Oxford College Bar Review has called Regent’s Park College bar “the best in Oxford” amidst allegations that it has plagiarised St Peter’s College’s ‘Cross Keys’ cocktail recipe. The supposed “theft” has caused uproar at St Peter’s, with students describing it as “an outrage”, “a crime”, “annoying”, “the greatest compliment they could’ve given us”, and “only a way for them to acknowledge” that St Peter’s Bar is “at the top of the chain”.
According to the bar treasurer of St Peter’s, the Oxford College Bar Review divulged the Cross Keys recipe on Facebook, where he believes Regent’s Park found it. He added that the Cross Keys cocktail is a staple of the college. He said: “If this was between Wetherspoons and something else, they would sue each other, but because it’s at college level it’s trivial.” When asked, the bar manager of Regent’s Park, Trevor Lau, denied the allegations of theft. He admitted there are certain similarities between their ‘Paradise’ drink and the Cross Keys, but stated that their drink was made independently through their own trial-and-error process.
The drink has subsequently been renamed the ‘Salty Peter’s’, as a “response to undue saltiness over such a small matter.” Lau also expressed a wish to “congratulate St. Peter’s Bar for being the first ever bar to mix fruit juice with alcohol.” St John’s College has also been criticised for using a cocktail with a similar recipe to the Cross Keys. When asked about the matter, St John’s Bar Manager Yannick Joseph told Cherwell: “We can stop serving the drink, it was a trial run anyway.
“I only started serving it because students were asking for it. I got the recipe from a student who came to the bar.”
