The Palais des Festivals in Cannes has once more laid the red carpet for the stars attending the 78th Cannes Film Festival. To mark the occasion, Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic’s Emanuele Balestra has created a very special cocktail named the Ceramic Carpet.
At every Cannes Film Festival, Emanuele Balestra, Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic’s bar manager, weaves his mixology magic to create an array of unique and highly original cocktails.
Five exclusive creations are taking top billing this year, with the Ceramic Carpet taking centre stage. With the exception of one spirit, the Don Julio Reposado tequila – everything in this unique cocktail has been tailor-made from top ingredients grown and developed with the utmost care and attention, even extending to the unique glass in which this astute mix is served.
It begins with a botanical soda specially designed by this Italian mixologist. To a base of lightly sweetened water, he adds a vegetal extract made from top-quality and rare ingredients: mandarin and Centifolia rose leaves, picked by hand in May when they are in full blossom.
The former adds a lively and invigorating freshness, while the latter, emblematic flowers found in the gardens of leading perfumers, add exquisite floral notes.
These combine to create a lively, vegetal bouquet, the foundation of the blend’s unique character. These subtle aromas are enhanced by an exclusive edible perfume and the fruit of Emanuele Balestra’s expertise: a blend of green mandarin—harvested before it has fully ripened to accentuate its vegetal “tension”—and Centifolia rose.
An Exclusive Glass
While the cocktail’s finesse is impressive, the glass in which it is served merits special attention. A truly exceptional work of art, this ceramic glass was designed by Emanuele Balestra in strict collaboration with his longstanding friend, Tino Aiello, a ceramist based in Vallauris and heir to artisanal know-how that has been handed down from generation to generation.
This partnership, born out of artistic and human collaboration, has given rise to a unique object. Embellished with touches of green, orange and pink, it subtly evokes the cocktail’s ingredients. But above and beyond its aesthetic, the glass has also been designed to be used: its shape is a natural fit for the hand, and its material, with its impressive insulating properties, preserves the blend’s freshness by slowing down the rate at which ice cubes melt.
Placed in the freezer at -20°C before serving, these glasses retain their coldness for close to twenty minutes—the perfect time to savour this exceptional nectar with the greatest of pleasure—and moderation, of course!
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