SWISS
GATEGROUP

In 2019 we were asked to collaborate with Gategroup to offer a bountiful insight into the beauty of Switzerland for airline SWISS. We consulted in the early stages of the partnership between those two, on how to communicate all ingredients Swiss to their customers in the lounges of Geneva and Zurich Airport.

The menu we created was based on the different types of landscapes we found on all vertical levels. We made a selection of five quintessential Swiss sceneries and transformed them into five times three types of drinks. For each height, we created a non-alcoholic and alcoholic cocktail. Furthermore, we collaborated in a generous sponsorship with Hario Co., to use their beautiful bottles for infused water based on the Swiss landscape, as a give away for the guests of the SWISS lounges. 

The exemplary menu came to be after a journey through the Alps in summer and a few weeks by camper van in November, where we collected and created on-site products, as well as warm relationships with local producers such as winemaker Melanie Besse in Plan Cerisier and Morand Distillery in Martigny.

Lac Léman 379m 

A moment to shine with local development of creating fruits specifically for the Swiss climate.

Beautiful orchard produce from the height of Swiss lakes like the small Pink Lady Apple, the Rosette apple with its beautiful rosy pink flesh, are celebrated in these drinks. 

Also, delicious juicy kiwi’s which grow excellently around Lac Léman and then the Williams Pear, which has a whole brand connected through distillery Morand with its Williamine eau de vie.

As secretly as it seems, the lake valleys are a rich source for healthy vitamin-rich produce.

We served three drinks with these ravishing ingredients:

- 0% Pink Lady apple ferment with Magnolia flowers.

- Fruity, dry, floral bitters

- Williamine Eau de Vie

If so wished, served on ice

43% Excellent poire flavours

- Non-Sparkling water infused with Rosette apples and kiwi from Fully

Vineyard 520m

Two wines with a typically Swiss grape from Plan Cerisier, Martigny, transformed to non-alcoholic drinks.

The 26-year-old Melanie Besse is a 4th generation winemaker, growing 11 different varieties of grape on 4 hectares of the granite slopes of the Martigny area. Next to a solid understanding of the combination of soil and plant life and a respectful approach to old techniques, she is hugely creative to try new methods in the development of bottled wine.

Open-minded to a process of distillation from a finished wine, I got to use the red Cornalin and the sweet Petite Arvine grape as a base for the vineyard drinks.

- 0% Pink Lady apple ferment, topped off with a non-alcoholic distillate of the Cornalin grape, from a 2018 6 months in wooden barrel-aged produced wine.

- Sparkling water infused with grape leaf brought to taste with the dry Cornalin hydrosol, or the fresh and fruity white Petite Arvine hydrosol.

Meadow 475-3100m

The search to connect culture and nature comes to the pinnacle of ‘Swissness’ in its milk production. 

The art of Swiss haymaking is widely known and with it the tastiest milk and cheese comes. 

We found a farm in Erstfeld, kanton Graubunten that let us use their Alpine summer hay and their milk fresh from the 15 cows to create three drinks. 

A very technical approach with a soothing story, bringing back childhood memories over the scent of floral hay. 

- Trinity for Vigor

A section of a meadow, using flower, grass and root, to create a mind-opening experience. 

With total health benefits, adding antioxidants and releasing toxins through probiotics

- Of Milk & Honey

One of the most amazing creations, a hay infused vodka, with the slight bitters of botanical gin, an Erstfeld honey syrup, from the same fields as the hay was produced.

This combined with the milk and then clarified, served over ice with milk paper as a document on terroir

- Summer meadow floral infusion, soothing and healthy, with lovely tones of honey and hay.

Forest 1250m

Driving through Switzerland in November the landscape brings a million colours from its trees. The tree line ends around 1250 meters, with only strong pioneers like spruce and pine that can endure the snowy winters. 

Spruce has so much Vitamin C that is a healthy option to use in beverages over any type of soda.

The representation of the forest goes from trees to the soil, where the cepes found give earthy tones next to the freshness of the landscape. 
These two are not easily combined, but we found a way with our Walk in the Woods.

- Spruce original

Utterly refreshing, the Valser Spruce and pine infused syrup, combined with a touch of apple ferment and wild spruce vinegar, helps clear mind and throat.

- Walk in the Woods

An absolutely interesting combination of a 10-year-old Talisker whiskey, infused with Cepes from the Vals hillside, combined with a dry sake, Valser spruce syrup and a touch of black walnut bitters. This all smoked over pinewood

- Pines, Spruce, Fern and Oakmoss infused non-sparkling water. 

Refreshing, with loads of Vitamin C, beneficial for airways and space for breath. 

Alpine Peaks 4000m

June 2019 a crack manifested itself over a good part of the length of Argentière glacier. To its surface came a beautiful stream of water, which had been encapsulated by glacial ice. The water had been there for an unknown length of time, but to all probability, a time-varying between 300 and 10.000 years of icy captivity. 

This water had never been in touch with any type of cultivation and pollution created by humankind. It was travelling with melting water down into the regular stream of Arve river, and further into Europe.  

A selection of the tiny wildly blooming flora on the most isolated meadows I’ve ever visited at 2800 meters of height, is transformed into a wild beer with the glacial water.

- The refreshing Swiss Mountain Spring Dry Tonic served on ice, 

with a touch of salinity.

- Wild beer created from Vallorcine honey, fermented with a 

selection of the flowers, herbs and rock found at the Alpine meadow. Combined with a wild botanical Swiss gin from Ticino and Swiss Mountain Spring Tonic water.

- An interpretation of the Alpine concept. Working with the Crystalliers we collected different types of quartz. The water is coloured blue by a flower and has a slightly mineral touch, with grapefruit bitters