For those of you who wish to reenact your James Bond fantasies, involving sipping Martinis at a bar in the airport, there’s good news, a new bar is opening at London Heathrow Terminal 5 in the Concorde Room.
The airline has introduced an exclusive martini mixer designed by British aviation and adventure specialists Bremont, alongside British design and engineering company, CALLUM.
Here’s the fluff.
The specialist mixer has been engineered with exact precision and crafted from machined stainless steel to mix the ultimate martini, every time. An accompanying bespoke moving bar houses built-in scales to ensure the quantity of the martini ingredients are perfectly measured.
The martini mixer, which features a turbine-inspired design, has a motorised mixing paddle engineered to carefully stir the cocktail at the perfect speed of between 120-160 revolutions per minute, elevating the citrus and floral notes to create a smoother martini blend balancing the ultimate combination of aeration, dilution and cooling, resulting in the Turbine Martini.
The Turbine Martini is a modern take on the classic cocktail and has been designed by the airline’s award-winning partner mixologist, Mr Lyan (Ryan Chetiyawardana). The Turbine Martini takes on the elegance of an original martini with a modern twist, combining classic ingredients such as vermouth, custom bitters and a bespoke garnish, with the airline’s newest gin partner, Aviation American Gin.
It will be available in the Concorde Room – British Airways top-level lounge operated Heathrow Airport
Meanwhile, Lounge updates
British Airways seems to realise that some of their lounges are getting a little tired at Heathrow and beyond. As such, there seems to be work ongoing to refresh the lounges
The Cabana Space in the Concorde Room is undergoing a refresh including new day beds and areas for working. Meanwhile, it seems the rest of the lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 and 3 (indicating the Club and Gold Lounges) will gain new furniture. Looking back this could well be the first major refresh the lounge has had since it opened.
The airline is also improving its lounges further afield, with new touches to its Edinburgh lounge, a brand-new bar, and an enhanced menu offering in its Seattle lounge.
The move follows on from Whispering Angel bar recently opened at Terminal 5B, with further work to be carried out to bring a new look and feel to the lounge.
In Quotes
British Airways’ Chief Customer Officer, Calum Laming said:
“We are really excited to work with the very best experts in the world of design, engineering, and mixology, to create a bespoke experience and offer customers what we believe to be the best martini in the world!
“This is one of many steps we are taking to invest in our lounges both in the UK and further afield, with some more exciting news coming later this year.”
Mr Lyan, the airline’s partner mixologist, said:
“Over the past couple of years, I have worked closely with British Airways to create a variety of unique drinks that celebrate the motion of flight, and we have taken this one step further to develop a modern version of the ultimate classic cocktail, The Martini.
“Using expertise from every partner, we’ve balanced the perfect combination of ingredients, aeration and temperature to highlight Aviation American Gin’s unique profile. Through our precision-engineered mixer, we created the Turbine Martini to celebrate the bespoke nature and wonder of the classic drink, with a brand-new contemporary twist.”
We’ll see
Changes are wonderful things, especially if they promise improvements to the main lounges that are deployed in the British Airways network. A surface refresh like this can give a fresh look and feel to a lounge -without having to close it for an extended period of time.
We’ll have to see if these promises are kept, and the lounges are brought up to date in due course..
Whilst those in the Concorde lounge enjoy their martinis.
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