A Greek cocktail the best in the world: TimeOut magazine

As the article writes: “Our countdown of the world’s best cocktails spans 27 cities in 18 countries. Alongside the USA (the most cocktail-loving nation, according to our Time Out Index survey) you’ll find creations from the best bars in Singapore, Paris, Mexico City and loads more mixological hotspots. Some are simply straight-up classics. (For each of these, we’ve recommended the best bar in the world to taste it – which often happens to be the very place where that drink was invented and perfected, like the Negroni Sbagliato at Bar Basso, Milan.) Other entries are madcap mixological creations from the boozy dreams of the world’s best bartenders, at institutions like The Aviary in New Yorkand SG Club in Tokyo.”

It goes on to present the magazine’s top choice from Greece called “The Aegean Negroni”, which is served at the famous Athens bar The Clumsies.

Aegean Negroni – The Clumsies

Greece is currently experiencing a cocktail revolution, with a raft of young bartenders experimenting with local products such as tsikoudia, raki, mastika, local herbs, honey, and even olives and yoghurt. Started by Nikos Bakoulis and Vasilis Kyritsis in a run-down neoclassical building in the midst of the Greek recession, The Clumsies is a paean to these fresh products and local-specific flavours. Its subtly explosive Aegean Negroni is as blue as the glittering Aegean sea, and uses the bar’s own spiced gin plus white vermouth, Martini bitters and Martini Ambrato. Fennel seeds and fragrant dittany (a herb which only grows on the island of Crete) gives this refreshingly bitter cocktail its distinctive, unmistakably Mediterranean savour. Heidi Fuller-Love