Cocktails in the City: Monin Syrups

At the start of April, we took our trademark cocktail making classes on the road with us and pitched up in The Vaults Gallery in Waterloo as part of Cocktails in the City London.

We challenged our guests to ‘Be the Bartender’ and get hands-on with a range of spirits and tea-infused syrups to create Long Tea Coolers.

Monin were the guys behind the syrup, and generously provided us with stock for the event. They’re experienced operators who have been making syrups steadily since before the First World War.

The sheer variety (they have over 120 to choose from) made our collaboration with them pretty special. Our very own Jake Rogers, for one, had a great time getting creative with them and making a range of fruity tea infusions.

We sat down with him in the vaults and he talked us through his processes, the importance of syrups in mixology, and why Monin are at the top of their game. 

Why did we choose to collaborate with the guys at Monin?

Three words, really: experience, quality, and variety. Monin is a really well established French syrup making. They’ve got around 125 different syrups, which span everything from apple to pink bubblegum, and everything in between. They’ve been knocking out these syrups for as long as anyone can remember and they just have a really high quality range of products. And so we worked with them for all the above, but also because they were really keen to get involved and support an independent business like TT Liquor at Cocktails In The City.

Why do we use syrups in cocktails generally? 

So when you’re going to make a cocktail, one thing you always have to bear in mind is balance. The Holy Grail in these terms is somewhere in between sweet and sour, strong and dilute. So, when you add something sour like citrus, you’ll need to bring in something sweet to. The most classic way of achieving this is by adding simple syrup or sugar syrup. It’s sometimes called ‘gomme’ too, but this is less common and contains Arabic gum for texture.

Why Monin specifically?

If you want to add another layer of depth or flavour to your drink, then you can add in a flavoured syrup – which happens to be Monin’s speciality. As I mentioned, the sheer variety they offer is great when it comes to ease and creativity. It’s a big reason why we use them in our range of cocktail making classes.

At Cocktails in the City, the infusions went down a treat with not only our guests but also the judges of the event, as we scooped the prize for Best Experience for our hands-on approach.

A big thank you to the guys at Monin for being so accommodating and allowing us to have a play around with your impressive range of syrups. It was a pleasure to collaborate on something that proved to be such a success.

If you’d like to have a look at their range and learn more about their ethos, you can check out their site here.