For your eyes only

March 15, 2010 - 11:11pm | by Daniel Priseman
I was looking back through some drink recipes the other day and I noticed a pattern. It seems like over the years I have tended to use the same ingredients repeatedly. I noticed that I went through a phase of using Jager in cocktails, after that I was using noilly amber a lot, then I moved on to Lillet Blanc and recently it has been merlet’s crème de poire. I seem to get caught up on what a certain ingredient bring to a drink and find myself adding it to all sorts of creations almost without realising it.
 
I guess it makes sense really. I wander into a bar and the bartender says ‘have you tried the new such-and-such from so-and-so?’ I have a taste and think ‘wow that would really work in a ….’. Next thing you know I have bought a bottle and it is worked into my drinks repertoire until the next new thing comes along.
 
When I thought about it a bit more I realised that I even associate certain ingredients with certain bartenders. Some are obvious connections. Jager will always make me think of Gregor and I can’t see Galliano in a drink without thinking of Ago from The Connaught bar. Some are less obvious though, Noilly Ambre for example makes me think of Pete Jeary who first introduced me to it and still swears by it as his secret weapon when making cocktails.
 
A quick phone around to a few bartender friends confirmed my suspicions; we all have our secret go to ingredients. It confirmed another thing too… some bartenders will put the damnedest things together in the name of using their secret ingredients, but somehow they usually pull it off!
 
This phenomenon certainly deserved further investigation (any excuse for a night out!) so I called in on Victor from LAB and he listed a few things that he is using a lot at the moment including Wray and Nephew and pimento dram. When he told me that he had a great drink up his sleeves using yellow chartreuse and cardamom bitters I decided to dodge the overproof rum bullet and try that instead.
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Leave out the limes!

March 8, 2010 - 6:01pm | by Daniel Priseman
There’s only so much citric acid a man can take! Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-made daiquiri (with Havana Club 3yo please…) as much as the next guy, and on a sunny day it’s hard to beat a Tommy’s margarita. But after years of drinking caipirinhas, margaritas, daiquiris and aviations I have to say that my love affair with citrus fruit is over!
 
I am always a little disappointed when ordering my first cocktail in a bar when the conversation goes something like this:
 
Bartender: what do you fancy Dan?
Me: I’m not sure, but I’m in the mood for some rum or tequila
Bartender: how about a margarita?
Me: hmmmmm
Bartender: or maybe a daiquiri?
 
It sometimes seems like I am being presented with the most obvious choices not to mention drinks that are easy to make (3 ingredients, shaken and up…). I understand the reason for this, they are popular drinks and generally require little conversation and not a lot of time to make. That’s fine, but it also means that far too many drinkers are missing a chance to taste these fantastic spirits in ways that would perhaps hide their character less.
 
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New Orleans here I come!

February 25, 2010 - 6:31pm | by Daniel Priseman
I know that July seems like it is a long way off, especially when it is cold and rainy here in the UK, but trust me it is worth thinking about where you are going to be from the 21st – 25th… Me? I’m going to be in New Orleans of course.
 
 
Last year I made my first trip out to Tales of the Cocktail, New Orleans’ annual cocktail and spirits event, and there is no way I am going to miss it this year! For those of you who don’t already know about Tales, it is the biggest drinks industry event of the year and you really don’t want to miss it.
 
 
The TotC website www.talesofthecocktail.com/ is already full of info including a list of the seminars and events that are already planned, so I thought now might be the right time to give you a little recap on 2009 and give you a heads up about 2010. When you are travelling that far it pays to plan ahead!
 
 
So last year was an eye opening experience for me. To be honest I tried to pack too much into my brief stay in New Orleans but that’s easy to do when there are so many seminars, events, places to see and people to catch up with. So here’s what happened in 2009:
 
 
Almost 11,500 people who are interested in cocktails and spirits gathered in New Orleans for five days of seminars, tastings, meetings, parties and competitions. While it centered around The Hotel Monteleone events were held in bars all over the French Quarter, including ‘Spirited Dinners’ in some of New Orleans’ best restaurants, brand sponsored parties in bars and hotels and of course impromptu gatherings in bars across the city.
 
 
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some things are just better homemade

February 16, 2010 - 11:38am | by Daniel Priseman
 
We posted a blog about homemade syrups a while back http://www.bittersandtwisted.com/content/ahhhhh-how-sweet and had a few people contact us looking for recipes that any bartender could use to get started. You know the sorts of syrups that are essential to certain drinks but that the commercial ones available leave a bit to be desired. So as we are always keen to please, we contacted a few friends who make their own to get their best recipes.
 
 
We started with a couple of syrups essential to tiki drinks (but also called for in many classic cocktail books). Orgeat and grenadine are two syrups that can transform a drink, but after a syrups tasting I did for Imbibe magazine last year, I was left thinking that the shop bought ones were pretty poor. Paul bases his recipes on a 50/50 sugar syrup (controversial, but having tasted the results who are we to argue?) which he makes in bulk, taking equal parts sugar and water and boiling them gently for about 20 minutes with crème de tartar (1/4 teaspoon will do 6 litres)
 
 
So here are a couple of recipes that Paul Bradley gave us that really hit the mark:
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and the winner is....

February 5, 2010 - 6:56pm | by Daniel Priseman

You may remember from a couple of our earlier updates that we have taken a bit of an interest in some competitions over the last few months www.bittersandtwisted.com/content/its-not-all-fun-and-games-honest. Well we thought a quick update was in order in regards to the Bacardi Legacy competition and the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup.

 

Firstly the 42 below comp, which is firmly under way as the UK teams are getting serious about creating a buzz around their drinks. In fact it is getting so competitive that team west London have had to resort to extreme tactics to show their dedication to the competition… check out this video clip of Danny from LAB getting a 42 below logo tattoo!… www.youtube.com/watch now that is some serious dedication to the cause!

 

Now on to the Bacardi Legacy competition which you may remember from our update has been running for the past 12 months, www.bittersandtwisted.com/content/what-could-be-better-classic-cocktail-ago-perrones-mulata-daisy-maybe Well it has finally come to an end…. which of course means it has also started all over again! Last night at a typically grand event hosted by the iconic rum brand and attended by many of the great and the good of our UK drinks industry, the 7 shortlisted bartenders for the 2010/11 comp competed to win a final 3 spot in the competition. By making it down to the final three these bartenders are committing to spending the next 12 months promoting their drinks in order to create a ‘modern classic’. 

 

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Circus is a tough act to follow!

January 30, 2010 - 7:17pm | by Daniel Priseman
You know how it is when new bars open up and you know who’s behind them and you read a few reviews and you think is this place a gimmick or a great bar? Well that’s the category that we slotted Circus in Covent Garden into. I mean obviously any place that Lucy Besant is involved in is likely to be pretty good, and with Henry and the boys from Worldwide Cocktail Club setting up the bar and doing the drinks list, not to mention Dick Bradsell heading up the bar team, it wasn’t ever likely to be bad. But there are plenty of places that have themed themselves and have ended up being the sort of place you visit once but never have the urge to return to.
 
 
I can safely say that Circus isn’t one of those!
 
 
When you hear the name Circus and read that it is an ‘innovative bar, restaurant and entertainment experience’ and that the entertainment will consist of ‘surprising and intriguing acts within a bar and restaurant setting’ cue thoughts of rubber nosed clowns and ringmasters with annoyingly loud voices… actually scrap that and think Cirque du Soleil instead! Not to mention the fact that the entertainment is definitely a big part of the offering here, but it is by no means the only defining attribute.
 
 
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Make mine a single barrel rum please!

January 26, 2010 - 8:43am | by Daniel Priseman
When I hear the word ‘single barrel’ I usually think bourbon. So I was quite surprised when I was invited to Hix in Soho, to sample some single barrel, single still rums from El Dorado. I have to confess that I was a little perplexed by the idea, as for me the artistry in rum production has always seemed to be in the blending, so the concept of a single barrel rum seemed like an oddity, but not the sort of oddity I was going to miss out on trying.
 
 
I’m sure a lot of you know El Dorado rums already, the range that we normally see includes the 3yo white, 5yo and 8yo golden rums and of course the more premium 12yo and 15yo rums. Every now and then you see a bottle of El Dorado 21yo or even the 25yo on a back bar. All of those are fine blends of aged rums coming from a selection of the different stills that El Dorado own.
 
 
El Dorado are a bit unique when it comes to stills; they have 9 in operation, including a number of wooden stills and this gives them a huge range of possibilities when it comes to producing rums with different flavour profiles. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to sit in on one of Stefanie Holt’s (El Dorado brand ambassador in the UK) training sessions you get a good insight into the different styles that the stills produce and what they add to each blend. That being said nothing can compare to actually tasting the single still, single barrel rums to get a real idea of how very different they are from each other.
 
 
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Ahhhhh... how sweet!

January 19, 2010 - 10:51pm | by Daniel Priseman
Back in October I was invited to be part of a panel tasting syrups for Imbibe magazine, for a piece which ran in the November issue. There was a lot of talk from the bartenders around the table about how much better homemade syrups are than those available commercially and they’re so right. I know I have the luxury of having a kitchen next door to my drinking room and only need to produce a small amount of any one syrup to satisfy my home drinking needs, but it makes me wonder why more people aren’t making their own?
 
 
 
Now I have been making syrups for use at home for a couple of years and am of the opinion that the results far outweigh the small amount of effort involved, so when a couple of friends came to stay over the weekend and expressed an interest in my homemade ingredients I saw a perfect excuse to get out the saucepans and sugar, grab a few ingredients and do an impromptu ‘master class’ on making your own sweeteners.
 
 
 
Simon and Caro are regular guests at maison b&t and I’ve successfully managed to encourage them to shake and stir their own cocktais at home, furnishing them with tools and books here and there; but even so, I was surprised at how quickly they grasped the idea of syrups and how inspired they to start creating their own flavours. I guess that it was an easy concept for them to grasp because they’re food lovers, so my gut feel that making homemade syrups and infusions might be a good stepping stone to get foodies thinking seriously about making cocktails at home, proved to be right.
 
 
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Has LAB still got it? Oh hell yes it has!

January 11, 2010 - 5:28pm | by Daniel Priseman

Jager

There are a handful of bars that have become truly iconic and have stood the test of time; Milk & Honey in New York springs to mind, Lonsdale for many years, but go into any quality cocktail bar almost anywhere in the world and mention LAB bar in London’s Soho and bartenders know exactly where you’re talking about.

For those of you who are scratching your heads and saying, ‘LAB? never heard of it!’ it’s about time you crawled out from under your rock and had a look around. LAB has been at the sharp end of the bar scene in the UK for over a decade and while it’s had it’s ups and downs it’s never really fallen from grace. Right now LAB feels as though it is on an up-swing again, so I’m readily anticipating many more years of greatness from them.

You see LAB was created as a proving ground for bartenders, a place where good bartenders went to become great bartenders. The name stands for ‘London Academy of Bartenders’ so you get the idea… Some of the leading lights of the bar world learnt their trade here and the list of ‘star-tenders’ who can trace their roots back to this bar is long and legendary. The fact that half of them have gone on to become brand ambassadors and are now leading the life of luxury shouldn’t put you off drinking here though, as each in turn earned their reputations by putting in the hours perfecting their craft. LAB has always been a place bartenders work to take that step beyond just making drinks; to learn the craft of tending bar.

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There's no excuse not to drink cocktails!

January 4, 2010 - 9:51pm | by Daniel Priseman

I have just returned from my annual Christmas and New Year escape. You see unlike many people I don’t particularly enjoy the ‘festive’ season so I normally grab a group of like-minded individuals and head for the hills. As well as being a keen imbiber I also enjoy mountain biking, so a trip to deepest darkest Wales for a week of playing in the mud and snow up the side of a mountain always cheers me up, while others sit watching TV re-runs and eating Turkey.
 
 
This year was no exception, but where as I usually accept a week of drinking beer in place of Manhattans, this year I decided no compromise would be allowed. Here’s my simple philosophy… ‘there is no excuse not to drink cocktails’. No matter where you are or what you are doing, cocktails enhance the occasion, so why compromise?
 
 
So with that in mind I set about planning which bottles should go to Wales, with the obvious dilemma of taking enough variety for 8 days drinking, whilst still being able to fit everything else into the car! I would have loved to have been able to take the entire 'drinking room' collection with me, but practicality forced me to dig deep and cull my packing to no more than a couple of boxes, covering spirits, syrups, bitters, tools and fruit.  A real challenge!
 
 
I also decided that I should provide a cocktail list for my fellow mountain bikers, offering a broad range of drinks to suit their varied tastes. This made life both easier and harder; at least I could narrow down the list of ingredients to cover a small selection of drinks… but it also meant I had to bring enough ingredients to cover the whole range of drinks, not just the drinks I like best… so much for a bottle of rum, a bottle of bourbon and a bottle of Antica Formula vermouth!

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