JAPAN: Tokyo's luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel hopes its latest 15,000 U.S. dollar "diamond-tini" cocktail will lend a dazzle to marriage proposals

Record ID: 225201

  • Title: JAPAN: Tokyo's luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel hopes its latest 15,000 U.S. dollar "diamond-tini" cocktail will lend a dazzle to marriage proposals
  • Date: 9th May 2007
  • Summary: BARMAN MAKING MARTINI CLOSE UP OF 'DIAMOND-TINI'
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA5OV5O4SN2UL316L1GTU9M5OIS
  • Story Text: The bar of the glitzy Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo has put a gem of a cocktail on its menu - a drink that it calls the "diamond-tini".
    Forget the classic olive, this vodka-based martini -- a chilled Belvedere with a hint of lime -- is topped with a 1.06 carat diamond stone and served for a cool 1.8 million yen (15,000 U.S. dollars).
    This price includes drink preparations tableside and a serenade of "Diamonds are Forever" as a cut stone slides to the martini glass bottom.
    Later the gem is mounted on a ring by a local jeweller. The market is for soon-to-be wed couples looking to go down on one knee and propose in style.
    "We're going back to the martinis of the James Bond era. That is here to stay. It's a timeless drink actually and diamonds are always a girl's best friend and arriving at this point of time in the year in Japan, is when proposals are rampant," says hotel manager Bernard Viola.
    Viola hopes diamond-tini sales will climb to three a month eventually, but says the drink's success rate is still unclear because so far none have been sold.
    "We could do anywhere from three to five a day or maybe one a month or one in the next ten years, we don't know yet," he added.
    Even at the height of Japan's economic slump a few years ago, Japanese still purchased about 40 percent of global luxury goods and the nation was number two in diamond jewellery sales.
    But for those on a budget, a more modest proposal may be the Ritz's 13,000 yen (108 U.S. dollars) "wagyu" hamburger.
    This towering dish of beef, tomato, avocado and other condiments, is served up for more than twice the price of the hotel's main burger and it will set you back 40 times the amount of money you would pay for a McDonald's staple set.
    But despite its price, the burger's success with customers who have an expensive taste, has made this lavish meal twice as popular as the bar's regular burgers.
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