The concept behind B.Y.O.C. is simple – bring a bottle of your favourite spirit and the four barmen in The Lanes speakeasy will make it taste like nothing else.

Just don’t bother breaking out the Malibu.

“We get litres and litres of Malibu,” says Joseph Tucker, who runs the Meeting House Lane bar with B.Y.O.C.’s bar development manager Nathaniel Shenton.

“Malibu is low in alcoholic content and high in sugar content with lots of artificial ingredients.

“You can bring in a cheap bottle of rum and we will turn it into something beautiful. With Malibu we are battling the sugar.”

The best way to start at B.Y.O.C. is to take along a 40% proof spirit, such as vodka, gin, rum or whisky.

But Tucker admits that once people have seen what they can do with those basic spirits, many people return armed with more adventurous bottles, such as vermouth, Campari and Dubonnet.

“They have a complexity of flavour,” says Tucker. “They use a mix of herbs and spices and other bits and pieces which means when we dilute one flavour another one will come through.”

The secret of B.Y.O.C.’s success is in their range of homemade syrups, juices and “shrubs” – carefully crafted combinations of natural flavours whose origins date back to Victorian colonials.

The natural ingredients come from the supplies in the Juice People bar which provides the “front” for the speakeasy.

The juices range from classic fruits such as lemons, limes, grapefruit and oranges, to vegetables including beetroot, cucumber, yellow pepper and carrot.

And the 25 syrups range from raspberry to hibiscus or lavender.

Used in small proportions they create whole new flavour combinations in the cocktails. “We use flavour combinations such as cucumber and lavender, yellow pepper and raspberry, and beetroot and chocolate,” says Tucker, who has ensured the bar doesn’t have a list of named cocktails – relying instead on his barmen creating bespoke concoctions to suit their customers.

Inside the space behind the Juice People, the atmosphere is totally different from your standard cocktail bar.

For one thing there is no bar. Instead guests are served in two-hour slots at their table by their own personal barman – with a guarantee of at least four drinks for each guest during each booked time period.

The space itself is spread over two floors, with a small cinema showing silent movies in a former underground tunnel in the bowels of the building.

This is only the second B.Y.O.C., having originated behind a Juice People in London’s Covent Garden. Although small and intimate, the Brighton venue is described as three times the size.

Technical tipples

The experience of watching Tucker create a drink at the table is more akin to a science experiment as he produces tiny bottles all containing potent flavours and smells to mix with the bottle of vodka plonked on the table.

Each drink is served in a glass chilled to minus 24C.

“Most of our bartenders have got ten years’ experience in the cocktail industry,” says Tucker combining vodka and ice with fresh cucumber juice, lime and lavender syrup to create a drink best described as a liquid amuse bouche.

“The level of service comes from the communication between the bar tender and the guest. It’s important each cocktail is balanced for them.”

An encyclopaedic knowledge of cocktail culture isn’t necessary for anyone wanting to partake in the B.Y.O.C. experience – because each creation is unique and tailored to the individual.

“In the 1980s, cocktails became very flashy and expensive,” says Tucker.

“With this being an age of austerity, it’s about giving something with value, which is real and made without a high sugar content – it’s really important for us to say we made it all ourselves from scratch.”

Booking is preferred for anyone wanting a two-hour session – with punch bowls available for large parties.

  • B.Y.O.C. is in Meeting House Lane, Brighton, and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 6pm to 1am. Entrance fee £20 for a two-hour slot. Book through byoc.co.uk/brighton