Dust off your smoking jacket, we're bringing cocktails back home!

August 23, 2010 - 4:09pm | by Daniel Priseman
In my last blog update I talked about the ‘drinking experience’ and how, when all the right elements come together, sipping a cocktail at the bar can be more than simply ‘having a drink’. That led me to think about drinking at home and the small details that can make that experience richer too. For me there is a great joy to be found in making myself, or my friends and family a cocktail, which is enhanced by using the right tools and the right glassware.
 
 
Looking around the b&t office (or the drinking room as my friends seem to call it) I realise that I really have become a cocktail geek. There are shelves of antique cocktails books, a bookcase dedicated to antique glassware and cocktail shakers, two drinks cabinets loaded with everything from tequila to Swedish punsch, not to mention a shelf dedicated to bitters and homemade syrups.
 
 
Surely I don’t NEED all this stuff just to have the occasional drink at home? I got by for ages shaking daiquiris in an old boston shaker I’d pinched from Alphabet and serving them in an inexpensive martini glasses I picked up from Pages. The drinks certainly tasted just as good back then, but perhaps over time I have come to realise that the joy in drinking cocktails comes from the process of making them and the way they are presented as much as from the liquid itself. My daiquiris may still taste the same, but I enjoy them more when they are sipped from a Victorian coupe having been poured from a 3-piece shaker!
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Why drink cocktails?

August 9, 2010 - 7:41pm | by Daniel Priseman

I’ve been lucky recently to have had some nights that were better than average. You know the sort of evening where everything comes together just right. A good bar, with a talented bartender making drinks, great company and good tunes, the sort of evening where you have a ‘drinking experience’. It got me thinking about the little things that elevate the experience of sipping a cocktail.

 

I’ve always been startled by people who say that cocktails are too expensive but who don’t mind paying over the odds for a bottle of beer or a glass of wine. I admit that it galls me to pay £7.50 for an overly sweetened daiquiri made using the cheapest ingredients by someone who would rather be anywhere other than behind the bar. But when you go to a good bar and your drinks are made by a bartender who does their job because they love it (well they don’t do it for the money that’s for sure!) and you sip a perfectly balanced drink, well that’s worth paying for!

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we're not drinking... we're learning!

August 5, 2010 - 6:48pm | by Daniel Priseman

In my last blog about the way we form deeper bonds with brands I stated " Many bars are now offering consumer tasting events where you can learn about a specific spirit category or individual brand, or are running cocktail master classes, there is the opportunity to learn more and have a better drinking experience every day.” It turns out quite a few people read it, and several readers got in touch to ask me for some recommendations… cue follow up blog highlighting just a few bars that hold regular tastings!
 
 
These tasting events really are a great idea from all points of view, they give the bar that hosts them a way of offering a little added value to their customers, they give consumers a chance to learn about and sample brands that they might otherwise not have encountered, and they give brands a way of talking directly to consumers and hopefully making them a lifelong fan of your product (assuming they like the way it tastes!). The number of bars starting to put on tasting evenings is definitely on the rise and there has never been a better time for consumers, brands and bars to come together for a little bit of learning… because as Francesco Lafranconi always says ‘we’re not drinking, we’re learning!’
 

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A Little Bit of Favouritism

July 26, 2010 - 8:58pm | by Daniel Priseman
Looking at my drinks cabinet I have just realised that there are certain bottles that get used a lot more than others. Havana Club 7 year old Rum, Geranium Gin, Siete Leguas Tequila, Sagatiba Velha Cachaca, Wild Turkey 101, these bottles seem to need replenishing rather often. But why is it that I have formed a bond with these brands? It’s not as though I don’t have other great rums or tequilas to choose from, but I seem to often find myself drawn to my old favourites.
 
 
The same is true when I’m sat at a bar, staring at the back bar and pondering what to drink first. I always smile when I see a few of my favourites on the shelf, knowing that I have some choices that are bound to hit the spot. 
 
 
Of course a lot of it has to do with finding products that taste good and I find myself going back to them simply because I enjoy the flavour, but sometimes there is a deeper pull towards one brand over another. I think there are a few reasons for this emotional attachment that go beyond simply liking the taste of the liquid in the bottle.
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Congratulations to....

July 23, 2010 - 3:51pm | by Daniel Priseman

A few weeks back we blogged about the new spiced rum from our friends at Elements 8 and put a bottle of this delicious nectar up for grabs. All that we asked was for you to name our cocktail at the end of the blog… simple stuff!

 

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A Few of Our Favourite Things

July 15, 2010 - 8:25pm | by Daniel Priseman
It’s been a hectic couple of weeks for me, with distillery visits, new products being sent to me, catching up with master distillers and the first Imbibe bar show, not to mention a food and cocktail pairing hosted by Courvoisier and Bompass & Parr. I guess I can’t complain when every day there seems to be something new to try or someone new to meet.
 
 
So today I thought I’d share a few of the best tipples that I have stumbled across recently and drop a few teasers for the series of updates I have planned for the bitters&twisted blog over the next few weeks.
 
 
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The Spice of Life

July 5, 2010 - 3:54pm | by Daniel Priseman
There’s been a lot of talk about spiced rums over the past few months, what with Sailor Jerry making the strange decision to change their recipe and rumours of various other premium rum brands working on new spiced variants. It’s not a category that I’ve ever given a lot of thought to but suddenly it’s getting a lot of attention.
 
 
I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of Elements 8’s new barrel infused spiced rum and managed to talk them into letting me have a bottle to play with at home, so now seems like the perfect time to take a look at both this new release and the spiced rum category as a whole. We’re also lucky enough to be in a position to send one lucky reader a bottle of Elements 8 spiced rum so be sure to read on for your chance to win!
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blogging about blogging

June 23, 2010 - 8:07pm | by Daniel Priseman
There are times when I wonder what on earth made me think that it would be a good idea to start the bitters&twisted blog. I guess I kind of assumed that writing a blog would be pretty easy… you know, bash out a few hundred words every now and then and snap a couple of pictures, click post and you’re done!
 
How wrong I was! Actually writing a drinks blog is time consuming, frustrating and at times feels like hard work. First you have to come up with ideas, then you have to research them, maybe come up with a couple of cocktails, set up the camera and lights and that’s before you’ve even written a word. That being said it is also incredibly rewarding.
 
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Raising the Bar (show)

June 16, 2010 - 12:57am | by Daniel Priseman

You’ve probably noticed by now that we have recently blogged about Bar10 and The London Cocktail Summit. Well day one of the two-day event is over and I’ve definitely got a few thoughts about it.

 
This is the first year in which Bar10 has taken the decision to charge, which as the organisers have stated, was a move to try to put off the blaggers who have previously treated the show as little more than an excuse to get drunk. To my mind they definitely went some way towards achieving this goal. Unfortunately the flip side of that coin is that it seems to have put off a lot of the bartenders and bar managers too as attendance felt lower than previous years. That being said it was good to see a crowd of ‘the right’ people at the show.
 
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Win tickets to Bar10 (London bar show)

May 29, 2010 - 4:42pm | by Daniel Priseman

Bar10 have taken the decision to charge a fee to the London bar show this year, but we have secured 10 tickets to give away to b&t newsletter subscribers. Each ticket is worth £85 and gets you entry to the show on June 14th and 15th and access to the London Cocktail Summit. To enter sign up to our newsletter by clicking here. For full story check out the blog titled ‘There’s no business like show business’…