Welcome to Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: In the glittering chaos of Tirana, where concrete meets memory and culture spills into nightlife, there exists a cocktail sanctuary unlike any other. Nouvelle Vague, more than a bar, more than a movement, returns with the second volume of its ORIGIN’AL cocktail anthology. Where Part 1 whispered tales of nostalgia and rediscovery, Part 2 comes roaring in with bolder expression, deeper connections, and flavours that challenge the expected.
Welcome to a menu crafted not in haste, but in heartbeats. A storybook in liquid form. A love letter in every pour. This is Part 2, this is the continuation of a promise: to taste Albania with soul, memory, and imagination.
Here, drinks are not mere compositions. They are vessels of history, whispers from the past, and declarations of the present. They are provocations, crafted to stir something deeper than thirst. At Nouvelle Vague, we do not believe in mixology for spectacle. We believe in storytelling that settles on the tongue and lingers in the soul.
Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: Nou Whey – The Soft Revolution
Soft power, unapologetically Albanian.
Nou Whey doesn’t scream for attention, as it commands it through elegance. Built around a luminous pear eau de vie, this cocktail starts with clarity and ends with mystery. Pear raki, long celebrated in the serene orchards of central Albania, becomes the protagonist in a quiet revolution of flavor.
Through a meticulous milk-wash technique, we refine the spirit’s edges, creating a silken body that feels like liquid velvet on the palate. We then add hazelnut milk for body, tonka bean for warmth, cocoa for quiet decadence, and elderflower for that gentle, ethereal lift that reminds you why nature always wins.
Nou Whey is strength in softness, a redefinition of what a strong drink can feel like. It’s a drink that doesn’t overpower you, it feels like it invites you in. It’s a drink that feels like a secret you’ve been entrusted with. A midnight confession, served chilled.
Sip it slowly and let it open up. Notice how it evolves, how it remembers.
Ingredients: hazelnut milk, tonka bean, cocoa, elderflower, pear raki
Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: Black Sabah – Coffee. Rewritten.
A morning memory, distilled for the night.
Black Sabah is what happens when boldness marries intention. We start with muscat raki, which is already an intensely aromatic spirit, and redistill it under vacuum pressure with Turkish coffee, drawing out a flavor that feels both ancestral and brand new.
What results is less of a cocktail and more of a conversation, a reverent nod to the way coffee brings people together across cultures and generations. We round it out with toasted corn for crunch and nostalgia, honey harvested in the wild for depth, and a warming touch of spice. Then, a shadow of aged rum anchors it in familiarity.
This drink doesn’t rush. It instead invites you to lean back, listen to the music, and let memory speak. It’s the scent of a grandmother’s kitchen. The slow sip at sunrise after a sleepless night. The poetry of rituals reborn in a glass.
Ingredients: Turkish coffee, toasted corn, honey, spices, muscat raki, rum
Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: Nu Fashion – The Eternal Signature
The beginning of it all.
This is the glass that started the story. Nu Fashion has been poured, stirred, and toasted since the very first night Nouvelle Vague opened its doors. It carries the DNA of our philosophy: classic, but curious; familiar, but far from predictable.
It begins with the timeless architecture of an Old Fashioned and is then reimagined with Albanian intent. Ginger delivers a slow-burning heat, lime cuts through with brightness, bitters bring balance, and a fusion of blended vermouth with rye and bourbon tie it all together like silk threads from two worlds.
Nu Fashion is a portal to the Nouvelle Vague experience. The kind of drink that makes you feel seen. It’s warm, confident, and reassuring. The first sip says “welcome,” and the second one says “you’ve always belonged here.”
It doesn’t just tell the story, as it is, itself, the story.
Ingredients: ginger, lime, bitters, blended vermouth, rye & bourbon
Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: Drunk Bee – Nature, Distilled
Buzzing with meaning.
Imagine the hush of a hillside meadow at golden hour. Now imagine sipping it. That’s Drunk Bee.
This cocktail celebrates more than flavor; it celebrates the deep interconnectedness between the land and its keepers. Built around raki from the rare “pulse” varietal of Berat, a varietal that hums with ancestral complexity, Drunk Bee honors the humble bee, the silent craftsman of sweetness.
Infused with bee pollen and apple biscuit for texture and warmth, rounded out with vermouth and a delicate splash of amaretto, this drink is then kissed with orange liqueur to lift the finish. It’s a drink that respects the process, pays homage to the past, and still manages to surprise.
Drunk Bee is not sweet for sweetness’ sake. It’s sweet like folklore. Like memory. Like the laughter of relatives sitting on woven carpets under the Albanian sun.
Ingredients: bee pollen, apple biscuit, vermouth, amaretto, orange liqueur, pulse raki
Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: Orient’al – A Fire Born from Fragrance
Where East meets Alps.
Orient’al is audacity in a glass. It begins with mezcal and butter-washed tequila, bringing smoke and luxury into the same room. But it’s the addition of chestnut honey from Tropojë that shifts the story. It anchors the drink in the north of Albania, in the steep, silent forests where time moves at its own pace.
Middle Eastern spice blend (our own twist on fajita seasoning) joins lime and orange liqueur to complete the journey. The result is layered, lush, and unforgettable. It doesn’t ask for your attention. It takes it.
Orient’al is a Margarita reimagined through memory, migration, and magic. It’s an anthem for old souls with wild hearts. The kind of drink that feels like a journey through incense, campfires, ancient kitchens, and distant horizons.
Ingredients: chestnut honey, fajitas mix, lime, orange liqueur, buttered tequila, mezcal
Cocktails at Nouvelle Vague Tirana Part 2: ORIGIN’AL – More Than Cocktails
At Nouvelle Vague Tirana, we don’t serve drinks. We compose memories in glasses. We preserve culture one ingredient at a time.
The ORIGIN’AL collection is not a seasonal menu or a trend. It’s our identity in liquid form. It’s an evolving dialogue with Albanian roots and global technique. With every drink we serve, we ask you to pause, to reflect, to rediscover.
What began with whispered dreams in villages and slow-burning research has grown into a living document of modern Albanian storytelling. The drinks in Part 2 are richer, more fearless, more exploratory. They continue the story, but they also question, provoke, and celebrate.
Every guest who walks through our doors becomes part of that journey. Every sip becomes a conversation. The cocktail suddenly becomes a confession whispered through ages of perfecting the craft.
We invite you not just to taste. We invite you to listen to your senses, to your ancestors, to the hands that gathered these ingredients, to the land that raised them. And to the future that deserves to remember them.
📍 Rruga Pjeter Bogdani, Tirana
- Ask for the ORIGIN’AL menu
- Let the music guide you
- Let the stories unfold
Nouvelle Vague Tirana: More than a bar. More than a menu. A movement in every pour.
