TDC CALENDAR: SEPTEMBER 2021
Inspiration: September Rain ☔
If you’ve ever lived in Glasgow, you’ll know that September = rain. Sh*t tons of it.
Once you get used to always being soggy, and learn how to style a cagoule for any occasion, you start to see a beauty in it. The smudgy lights through wet windows, the constant mizzle, and the hundreds of thousands of people that make TDC’s hometown tick. To quote (another) Glasgow institution, The Blue Nile, who summed it up perfectly:
“Tinseltown in the rain
Oh men and women
Here we are, caught up in this big rhythm”
Amongst it all is the unmistakable smell of wet pavements, sandstone, and our dear green places. That smell is otherwise known as Petrichor “the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek petra, "rock", or petros, "stone", and īchōr, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology”.
THE DRINK: PETRICHOR MARTINI 🍸
50ml Oxford Rye Gin
20ml Fig leaf and pear oxymel*
10ml dry vermouth
2 drops of petrichor tincture**
*Oxymel: is a historic shrub that dates back to Hippocrates. Here we infused fresh pear and fig leaf in equal parts honey and apple cider vinegar, then left to macerate in a jar for one week before straining. (This concoction will keep for a few weeks before going off).
**Petrichor Tincture: we wanted to create a super concentrated kick of rain and Glasgow concrete. Using high strength neutral grain spirit (90% or higher), we reconstructed (and boosted) the mineral content of highland spring water (with around 50mg/l calcium, 12mg/l magnesium, 4mg/l sodium and 1mg/l potassium) and infused with clay shards in a sealed container for 24 hours.
Method: This drink is aged in uncoated terracotta pots for 24-48 hours, so is best created in a batch (or use a tiny pot). Terracotta absorbs the sugars in the drink, giving the cocktail “an earthy and rounded feel”, as described by Douglas Derrick of Nostrana in Oregon. For this serve, add all ingredients to an uncoated pot of your choice and leave for 24-48 hours before shaking over ice, straining, and serving.
Glass: nick and Nora
Garnish: skewered pear fan
HOW WE SHOT IT 📸
This image is all about the layers. We printed a large background of blurred and distorted lights, and first shot the drink ‘floating’ in front of this on a perspex plinth from a high angle.
We then removed the drink altogether and layered a sheet of clear perspex in front of the background. Keeping the camera in the same place, and lighting from above, we used a mister to spray fine droplets of water onto the perspex. To get that intense foggy glass and dense clusters of droplets, it was a case of spray-snap-repeat. This allowed us to layer multiple shots, removing the perspex ‘plinth’ in post-production, to create an ethereal rain-splattered finish.