Jakarta's chocolate martini making quite a stir in town

Jakarta's chocolate martini making quite a stir in town

Maria Kegel, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

New York has the Manhattan and Long Island Iced Tea, Singapore
has its Sling and this year Jakarta joined the ranks with its
first signature drink.

The chocolate martini is the toast of the town, as well as in
far-flung places such as Cape Town, New York, Dallas, London and
just across the water in Singapore.

Barely six months old, it was the brainchild of Luis
Fernandes, the managing director of The Dharmawangsa Hotel in
South Jakarta, whose passion for chocolate was coupled with
inspiration from the movie Chocolat in creating the drink.

While its name may conjure images of a murky colored liquid
with an ominous olive bobbing on the bottom of a martini glass,
which may or may not put off the experienced tippler, be not
afraid. Its appearance is as pleasing as its smooth taste.

The rim of the martini glass is embellished with melted
Belgian chocolate, and the drink itself is clear. This is because
Fernandes chose the colorless creme de cacao to blend with
Stolichnaya vodka.

At the bottom rests its single garnish: a Hershey's kiss.

"The word martini throws everyone because they think it's a
very traditional drink, like in the James Bond movies, and they
think it's stark and harsh. Martinis are the fashion and to do a
chocolate one is just to everyone's taste," Gregory Zahn, the
executive assistant in charge of food and beverage at the
Dharmawangsa Hotel, said.

Although Vanity Fair and Virgin Airlines' in-flight magazine
have featured it in recent issues, news of the chocolate martini
has mostly traveled by word-of-mouth. Hotels from as far away as
South Africa have called for the recipe, which, Fernandes said,
is given out, but its secret was in the perfection of making it.

"It's a simple recipe: There are only two types of alcohol in
there, and you just need to put the time and energy into it to
work it out," added Zahn.

Its popularity abroad was first reported when a band of golf
players on a course in Singapore called the hotel saying they
were looking for the place where chocolate martinis were served
after a guest had raved about it to them.

Later that week, the caller and 13 other guests came down to
play a couple days of golf and, of course, to spend the nights
drinking the martinis.

"It was just funny to get a cold call from someone looking for
the chocolate martini hotel," Zahn said.

"It's a great drink for conversation as it's very intriguing
and different," Fernandes said. "I think chocolate is something
that is very intimate, and one of those things that everyone
enjoys. You don't think about the alcohol part of it, you think
more about the chocolate," Fernandes said.

While it is not a breakfast drink, Zahn said it could be
enjoyed at lunch or for afternoon tea, and of course, as before
dinner as well as after dinner as it has the sweetness of a
liqueur.

It has become the hotel's bestselling drink and it is prepared
with great ceremony in front of the person who orders it, with
first-timers urged to make a wish before the drink is poured into
the glass.

If you are seated at a table, a small fold-up table is brought
over with a tray of condiments, the mixer, and everything that
goes into the drink. If you are seated at the bar, the ritual is
performed there.

The emphasis is on the perfected style of stirring it and
pouring it in the glass, Fernandes said. And no one has ever
asked to alter the recipe.

"It's the whole ritual of the preparation and people see that,
like the tradition of afternoon tea, it happens in front of you
and the expectation must be 'wow', because it's so well
prepared," Fernandes said.

"We wanted to make the martini very personal so it had to be
made in front of you. It's not something that is created behind
the scenes and then brought to you."

The chocolate martini underwent a trial and error process
which involved every part of the drink, from getting the right
chocolate on the rim to making sure the kiss was sitting upright.

And contrary to Bond's preference, the drink is stirred not
shaken.

As simple as it may sound, Zahn said testing the various
mixing methods, proportions of alcohol and choice of chocolates
to perfect the drink became a delicate process to balance them
all.

"There's a fine line between the drier style of alcohol and a
very sweet alcohol, and you are just trying to balance them up
some, so they cancel each other out. So you're looking for that
sweet spot, you know when it hits it. It is very difficult to get
so we're continuing to reappraise the bartenders all the time to
make sure that it's not too sweet or it's not too bitter," he
said.

Different chocolates also had to be tried to find the right
one to adorn the rim.

Even getting the kiss to sit upright in the glass took awhile
to perfect, with bartenders practicing repeatedly to prevent it
from going upside down or on its side.

"People can laugh, relax and enjoy these drinks, and at the
end of the day, in the world that we live in, what you need is to
create things to make people happy," Fernandes said.