Charlie Chaplin, the London-born film star, was one of Alois’s old friends. They first met back in 1916 on the set of The Rink, where Alois was brought in to coach Chaplin in bartending to make him look believable on screen. Their brief collaboration grew into a lasting friendship, and twenty years later, Chaplin called on Alois with an unexpected request: to be his personal bartender on a voyage to Asia aboard the ocean liner SS President Coolidge.
“I never imagined I’d set foot in Asia. But life has a way of arranging things, and who am I to fight fate? Besides, my soul is longing for another journey,” Alois wrote in his diary. It was only after boarding that he learned this was no ordinary trip — it was the honeymoon of Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. Undaunted, he crafted a celebratory cocktail for the couple, blending flavors of the East: roasted tea, yuzu, Japanese plum wine and rice gin.
Tea Ceremony