Barcelona｜The third bar in the world｜Sips

Spinach Gilding Donuts

The appearance of this dish is so cute that it even makes people reluctant to start. On the surface, it looks like a green donut, but it is actually a gilding structure with the concept of French aspic. It combines green apples, basil, tarragon, and even brings in the subtle contours of yellow mustard.

The drinking method is also very ritualistic: you have to pierce Giliding directly with a straw and drink the liquid hidden under it. That kind of "destruction" moment happens to be the most interesting place about this cup. From its visual cuteness, it suddenly cuts into the complexity of acid, herbal, and slightly spicy aromas.

Japanese Style Amazake × Citrus Gili Ding

The structure of this cup is very layered: the main liquid has an amazake (sweet wine)-like rice fermentation, paired with oranges, ylang-ylang essence and gin; next to it are two pieces of citrus gilding, and a piece of perilla leaf is placed on one side.

The drinking method is designed as a three-stage action：
First take a bite of one of the solids, then take a sip of wine, and finally take another solid to accompany the drink. Therefore, the same glass of wine will produce two different impressions because of the presence or absence of perilla and the order of Gilding.

I like the ingenuity of this cup very much. It does not rely on a strong sense of wine to convince you, but makes you feel how the aromas of rice, orange, floral and perilla are intertwined in your mouth. It is a very delicate interpretation of Japanese inspiration.

Grapefruit × White Port × Miso Melon

This dish is actually a group of works jointly established by liquids and solids. The liquid part is centered on sake, white port, and grapefruit juice; the solid part is azuki, vanilla, and white melon, and a little miso is stacked on it to pull umami in.

I think the most interesting thing about this cup is that its sense of taste exists at the same time：
Sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and fresh almost all appear together.

Moreover, the vessel itself is not a simple cup, but a specially designed carrying form that allows you to eat the solid in one bite before finishing with the liquid. The process of winding from sweet bean paste, miso, melon, to bitter grapefruit and white porter is very rich, almost like eating a liquid dessert.

Whisky Highball with Calamansi

This cup is based on Japan's most classic and popular Whiskey Highball, but it replaces the traditional soda and uses homemade soda with calamansi (Philippine calamansi) flavor, and adds Chinese kumquat peel citrus zest, and the whole goes through a slight smoking cycle.

The impression of drinking is very clear：
Smoky, sour, and citrus peel feel oily, but they are unexpectedly balanced when they hit each other. It is also matched with a small bubble-like solid element next to it, which makes the flavor level of whiskey more complete.

I think this cup is very suitable for the description of "the sense of conflict is charming". It's a highball on the surface, but it actually contains more Asian citrus and smoky herbs.

Honey pine branch × Mushroom wine

The vision of this cup is very beautiful. Like a snowball stuck in a pine branch wrapped in honey, first suck off the honey from the pine branch, then put it next to it, and then bartender will pour the liquid and let you drink it like soup.

The liquid itself uses mushrooms, turpentine, oak, some elements with a sense of forest, and a little tequila to pull the structure apart. Conceptually, it is a "forest in the snow", not just a glass of wine.

To be honest, the taste of this cup is really amazing, but the taste is a bit unacceptable to me personally. It is more like a highly artistic flavor device, rather than a drink that I would like to order back simply because it is delicious.

Lychee × Finger lemon × Lavender borneol

This cup is relatively pleasing. First eat a small piece of lavender-flavored borneol, and then drink a liquid with the aroma of lychee, which is matched with the bursting acidity of finger lemon.

The order of entry is very important：
Lavender first opens the nasal cavity and mouth, then lychee brings out a soft fruity fragrance, and finally finger lime brightens the whole with a very fine, very strong acid.

This cup has a sense of perfume, and it also has the transparent and cold floral atmosphere of "Ice and Snow World". I think it's quite special.

Mint sherry

This bartender said from the beginning that the concept is a bit like Mojito, but in fact there is no apple or lime in it. Instead, it uses the logic of sharing/sherry to rewrite the familiar outline of Mojito, and then replace the Sprite with homemade mint soda. Soda.

It's really interesting to drink. The entrance is sour, fresh, and herbal with mint, but the skeleton is not Mojito's lime and lamb, but a drier, more mature, and more oxidizing sherry structure.
This cup keeps me confirming the contents with bartender, because the taste is really hard to guess intuitively.

Hazelnut sherry

This cup is my favorite cup in the whole set.

The body of the wine emphasizes the aromas of raisins, nuts and hazelnuts that will appear after oxidation and maturation. It is paired with a cream with hazelnuts and salt, and a few drops of hazelnut oil to increase the aroma. The drinking method is also very interesting. You have to lick the hazelnut sauce by the glass before drinking sherry.

The result was an unexpected overshoot.

Sherry originally had ripe nuts, dried fruits, and woody aromas, but hazelnut sauce pushed these flavors in the direction of sweet and salty interlacing, making the whole more three-dimensional and charming. I even licked the hazelnut sauce on the side of the cup cleanly, and I really like it.

Tomato Clarified Bloody Mary

This cup is centered on tomate de corda, an important local tomato variety in Spain. This tomato is also a common choice for making pan con tomate, one of Barcelona's most classic tapas.

Sips clarified Bloody Mary, making the original heavy and turbid tomato texture clean and transparent, and the overall appearance is more elegant. But the spicy, sour, spicy spices and tomato base that should be in the flavor are still there.

But if you talk about concepts alone, this cup is very powerful. It transforms a classic cocktail that was originally "rough" into a version that looks almost like crystal clear consommé, retaining the soul of Bloody Mary while completely refurbishing the texture.

Sea urchin × Carrot Bloody Mary

The second cup is more inclined to the concept of "land and sea fusion". Instead of tomatoes, it combines sea urchins with carrots, and only a few drops of extra virgin olive oil are added to the surface to provide texture.

The focus of this cup is not to be like Bloody Mary, but to extend the spirit of Bloody Mary's "vegetable sense + salty freshness". Carrots provide sweetness and a sense of land, sea urchins provide ocean umami, and olive oil makes the taste more rounded.

This cup is very Sips: you know it is quoting classics, but it will not do it, but simply dismantle and reorganize the classics.

Celery × pear × Vermouth

There is a complex liquid hidden under this cup, and there is a visual design like a potted plant on it. There are a variety of herbs in the liquid, and vermouth is used as the skeleton, with extra virgin olive oil, celery, pear and other elements. The way to drink is to drink the liquid normally first, and then eat those plants and small vegetables.

Some of the leaves really taste like water radish, with a pronounced spicy taste, and even a bit nasal, like wasabi or radish.

This cup is like reminding you that nature is not just gentle and floral, it also has earthy, spicy, herbal, bitter and stimulating flavors.
The concept is very complete, but it is also a work that depends on personal acceptance.

Osmanthus honey goat Milk Wine

The appearance of this cup is really super eye-catching. The whole person should be like a hummingbird, sticking his head into the center of a vessel like a flower or a small bonsai to smell the fragrance, and then drinking the liquid in the middle. Bartender even directly said that the concept of this cup is hummingbird.

There are aroma elements of different colors on the periphery, which will smell like flowers, plants and green leaves; the intermediate liquid contains whiskey, rosemary flower, tonka bean, honey and goat milk.
In theory, it should be a work of floral fragrance, honey, animal milk and herbs intertwined.

But to be honest, most of what I actually smell is matcha or green plants. It's really special and has a sense of ritual, but if you think of it in terms of pure "taste level", I'm not as stunning as the vision.

Fake tomato

The last cup is a very delicate fake tomato. It's actually liquid. The contents include orange juice and hazelnut cream. The whole is extremely fragile. You have to pick it up from the green tip and eat it in one bite, but the green part itself cannot be eaten.

This cup is like a playful ending-visually like a real tomato, but actually a sweet, fruity and nutty liquid bomb. Very fragile, but also very Sips.