Canes: Mojito and Caipirinha

We’d like to award another facet of Ferran Adrià by which he has yet again made history: the edible cocktail. For many years now he has begun his endless tasting menus with attractive cocktails that were more or less solid, tactile evanescence being one of the qualities that the genius from Roses has always worked on developing, that and sapid immaculateness. We could never forget the original, exquisite version of the gin fizz, the first gin fizz, and a night in which we had five in a row, but now there is another that has taken its place, given the name snow-fizz, very techno, that is consumed by hand and is half broken by the time it reaches your mouth. A jewel like any of the other fifty dishes tasted this year at El Bulli. Snow-fizz, cactus margarita, cosmopolitan: grape and currant tea, Campari with peanut-mimetics… and the best, excuse us, the most brilliant, “canes”: mojito and caipirinha. The most brilliant and the one we liked the most, although that may be subjective, since so much of why we love the caipirinha and mojito stems from the gorgeous drinks we remember from our trips to Brazil and Cuba. Hundreds and even thousands of caipirinhas and mojitos have been put to shame by the exquisite versions presented to us by the best chef in history. Never has a mojito or caipirinha tasted so good, not even close. Hundreds and even thousands of caipirinhas and mojitos have been not only overshadowed in terms of palate but in concept as well. The alchemist of textures has given them another being, another body and consistency: sugar cane. Sugar cane “reeds” impregnated with exotic, refreshing flavors. The reeds are sucked on, pleasurably releasing the flavor of the cocktails. More than just sucking, the guest eats the sugar cane, causing the inebriating juice of mojito and caipirinha to pour out, providing a magical sensation whisking us away to an idyllic paradise drenched in happiness.