Victor Nordelof

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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feeling Comfortably Nimb...

December 21, 2009 - 6:59pm | by Daniel Priseman

Things just keep getting more and more hectic here at B&T HQ but fortunately we've had a few drinks and received a few bottles recently that have helped us to take the edge off the silly season. The chaps at Sipsmith were kind enough to give us a bottle of each of their products in anticipation of an update we will be doing in the new year about artesianal producers. I mentioned this to Victor from LAB and he set about whipping me up a new drink featuring Sipsmith gin, which on paper sounded confusing, but was actually a real treat to the taste buds.
 
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT PRUDENCE
 
50 ml Sipsmith Gin
20 ml lime juice
10 ml Galliano L'authentico
5 ml Maraschino
1 barspoon Fernet Branca
1/2 barspoon caster sugar
4 seeds from a cardamom pod
 
Put all the ingredients into a shaker with cubed or cracked ice and shake hard. Strain into Champagne flute with a sugar rim and garnish with a long orange peel.
 

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