocktail Club were heading right to the Candelaria. Even though it is famous, the entrance is hidden for some reason, so I will not tell You an exact location. But please, don't give up so easily and read carefully, if you want some hints.

For the year of 2014 The Candelaria has been marked as the top 17th Bar at the world by the famous website worldsbest50bars.com. That is a mark of quality by itself already, however I am an curious creature so I wanted to find out, why it ended on such a good position.

After entering the place and before getting a cocktail, I could see already, that maybe the most difficult thing about the review is going to be the description of its design…. Simply said… Ermmm… Hardly said – it has a hipster style club desing with low ceilings, colourful walls, with low tables and even lower chairs, with candles everywhere, intimate atmosphere, dimmed lights and a great music. Phew. It didn't even hurt that much.

However what was hurting me a lot though, was the massive crowd and a looong queue to get a cocktail (BEWWWW…. DAMN YOU PEOPLE WITH SMARPHONES!) . Anyway… as I have been waiting, I have noticed, that the average age of all those people was more/less like mine… Finally I found a young people, that like cocktails – but not just any cocktails. There are young people, that are drinking an AMAZING cocktails prepared in recently the most succesful bar not only in Paris, but in the whole France! To be honest I thought, that people like me are extinguished, because I have never met any. And now I know why. I have never met any, because all of them are hidden here... This is my style, this is my crowd and this was my first - and at the same time - the best cocktail I had this evening:

Un Rhum a L'Amer

-        Rhum goslings

-        Campari

-        Falernum

-        Sirop ananas

-        Citron vert

-        Absinthe

It has been a long cocktail, made in an amazingly looking glass, garnished with a rye flower and a bowl made of a squeezed crushed ice with a cocktail sherry in it. Then the bartender with a big, massive, head (no offense to his look, he just probably had a well-grown dreadlocks, so he was keeping it under a huge baenie) used the absinthe as a perfume and sprayed it all over the top of the cocktail and the glass. It looked fantastic, It smelt fantastic and the taste was … fantastic. Rum based -fruity/bittery cocktail was getting together perfectly with a campari, and its lemon juice added the refreshing fuity smell underlined with the smell of absinthe. This cocktail is… 4 sense symphony as You drink it…

As I have been drinking it, I was checking the actual work of bartenders. If they were hardshaking the cocktails, they were REALLY hardshaking. 100% Focus, no mistakes, no spillages, clear and 99% of precision.

I have to say, unfortunatelly 1% is missing there, because the cocktail glasses have been chilled down by crushed ice. However when the big headed bartender threw the ice away before serving the cocktail in it, he didn't turn the glasses upside down completely, therefore some water has been trapped inside and that was watering down the short cocktail a bit.

On the bartenders defense : the glasses, that were being used for the short cocktail had an unfortunate shape. They are closing themselves around the rim a bit, which is making this ´´de-watering´´ pretty difficult. However the cocktails served in these glasses looks awsome, especially when the garnish is a fresh flower, and the bartenders here, are using a wide selection of flowers, petals and colourful garinshes. But hell not so much of it. There is no botanical garden on your glass. It is a decent, well  prepared, small garnish. Everything as it should be and up to the highest standard….

I was getting ready for the second and my last drink for tonight, but I didn't really know what to choose. When I made my way to the bar, I said to the ´´big headed´´ bartender that I don't really know what to choose, after my first cocktail. He lifted his index finger and said : “I've got something for You.” And without further notice he started to work. The result was closely not specified cocktail based on whiskey, vermouth rosso, orange bitters, and two other ingredients that I didn't know. Finished with very simple garnish of a mandarine and served in a short tumbler glass, prepared by stirring in a mixing glass...

Very dark red coloured ´´sort of manhattan´´ was very heavy, sharp and spiced by taste, but smooth and refreshing with an orange-like smell. The spiced taste went very well together with the orange smell…. The only one thing I would personally change is the garnish. Mandarine has the skin on it, so it doesn't add any extra taste to the cocktail and it doesn't even get anything either… I'd rather see a twist of orange peel together with a shery in it…

But that is my personal preference.. I was thinking  about it as I was getting ready to go home, because unVERYfortunately, my time in this absolutely , incredibly, fantastic, stylish, beautiful, great, fantastic bar… wait… Did I say fantastic 2x?.. oh well… it deserves! …
Anyway – my time there was over… As I was leaving the bar I was getting hungry, so I stopped to get some Tacoes.. And as I looked at the entrance to the bar, I started to laugh. If I wouldn’t know this place as I know now, I would never be able to imagine all the beauty and a style that lies behind those white doors. 
My mind brought me a thought “How many of bars like this have You missed ? How many of them did you have just underneath of your nose and you didn't noticed? How ma….´´ Stop it. Yeah I could miss some, but right now I am feeling so lucky and grateful that I've got to know at least this one.

Ladies and gelteman – its only the end of january, but I think I found the most stylish bar of the year already. One of the main things in this bar is a “wow effect” : You enter the place and You are like : where the hell did I ended… And then You see the bar itself and the people working there in an awesome style… Hardshaking, precision, the proper art of rolling technique and those amazing cocktails and you will end up amazed…