Good barkeepers need plenty of imagination, well-honed techniques and the perfect ingredients and equipment. They’re constantly looking for new, unconventional ideas, and are models and trendsetters for the industry. Sieger by Fürstenberg products are ideal for showcasing their unique cocktail creations. The brand has a special relationship with the multi- award-winning, self-styled “cocktail chef” Marie Rausch, one of Germany’s top bartenders. What do they have in common? A love of detail, a commitment to fine craftsmanship, and – of course – a desire to give pleasure to others.

A common goal: enriching people’s lives
The 32-year-old barkeeper’s goal is to bring a smile to people’s faces. And at Rotkehlchen in Münster, the bar/restaurant that she has run with her husband Nicklas since 2012 and which now attracts customers from right across Germany, that’s precisely what she does. Her mission is a perfect fit for the porcelain brand. “As well as being based in the same region, we share the goal of enriching people’s lives,” says Christian Sieger.

A Prometheus for Prometheus
Marie is passionate about trying out new products and ingredients, and has created over 500 cocktails. “Each one has its own character, its own story,” she says. She has won many competitions with her mixes, which she likes to present in handcrafted Sieger by Fürstenberg tumblers. So it made perfect sense for her to develop a special cocktail for one of these drinking vessels. She chose to do so for the Prometheus collection, named after the Titan and bringer of fire from Greek mythology, whose face appears on the tumblers in the form of a striking relief. Marie was inspired to create a recipe for the miniature sculptures the moment she set eyes on them. “I enjoy working not just with unusual ingredients, but also with

unusual vessels. One important criterion, of course, was that it needed to be possible to mix the cocktail at home too.” The main ingredient of the Prometheus cocktail, the recipe for which is included with each tumbler, is the multi-award-winning Siegfried Rheinland Dry Gin, whose makers Christian and Michael Sieger worked with on a limited edition back in autumn 2018. Gin is also Marie’s personal speciality and favourite, with over 200 types of gin stocked in her restaurant. The combination of the gin with other ingredients such as – rather unusually – a teabag gives the Prometheus cocktail its unique taste.

Award-winning cocktail creations
In their restaurant, Marie and Nicklas Rausch bring together a unique combination of culinary and mixological expertise. Dinner and drinks are precisely harmonised, and Marie is constantly coming up with new flavour pairings. As well as a diverse range of spirits and homemade essences, she also uses various herbs, spices and fruits, always fresh and individually blended; hence the title “cocktail chef”. Her knowledge and experience have garnered her numerous awards over the past few years. In 2017, she won the German heat for the Diplomático World Tournament, and then notched up a sixth-place finish in the world final in London with her drink Family Diplomacy, served in the Sip of Gold champagne tumblers from Sieger by Fürstenberg. She has also won Campari’s Forgotten Cocktails competition, which in 2016 received entries from over 700 barkeepers, and was the first German to train at Dale DeGroff’s bartending school in New York, the best – and toughest – of its kind in the world. In 2018, she was one of Campari’s six “Red Hands”, the specially picked team of bartenders for the global Red Diaries campaign, and had a cameo appearance in the short film The Legend of Red Hand with actor Zoe Saldana.