Economists may be warning of tough times ahead and homeowners fretting about the state of the property market, but one London nightclub remains undeterred. Today, it will launch the world's most expensive Christmas cocktail, costing £35,000 a glass.
The Movida nightclub, a hangout of celebrities, footballers and the super-rich, has already taken a small number of orders for the drink, named the Flawless.
The cocktail consists of a large measure of Louis XII cognac, half a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne, some brown sugar, angostura bitters and a few flakes of 24-carat edible gold leaf. The drink is described as warming and refreshing, but that is not the main reason for the exorbitant cost: at the bottom of the crystal glass is an 11-carat white diamond ring.
Customers will also be treated to an unusual floorshow. The drink will be mixed in the presence of two security guards, who will then watch over the client's table until it is finished.
"They're definitely paying for the show as well," said Ed Rollason the Movida's bar manager. "And they'll have the attention of everyone else in the bar." Among the first to order the drink was Max Reigns, 28, a property developer and manager. He intends to give it to his girlfriend for Christmas.
"I just thought it would be a nice thing to do for her. She has so many other things." Asked whether he couldn't think of a better use for £35,000, he replied: "It's about the same as a holiday, isn't it?"
According to What Car? £35,000 would buy a Porsche Boxster Open and still leave you with plenty of change for the glove compartment. Alternatively, it would get you just short of 31,500 shares in the troubled mortgage-lender Northern Rock, according to prices yesterday afternoon.
As an annual income, £35,000 is more than about three quarters of the workforce earns in a year.
Others treated news of the drink as further evidence of the spending power and irresponsibility of the super-rich. "It's like sticking two fingers up at the rest of society," said the Labour MP Sion Simon. "You might as well set fire to your money in front of those less well-off. It's a very deliberate way of saying 'We are not part of the same country as you.'"
The drink will appeal to "the stupid segment of the super-rich", said the social commentator Peter York. "It is so gauche, so crashingly crass, that everyone else will see the buyers as barely literate, as one step up from a potato.
"It will be one of those things that unite both the middle class and the old rich in a belief that the super-rich come out of some kind of primeval ooze."
Nor did the cocktail appeal to others in the drinks industry. "It sounds pretty revolting and most people I know wouldn't spend as much as £2.50 on it," said Tim Martin, chairman of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain. "They'd be better off with a pint of Abbot Ale."
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What credit crunch? Club launches £35,000 cocktail
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