Timing is key — it’s the difference-maker in achieving success or falling short. It depends on understanding the context, grabbing opportunities, and foreseeing the ripple effects of your choices. It’s more than gut feeling; timing can be mastered through precision. Simone Caporale and Marc Álvarez have proven this with Esencia, delivering an avant-garde tasting experience to the mixology world exactly when it was needed most — timing at its finest.
Esencia and the Inspiration of elBulli Foundation
To grasp the concept behind this “bar within a bar,” which is hidden inside Barcelona’s award-winning Sips, Caporale and Álvarez guide you back to elBulli, the legendary temple of haute cuisine and a cornerstone of Álvarez’s career. At elBulli, under the guidance of maître Lluís García — nicknamed “Mr. No” for turning down nearly two million diners a year who couldn’t snag a reservation with Ferran Adrià — you learn how a dish isn’t just the whim of a chef. It’s the product of meticulous research, experimentation, and a multi-step methodology.
This approach has spilled over into mixology, where the Esencia duo continuously experiment with flavors, collecting data from ever-evolving menus to refine their craft. Every detail here is carefully considered — from glassware designed by local artisans to coasters engineered with grooves that prevent them from sticking to glasses, even with condensation.
Esencia, an Experiential Lab
Entry into this experiential lab begins with stepping through a white curtain, where the light intensifies with every step, evoking the metaphorical act of birth. What awaits is a pristine, cozy room with two counters facing each other and elegant light fixtures cascading from above, reminiscent of an organ’s pipes.
Living the Experience
Esencia hosts just 14 guests at a time for a tasting experience that lasts between 70 and 90 minutes. No fear of excess here, “It’s comparable to drinking two Gin & Tonics,” Caporale explains. Forget picking a menu: the experience is shared by the entire table. The adventure starts with a surreal object, a viewing tool dotted with peepholes that reveal snippets of words, teasing the flavors ahead. These hints create a sense of suspense, enriching the sensory voyage through taste, sight, and touch — a fresh narrative in liquid form.
Esencia’s cocktails
The first cocktail, inspired by Japan, combines unfiltered sake and port. It’s served in a small white bowl, accompanied by a bite of azuki bean paste sweetened with vanilla and sugar, topped with white melon and a touch of miso for a delicate umami twist. Next is a whisky-based creation enhanced with citrusy bergamot and calamansi soda, a trendy citrus fruit the duo discovered in Singapore. “It’s very funky,” Álvarez admits.
One standout drink is Neu (Catalan for “snow”), a cocktail that taps into childhood memories of snowy mountain escapades. It begins with a honey-like essence drawn straight from fir needles embedded in a frozen sphere. As the ice melts, it releases the drink into the glass — a mix of mushroom-infused wine and pine resin — achieving perfect dilution in real time.
Innovative Bloody Marys
The tasting wraps with a trio of innovative Bloody Marys. The first is an elegant, savory take using a Spanish tomato variety with bright acidity, clarified for a crisp finish and garnished with a delicate celery leaf. The second marries land and sea, blending sweet carrots with the briny edge of fresh sea urchin. Finally, a strawberry-based twist nods to tomato’s essence, with North African spices like cumin and pepper giving the drink its bold, earthy complexity.
Making the Impossible Look Effortless
As in fine dining, the tasting at Esencia ends with a final bite: a small tomato-shaped bonbon with a liquid core encased in cocoa butter, consumed in a single bite. “It takes one second to eat, and 24 hours to make,” Caporale jokes.
This is the essence of high-end mixology: making the impossible look effortless while opening new horizons for dreamers ready to embrace the unfamiliar. For those, ultimately, who’ve never cared much about timing at all.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
Images courtesy Esencia
