Best Drinks Offer winner, sponsored by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners: The Alchemist

The innovation shown at The Alchemist is incredible and the same goes for its 21-strong estate, which has amazingly well-trained staff who ensure every cocktail is the same no matter which venue a customers visits from Edinburgh to Portsmouth.

A bold attitude, in particular to its cocktails, means the company is not afraid to try things with highlights including oyster shells on ice with drinks in, glow in the dark caviar and dispensary machine at Glasgow site that is capable of creating a variety of cocktails automatically.

Next innovation

The Alchemist is always looking for its next innovation or changing what it currently does to add to its offer. A recognition that trade in the later part of the evening has dropped slightly has led it to implement new lighting that fits with its night-time drinks, for example.

It is proud of what it does and the frequency of reviewing its drinks range is impressive and none of its current offer – whether that be top-selling drinks or highly rated food – is overlooked when deciding what to drop from its menus for a replacement.

Listening and acting

It has a great recruitment policy of looking for staff who are good people rather than experienced and its attitude to caring for staff, like its ability to look at potential mental issues with employees shows it is listening and acting on it too.

The passion shown by ‘molecular speakeasy’ is evident and runs throughout everything it does including its no and low alcohol range with a lot of time and effort put into this.

A long-running commitment to supporting charities through special drinks and fundraising menu items is a very commendable practice and being brave enough to drop its bottomless brunch offer and therefore taking a financial hit shows a bent on responsibility that others could learn from.