Introducing A&J

The newly launched Alexander & James website may have drinks retail at its heart, but it’s also a useful new resource for cocktail connoisseurs wanting to recreate a world-class bar experience at home.

While there’s no shortage of sites catering to the drinkers and shakers of the cocktail world, A&J hones in on choosing and tasting the spirits that form the basis of so many classic and contemporary cocktails. It also covers the distilling craft and history of whisky, gin, vodka, rum, tequila and more. It does all that in a glossy magazine-style format that’s peppered with how-to videos and expert advice from top-notch bartenders.

Turn to ‘The Magazine’ section of the website, and you’ll notice that the latest edition (no. 4) takes the craft of cocktail making as its special focus. ‘Deconstructing the cocktail’ attempts to pin down the essence of the art and ‘Six must-have glasses’ gets serious about stemware. Recipe-wise, issue no. 4 reboots the classic mint julep with Ketel One vodka, pomegranate syrup and pink grapefruit juice, and reinvents a retro favourite in its ‘Tequila old-fashioned’.

Naturally, because A&J is an online retailer (backed by global drinks giant Diageo), all that rich information is linked with a clear path to purchase. It’s no ordinary retail site, though. While A&J does stock bar classics such as Tanqueray gin, its strength is in its high-end offerings: from personalised whiskey bottles to perfectly-formed cocktail glasses.

A&J also stocks cocktail-making kit (its own take on the basics including a shaker, muddler, citrus press and jigger) plus some nice luxury lines including Cîroc’s unconventional ultra-distilled vodka and an opulent 150^th anniversary edition of Grand Marnier. I even made a new discovery (for me) on the site: the French liqueur Nuvo, which is giddily pink, based on vodka and infused with passion fruit nectar.

A&J is not only pitched at drinks enthusiasts. It also exists to satisfy the niche requirements of special-occasion and corporate gift-giving. Hence the dedicated customer service advisors, bespoke gift cards, free luxury packaging and complementary engraving on selected Johnnie Walker bottles. (In fact, A&J is essentially trying to distinguish itself from other online retailers by bringing white-glove service to internet shopping – a kind of modern-day take on the individual service you’d have enjoyed on the shop floors of the long-extinct grand department stores.)

There’s also an A&J membership programme, which aims to “surprise and delight you” with impromptu invitations, samples, exclusive offers and other rewards. The idea is that new joiners lay down their interests so that the rewards programme caters to their tastes. If you’re a mixology buff, for instance, you may find yourself meeting the experts at demonstrations and tastings. If the social scene is more your thing, then you may score invites to celebrity-studded parties and film premières.

Members can link their A&J account to Facebook so that they’ll get advance notice of upcoming birthdays – with gift suggestions, of course. Better still, members wanting to stock up their own home bars can build and share gift wish-lists.