It has been a little while since my last blog, so I thought I had better do a quick update before getting back to the grind stone.

Tequila and Jager up for grabs

A quick word about the competition I announced last time. I will be putting a section up on the website which will be dedicated to Gregor de Gruyther and will have some of the drinks he came up with as well as some drinks made up in his honour.

The competition is a simple affair - come up with a drink that contains both tequila and jager, give it a suitably cheesy name, submit the recipe to dan@bittersandtwisted.com and if we like your recipe best then you will win a bottle of Tequila and a bottle of Jager. Now I know a couple of bartenders who are working on recipes and hopefully a few more of you will have a stab at it for fun. A seection of the cocktails we like best will feature on our website (when it launches) and you will get to see your name in lights (or at least on screen!)

to make things even better, we have got our hands on a bottle of Ocho's newly launched anejo as the prize. So come on lads and lasses, have a go!

We will be announcing the winner at the end of next week so get busy!

The past couple of weeks have been hectic to say the least, and there is no sign of things letting up anytime soon. We have made it through London's somewhat shabby attempt at a bar show (before you boo and hiss, there were some good bits but overall... if this is the best we can do then really we need to think about packing it in!) and now the B&T crew are ramping up for Tales of the Cocktail (which I suspect we leave me even more despondent about  bar show). There will be three of us covering TotC this year so hopefully we should be able to get around and see most of what's on offer. After that we will be doing a bit of an American Whiskey tour through Tennessee and Kentucky and then it will be full steam ahead with the website on our return. I am getting tired just thinking about it!

The ups and downs of Bar 09

Ok so I know I was a wee bit negative about barshow a minute ago, but here in my humble opinion are the highs and lows from last Tuesday and Wednesday. On the negative side, it seemed tiny this year with one third of the space given over to chair makers (who seemed very lonely as people were avoiding that side of the show like it was infested with swine flu) and half of the remaining space taken up by energy drinks.

The few stands that had something relevant on show did a great job though! The tequila embassy was great, with plenty of tequilas to taste and some interesting talks throughout both days, The Beefeater (and Plymouth) gin palace was also spot on. For me though, the real highlight of the show was down at the far end of the show. The EUVS put on two days of talks that were great including a great session on Japanese bartending, a tequila session featuring Tom Estes and two great characters from Tequila, John Gakuru talking cachaca and all things Brasilian as well as Jared and Aistatia launching their new book (a spirituous journey... get it! it is great!) Nick Strangeway and Gary Regan both swearing a lot and talking about the good old days, just to name a few. Then on the other side (through an ally way of booze brands (InSpirit Brands with Ocho, Partida, El Dorado and the rest of their range) to another stage where we got to witness amongst other things the bartender of the year competition, the launch of Ocho anejo and the unveiling of El Dorado 8 year old.

It seems to me that this is what a bar show should be about, new products, talks from good and experienced characters from our industry, the sharing of knowledge and experience. Not as the London bar show has become... a collection of furniture makers and energy drinks dotted amongst the fake cigarette sellers and the bloke that sells bulk olives! 

Rant over! it was good to catch up with loads of people and to then go out drinking afterwards... now that's the bar show we know and love! I did get some funny looks on my way home from the Ocho launch party but I didn't care because I was basking in the glow of Ocho anejo! Thanks again to Tomas Estes and the boys at InSpirit for donating a bottle of that beautiful agave loveliness to give away in memory of G.

New Orleans and beyond

So now that that is behind us, it is time to look forward to Tales of the Cocktail. There is so much to see and do over the 5 days of Tales, that it is all just a little mind blowing, and while we hope to cover lots of it, I think the best plan will be to stay flexible and go with the flow. Please check back to this page from time to time in July as we will be updating it regularly while we are in New Orleans.

Then it is on to Whiskey country, and this really is looking like it will be quite an experience! We have been invited to a barrel selection for a private bottling by the master distiller of Four Roses, lunch with the guys at Woodford Reserve and the VIP tour by the distillers at 3 of the other distilleries. Once again stay tuned as we will be updating the site as we go!

Bitters & Twisted website

Upon our return from the states all our focus will be on getting the website up and running. We are filling in the database, writing tasting notes, reviewing bars and creating lifestyle content as fast as we can (but frankly not fast enough!) and are planning on doing a soft launch of the site for friends and colleagues to use to help us iron out the bugs, then going full steam ahead as soon as we are happy that it is all working well.

If you want to know more about Bitters & Twisted and what we are up to, please drop me a line at dan@bittersandtwisted.com and I will be happy to bore you senseless about it!

On that note it must be time to go and do my Bourbon homework for the day... hmmm Wild Turkey Rare Breed old fashioned? or maybe a Hudson Rye sweet manhattan?