ANEW Hotels & Resorts is celebrating the heritage of their properties through bespoke cocktails created to match each property’s unique offering. All year round, ANEW invites the public and their guests to immerse themselves in their immediate environment and visit their closest hotel to try one of their refreshing property-inspired cocktails.
Operations Director, Kevin Burley, explains that these cocktails celebrate each of the properties’ unique characteristics and their locations.
The concept of “spirit” is all-encompassing, writes Alexandra Friedman in her article about why cocktails are more than just a drink. She highlights that “Cocktail culture though, is more than just what’s in the glass. It’s what surrounds the glass as well. The aesthetic of the spaces that were built to draw us in, in order to imbibe are just as key, of a component to the cocktail fantasy as the spirits themselves.” This speaks true to the new bespoke cocktails available at ANEW Hotels & Resorts properties, which pays homage to their surroundings.
These distinct cocktails compliment the views of their location, as well as being great conversation starters over pre-dinner drinks (with some tapas, of course). Kevin says that ANEW conducted several tastings with cocktail specialist, Slo Jo, to create the perfect drink for its guests.
At each of the 15 properties, you can find an exclusive property-specific cocktail that has been perfectly mixed that speaks to its culture and heritage.
Among them are the Capital Cocktail, Centurion Cocktail, Green Point Cocktail, Hatfield Cocktail, Highveld Cocktail, Hilton Cocktail, Hluhluwe Cocktail, Ocean Reef Cocktail, Parktonian Cocktail, Roodepoort Cocktail, Witbank Cocktail, Hunters Rest, and Ingeli Forest Cocktail. However, the ANEW African Gem, a gin-based rooibos tea and orange juice cocktail that’s been praised as a lovely, refreshing drink, is available nationally. Each hotel has a property-specific cocktail, the ANEW African Gem, and a list of classic cocktails available on its menu. Visitors are encouraged to sample each property-specific cocktail in order to fully appreciate the uniqueness of the ANEW properties.
“To bring individuality to the properties, we devised cocktails that spoke to that area. Our two properties in Witbank have the Coalface Cocktail in honour of the region’s coal mining history. The black cocktail boasts Slo Jo Activated Charcoal, making it unique. It speaks very nicely to that area,” Kevin says. He continues, “At our sea-facing properties, Green Point and Ocean Reef, we have a cocktail called the Ocean Breeze that contains Blue Curacao Syrup and white froth, demonstrating the sea and waves.”
Due to the location of the ANEW Hotel Hilton in the hills of Maritzburg, the team created a cocktail that evokes the afternoon mist. “Pineapple farms surround Hluhuwe so we have called that the Safari Sunset that includes a bit of mint and pineapple.
