Harmony in a glass: When cocktails are pure magic

A cocktail bar should ooze sophistication, right? Think again. In the heart of the V&A Waterfront is Cause/Effect, a venue that simultaneously pays homage to the taste buds and forges that elusive feeling of one’s world being at peace.

Smart conceptualisation threads the “Bar Terroir” menu, which is themed around the Western Cape’s natural surrounds of sea, mountains, fynbos, and vineyards. All cocktails include at least one such theme ingredient, making Cause/Effect a proudly Capetonian bar, “embodying the climate, soil, and heartbeat of the region,” says the owner, international-award-winning mixologist Kurt Schlechter.

“You have to have a sidecar,” he urges me. The golden liquid arrives in a traditional coupe glass, rim glittering with a dusting of naartjie powder, garnished with one of the bar’s signatures: a fynbos sprig, in this case aromatic slangbos. Made with house brandy – one of 80 the bar stocks – and KWV Van Der Hum, splashed with Schlechter’s family recipe for naartjie bitters, it’s fruity and herbaceous, light but mildly warming. Sidecars are a Cause/Effect speciality, and I’m keen to try one of its other versions, but Schlechter redirects me apologetically, because it seems he’s guided me in the wrong order: “You have to have a spritz,” he now advises me, “because that’s a drink to start the day off well.”

Like a beauty queen, in tall, elegant stemware, one arrives: Martini Rosso vermouth, Martini Prosecco, and soda, topped with granadilla buchu sorbet. Delicately floral, dryish then sweet in aftertaste, with gentle bubbles tickling the palate, it’s Capri (or Camps Bay) sunshine in a glass. I may take his advice and ditch my morning coffee ritual for one of these instead.   

Cause/Effect actually brands itself as a cocktail kitchen — a play on its lab where Schlechter experiments and a nod to the extensive food menu. Indeed, it offers a “Cause/Effect Lab” four-course food- and cocktail-pairing dinner, with the menu changing regularly but always structured around ocean-mountain-fynbos-vineyard cues. So, for instance, the mountain course the week of my visit is a vegetarian dish of baby-leaf spinach, sesame-seed broccoli, and garlic-parmigiano dressing, accompanied by a Patrón Blanco tequila, grapefruit, lime, and red-pepper-dust cocktail. The fynbos course is nitro olive-oil ice cream with honeycomb, tonka bean and vanilla, served with a rooibos-tea, honey, and pot-still brandy cocktail.   

Playfulness at work

Seated back at the bar counter, I read the drinks menu with delight, the cocktail craft amplified with humour. Inspired by the fragrance house, there’s a Jo Malone London that blends Patrón  Blanco tequila, lime-mandarin limoncello, and basil eau de vie. A piña colada gets wordplay and ingredient treatment, morphing into Nut-a-Piña-Colada-Split, which incorporates cashew nuts and something from the lab called coconut-oil fat wash.

I observe the bartender making a Florist in the Summer, a virgin cocktail with elderflower, whey, citrus, floral sugar, and soda. He’s all flamboyance, flair, and flicks of the wrist with the jigger measure, shaking, then pouring in a long stream, amazingly without spillage, the pink concoction waterfalling into the glass. The guests smile with admiration and anticipation. 

Meanwhile, Schlechter is the epitome of jack-in-the-box hospitality, attending to guests with genuine interest, keen to recommend a drink to match their moods. A honeymooning couple are treated to a passionate-looking, colourful concoction; minutes later, he decides all patrons deserve the treat of a Christmas piña colada that he’s been working on for a while. I watch him and head bartender Liam Montanus tweak the precise measure of coconut cream, then finetune further with a blur of syrups, tasting and retasting, making tiny top-ups to the measure of brandy — I think, instead of rum. “Wait,” he says – the final flourish is the spice: nutmeg, of course, for that Christmasy aroma.

Knowing it’s a silly question to put to one of the world’s best mixologists, I ask what his favourite drink is. There’s no hesitation: “A martini, made with good vermouth, and it must be with gin.” (Agreed. What was James Bond thinking?) Seizing the opportunity, I seek advice on the best gin-to-vermouth ratio. He hedges but settles on the US three-to-one version, translating to 60ml of gin and 20ml of vermouth, as “ideal, the way it was initially conceived and remains most popular”. He and I agree that a wet version, using sweet rather than dry vermouth, makes a nice occasional change. And he gives an important tip: the garnish is key — and adding both lemon zest and an olive works best. 

I ask him to create a cocktail for Wanted readers, something unusual and with a touch of luxury, but not too difficult to mix at home. Immediately, he has an idea: an Old Fashioned. Great, I think, the whisky, sugar, and bitters classic is always a winner. But this is not an Old Fashioned as I know it. It’s richer but softer, slightly sweeter, and with a tropical tinge. I find myself staring at nothing, caught in a daydream, captivated by a taste I’ve never experienced before.

Cause/Effect is a place of harmony, I think. I’m soothed by the cocktails’ visual elegance and interplay of tastes and mellowed by conviviality. 

I get it now: this must be the “effect” of the bar’s name.

Wanted Old Fashioned, created by Kurt Schlechter:

50ml Blomendahl Valhalla Elixir

1 barspoon jaggery

5ml banana-skin spice syrup

Stir well in a mixing glass, then strain over a large block of ice. Garnish with twisted orange peel. 

Valhalla Elixir can be substituted with superior-quality dark rum. Banana-skin spice syrup is made in Cause/Effect’s lab, but a simple version is to place 3-4 banana peels in a sealable container, cover with white sugar, leave for 2-3 days, then strain off the resulting syrup.   

Cause | Effect, The Rocket Shed, 280 Dock Rd, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, 021 4220266

at Camps Bay, 69 Victoria Road, The Bay Hotel, 021 4370358

at Rondebosch, Atlas Building, cnr Grotto & Main Roads, 021 8794845