Starting to get tired of vodka sodas and Aperol Spritzes at digital happy hour? We completely understand. And luckily for you, so does PS40, one of Sydney’s most innovative bars – and our Bar of the Year winner at the 2020 Time Out Bar Awards.
On Tuesday, licensed premises were granted permission to sell alcohol for takeaway and home delivery, which threw a lifeline to bars and pubs across the city facing the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, that would have otherwise found themselves faced with the prospect of imminent and indefinite closure. PS40 isn’t taking the opportunity for granted, and is launching ‘PS Sofa’, a collection of pre-batched cocktails delivered directly to you (and a playful nod to ‘PS Soda’, the line of all-natural soft drinks they produce and bottle).
“There was just no way we could survive with all this booze in an empty bar,” says co-owner Michael Chiem.
The team has put together a series of four concoctions to start with, all of which will be familiar to loyal fans of the CBD laneway favourite. The ‘Jean-Claude Pandan’, a Tiki-inspired quaffer with pandan rum and coconut Ceylon tea from the bar’s very first menu, has made a return; so has the ‘Lunar New Year’ from the most recent list – a spicy, nutty number with Cognac, rye, mandarin and red bean. The ‘Raspberries + Cream’ brightens things up by layering raspberry-leaf tea, gin and dark rum, while those after something stronger will appreciate the intensity that coffee, tonka bean and sous-vide banana bread bring to their cult classic ‘Breakfast Negroni’.
“Drinking well at home has never been easier, so we wanted to design an affordable series of cocktails with a good shelf life that travel well and that people couldn’t make themselves,” Chiem says.
All four drinks come in 250ml bottles, which amounts to two cocktails each (or three in the case of the Negroni), and they’ll remain fresh for a month if you keep them refrigerated. They cost $25 a pop (or $40 in the case of the Negroni, because it is not for the faint of heart) and there’s a minimum order of 500ml – though we can’t imagine that being a deterrent.
Orders are now being taken via direct message on Instagram, and Chiem will personally deliver them to you with a contactless terminal for payment, beginning Friday, March 27. How’s that for convenience?