Design-Led Mixology: Hotel St. George and Iittala Launch a Unique Cocktail Collaboration

This spring, Finnish design classic Iittala and artistic Helsinki hotel St. George are putting an unexplored spin on the cocktail experience. For the new signature menu at the St. George’s Wintergarden bar, the form and feel of three of Iittala's most recognizable glass vessels have served as the artistic blueprint.

An icon of the Finnish design world, Iittala has shaped the look and feel of homes across the Nordics for generations. Its many design objects, tableware and cookware carry cultural weight, one that accumulates through decades of daily use. Now, together with Helsinki design hotel St. George, three of the brand’s most recognizable glass designs are veering into new territory: mixology.

In a springtime collaboration, Iittala's glass classics Ultima Thule, Tundra and the Aalto vase have served as the creative brief for the new cocktail menu at St. George’s bar Wintergarden. The drinks were created with the Ittala objects as their starting point, following the logic of each vessel. Behind the concoctions is creative driving force Tuomas Hämäläinen, Bar Manager at St. George. When stirring up the new signature menu, he reached for the glass before the ingredients.

– When I started putting the pieces together, the ingredients for something special were right there, he says. 

“Design and Art Are Made to Be Shared”

In many ways, the stars can be said to have aligned for this collaboration. On the one hand, Iittala's evolving brand direction and the approaching 90th anniversary of the iconic Aalto vase, designed by legendary Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto, coincided with the planning of a new menu. 

On the other hand, Tuomas Hämäläinen is a freshly crowned three-time consecutive Finnish champion in cocktail-making. He has long believed that a glass is never neutral. Its weight, surface, and the way it catches light all inform how a drink is experienced.

For the new cocktail menu, Hämäläinen worked with three of Iittala’s most timeless objects. Ultima Thule's irregular, ice-textured surface, born from the image of a river breaking free of winter, called for something rooted in Nordic nature. Tundra on the other hand, with its cool geometric facets, guided a crisp and precise sensibility. Hämäläinen was responding to the iconic craftsmanship that the two vases represent. "The drinks draw from the same source—Finnish nature, Finnish making”, he says.

The Aalto vase, arguably the most recognizable silhouette in Finnish design, turns 90 this year. Served at the Wintergarden bar as a shared table cocktail, it is a drink meant to be poured and passed around the table. 

– Design and art are made to be shared. The Aalto vase is the perfect expression of that. The idea came together very quickly, says Hämäläinen. 

A Shared Vision

St. George has always treated culture as a living part of the guest experience. A former printing house, today the hotel boasts an art collection featuring over 400 works. Most importantly, it works with the long-held belief that beauty is a way of thinking.

As a member of Design Hotels and one of the most design-ambitious hotels in the Nordic region, St. George and Iittala share a fundamental premise: that the form of an object carries meaning, and that meaning deepens through use. The collaboration felt, from the beginning, like a natural extension of both.

–  St. George has a genuine appreciation for design. The way they approach the details resonates strongly with how we think. Early on there was a feeling that we were speaking the same language—that design is about building experiences and enabling meaningful moments, says Heidi Valkola, PR and Communications Manager at Iittala.

For Heidi Valkola, the Aalto vase's anniversary year is an invitation to look as much forward as back. 

– The significance of a classic comes precisely from the fact that it remains relevant and speaks to new generations. This year, we want to reinterpret this iconic design and return to the essence of Aalto's thinking, while bringing new perspectives to it, says Valkola.

For Tuomas Hämäläinen, the project has reinforced something he already believed. 

– A great cocktail is not just about flavour. It is about the story behind it, he says.

The Cocktails

Nordic Nectar 

Ultima Thule, Tapio Wirkkala (1968)

Ultima Thule has been a landmark of Finnish glass design since 1968. Tapio Wirkkala named the collection after the ancient term for the furthest reaches of the known north—the mythic, frozen landscape from which the glass's surface was born. Nordic Nectar draws from the same source: Nordic aromatics, effervescence, and the quiet elegance of a northern winter.

Blushing Tide 

Aalto vase, Alvar Aalto (1936)

Designed by Alvar Aalto, the Aalto vase turns 90 in 2026. Its flowing, organic form has held a captivating presence across decades of Finnish interiors, and now takes on a new role entirely. Blushing Tide is served as a shared table cocktail, poured directly from the vase.

Bloom 

Tundra, Oiva Toikka (1970)

Oiva Toikka's Tundra series was born from the quiet precision of the Arctic nature. The glass's clear, delicate form is composed of up to twelve distinct details that together evoke a landscape of permafrost and open tundra. Bloom looks at the same landscape from a different season: the moment the ground softens and the first flavors of the year return.