High-proof spirits, philosophy, precision and a secret ingredient called Japan: at the Mizu Bar, Patrick Metzger serves East-West balanced cocktails.

When Patrick Metzger mixes a cocktail behind the counter of the Mizu Bar, the process can resemble a scientific experiment. Alongside high-proof spirits, his creations also contain a touch of alchemy, a pinch of entertainment and precisely applied technique. The subdued lighting makes his face glow mysteriously as he directs smoke into a glass dome arched over a whisky tumbler. Through smoking, he succeeds in enriching a classic Old Fashioned with an extraordinary nuance.

At the Mizu Bar, everything revolves around a Japanese methodology. Following the rules of mixology, whose roots lie in the traditional tea ceremonies of the 16th century, he uses the finest seasonal ingredients and tools to “create cocktails for the moment”. The feeling of spring, for example, is captured in a cherry blossom cordial that tastes both floral and almond-like. Patrick Metzger hand-picked the blossoms, including their stems, in the Bachmair Weissach garden himself, and finds that the result pairs beautifully with a sparkling sake.

Magnolia blossoms from the hotel’s own garden form the basis for a vodka creation named Magnolia. Once the maceration has been used up, the drink will no longer exist in this form – in keeping with the Japanese concept of mono no aware. This mindfulness, which encourages people to be aware of the transience of life while at the same time appreciating its beauty, takes on both form and flavour at the Mizu Bar.

“I am fascinated by the unconditional dedication with which Japanese artisans devote themselves to their craft,” says Korbinian Kohler. On several trips, the Hotelier of the Year explored Tokyo’s gastronomy and bar scene and decided to establish a bar in this very sense of perfection at his flagship hotel, Bachmair Weissach.

At first, he was not even aware of how congenially the Far Eastern drinks concept would round off his ambitious hotel programme – while also incorporating history. In fact, the Japanese Cocktail is one of the oldest in the world; it was invented 30 years before the silent film.

Its creation is owed to the arrival of the first Japanese delegation in New York in 1860. The diplomats brought the bar mania – in which Emperor Meiji also took an interest – back home with them. While Prohibition nipped the young trend in the bud in the United States, the perfect making of cocktails became an obsession in Ginza, one that continues to this day, found its way back to the West and ushered in the renaissance of the American bar scene in the early 2000s.