Hhe time is only two o'clock in the afternoon, but when Ruben Hartog, bar manager of cocktail bar Ultramarijn, asks if we want something to drink, of course we don't order coffee. But something without alcohol - after all, we need to stay fresh for the interview. With a grin, Ruben puts a highball in front of our noses.

From the shaker, he pours a pink substance through a sieve into the long drink glass. Then some Chinotto goes in and, as decoration, two bay leaves and a cherry. "This is our 'Spar after dark'," he explains. "Conceived by my colleague Nienke. A non-alcoholic cocktail based on Gin amis, Martini vibrante, grapefruit, Yuzu and Chinotto." A quick taste. Spicy, dark fruit, bitter, fresh. Not at all inferior to a cocktail with alcohol. "Funny you should say that," remarks Nienke Becker, who has walked in. "Despite the increasing demand for no and low alcohol cocktails, there are always diehards who insist on 'no alcohol, therefore no cocktail'.

Expensive juice

They see a non-alcoholic drink as a juice for eight euros. An expensive juice, in other words. But the bartenders at Ultramarine Wonderbar spend all day working on flavour combinations, we might even pay more attention to a no or low alcohol cocktail than one with spirits. Anyone can open a bottle of cola. And believe me, these are really not drinks for children. Our cocktails are far too complex for that."

Ultramarine started two years ago as 'coffee to cocktail bar' of four-star hotel voco® The Hague on Kneuterdijk. From noon onwards, you could order coffee here. Ruben: "Gradually, we took a new course. Look, you can also have that cup of coffee in our restaurant Botanica. It's light there and you prefer to sit during the day too. Ultramarine has a mysterious, nautical look. That lends itself better to nightlife. Besides, coffee is a wonderful product, yet it is difficult to make something really spectacular out of it. With cocktails, you can go in so many more directions. That's where our passion lies."

Barster Ruben in action.

And that is appreciated by visitors. Ruben: "Corporate guests regularly tell us they choose voco® because the bar is so good. But on weekends it can also just happen that only locals are sitting there." Nienke: "Yes, we find that quite a compliment. Of course, there are more cocktail bars in The Hague, but not every bar has the quality we offer. Although we like to visit good fellow bartenders. If we see something new, we ask: 'Hey, how do you do that?' But we're not going to copy."

Highballs

Since the top floor of Ultramarine is regularly full, especially on weekends, the bar stars have come up with a new concept for the lower floor: 'Highballs & Bites'. "You had a non-alcoholic version," Ruben explains, "but a highball is normally made up of about one-third spirits and two-thirds non-alcoholic mix, such as sodas and tonics." Eye-catcher of the ground floor is the bank vault (this building used to belong to ABN AMRO). There, Ruben presents us with dishes prepared by Botanica's kitchen staff: burrata, artichoke hearts, crispy chicken, yakitori and jalapeño bitterballs from The Hague Croquetterij. And if we want cocktails down here? Nienke: "Of course we can do that too."

The lower floor of Ultramarine is the setting for the new concept 'Highballs & Bites'.

Besides Ruben and Nienke, there is a regular team of mixologists. Everyone has their own style. Ruben: "Jono is from Curaçao, for instance, who makes it all a bit sweeter. Ben from Australia is more into fresh tones. I'm an indo, when I come up with a cocktail, it contains spices or I use arrack, an Indonesian rum." The bar manager puts a world map on the table with the title: 'cocktails from around the world'. "Like us, the ingredients come from different corners of the world. 'Ben 'n Brekkie' from Ben, for example, contains yoghurt. Yes, I can see you thinking: yoghurt in a cocktail? You might expect something creamy, but because it's filtered, that's actually not too bad. With the pineapple, Tia Maria and peach foam, it becomes an unexpected flavour bomb with a smooth texture."

Sustainable bartending

Very often the bartenders walk to the kitchen of Botanica restaurant before work. That's where the dehydrator, a drying oven, is located. Nienke: "In it we dry the leftover fruit that we can later use as decoration in the drinks. Thanks to the low temperature, it's edible too." Sustainable bartending, it totally fits into the voco® hotel's 'zero waste principle'. Chef Bas Hoog of Botanica turns bread trimmings into croutons and processes many residual products into oil or vinegar. At Ultramarine, for example, they put peels in a jar with sugar to make syrup. Ruben: "We use the syrup again in our cocktails. From leftover red wine and champagne, we make 'caviar balls' and foam. That makes our cocktails even more special."

Last question: surely there must be visitors to the bar who just fancy a classic mojito or a 'Sex on the beach'? "There certainly are," agrees Ruben. "But then I do say: you can get those drinks anywhere, right? Then I ask which flavours they like in the hope that they will change their minds anyway. And most do, you know. In fact, many people want a beer first, but see all kinds of exciting drinks around them. What is that?", they ask. And so they usually end up with a cocktail in front of them anyway."

www.ultramarijnbar.nl