The Jerry Thomas Project

Christmas Bitters, by Heather Duncan and The Elves

2011-11-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

Many of you will know the story behind the creation of Christmas Bitters, something that ranks as one of the best and most thoughtful presents I've ever been given, but assuming some of you don't it's worth explaining a little of the history;

Before you begin, please click play on the video above, then continue reading.

In October 2009 during a conversation regarding the trials and tribulations involved in the production of a quality bitters, Heather told me she believed she'd learnt so much by following my progress, and listening to me talk about the subject incessantly, that she was confident she could make bitters. I had no doubt that Heather had listened intently and had picked up various tidbits having helped throughout the early days of my research into, and experimentation of, Boker's Bitters (which then spawned Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters), but I doubted whether enough had been stored away. "You can't make bitters," I declared, underestimating just how talented she is...

Unbeknown to me Heather decided to do everything possible to make the bitters she promised she could, in this instance a Christmas Bitters. In order to keep this present under wraps she contacted Santa Claus (no, really) who allowed her to borrow two of his Elves so long as he had them back by Christmas Eve (seriously). One of the Elves set about designing a beautiful label so that the bitters would stand out, whilst the other let Heather use his grotto and some tools from his workshop. Lastly, Heather focused on devising a recipe and set to work. Let's just say that I may have had a wee tear in my eye on the morning of 25th December 2009 when presented with a few bottles of Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters. Who was to know that humble pie was a Christmas delicacy?

Though a handful of Heather's original batch made their way to bars in Scotland, England, France and America, the next 24 months were spent fending off requests for Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters, right up until October 2011 when some mysterious happenings started taking place in and around my house.

It all started when I received some junk-mail addressed to 'The Elves'. Like most of you will have experienced, all sorts of rubbish starts dropping through the letterbox in the lead-up to Christmas so I didn't really think anything of it.

Then, whilst carrying out a stock count, I spotted that some botanicals and bottles had gone missing. Again, I didn't read too much into it and put it down to an oversight regarding a delivery that hadn't arrived yet.

The next oddity was the appearance of botanicals, namely currants and cranberries, that I couldn't recall purchasing. I'm always experimenting with recipes for products and have hundreds of botanicals in my workshop so presumed I'd forgotten about an earlier idea I'd had hence why they had come to be in amongst my existing stock.

Things changed on the morning of 31st October when I was awoken by what sounded like my office window closing. Scottish weather in October is a time where you'd rarely open windows during the day let alone leave them open at night so I knew something wasn't right. I ran through to find nothing untoward, the window was closed as expected and everything seemed in order. That was until I spotted a small green & red hat (like the one pictured above) outside my office window. "Surely not..."

Weighing everything up there was only one explanation for it, The Elves had returned and they had unfinished business. I knew what they were after so I decided to set-up a trap for them. Gathering a few bottles and some festive spices, I left them on my kitchen worktop and headed to bed to wait.

Within minutes the sound of tiny footsteps could be heard, I crept through to my kitchen, held my camera round the corner and took a picture (above). Caught. In. The. Act. This was when I realised that The Elves and Christmas Bitters were back...

The Elves didn't want to give too much away regarding the bottlings though I eventually learnt that themselves and Heather had used overproof rum as a base spirit, with three different roots as bittering agents. Dried cranberries and currants are offset with a host of freshly ground festive spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove and star anise. A citrus edge is provided by dried orange and lemon peels, extra depth from cacao nibs, mace blades and coriander seed, finally finishing with a hint of port to round everything off.

Macerated for no less than two weeks, the Christmas Bitters then go through an exhaustive filtration process before being bottled. The first handful have been bottled with another 250 to be produced for release in early December before The Elves have to head back and prepare for Christmas day with Santa Claus (I'm not making this up).

Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters

Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters capture the spirit of Christmas in a bottle. Initially created in 2009, these have been reborn by a handful of Elves who didn't want to see Heather's work left in the past.

Elf-crafted, elf-bottled and elf-labelled, Christmas Bitters are a unique addition to any bitters collection adding depth to simple serves such as a Horse's Neck, a point of difference in classics such as the Pink Gin or Corn & Oil, or in original libations such as the award winning Rum-Plum-stiltskin.

Tasting Notes: Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters are dark ruby-red in colour with an enticing nose of freshly baked gingerbread, clove, and spiced fruit. An initial soft sweetness swiftly moves into a complex middle with clove-studded-orange and a host of festive spice all dancing on your tongue before a long bitter finish welcomes the return of hot gingerbread, spiced cookies and clove.

To round things up I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of Heather. If the music above is still playing please scroll up, press pause, then scroll back and listen to Heather singing, with her dad Bryan on guitar and backing vocals, instead. I did tell you she is talented...

There's also a couple of recommended serves provided, one of which was created by Heather, whilst the other is a twist of a favourite of the new doctor in town.

Rum-Plum-stiltskin

50ml / 2oz Havana Club Especial
25ml / 1oz Ruby Port
4 Dashes Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters
25ml / 1oz Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fresh egg white
20ml / 0.75oz Homemade Plum Syrup

Method: To your mixing glass, add egg white, lemon juice and plum syrup in that order followed by remaining ingredients. Dry shake for five seconds then with ice for a further ten seconds
Glass: Chilled wine goblet
Garnish: Snap orange zest over drink and discard
Ice: N/A
Notes: Heather's winning cocktail from the Havana Club Cocktail Competition at Mim Bar & Lounge

Christmas Tree

50ml / 2oz English Harbour 5 year old
12.5ml / 0.5oz Falernum
4 Dashes Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters
Barspoon freshly squeezed lime juice

Method: Add all ingredients to glass, fill with crushed ice and swizzle. Top with crushed ice and swizzle again if necessary.
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Lime zest spiral (use a vegetable peeler to create a long strip)
Ice: Crushed
Notes: Adaptation of the classic Corn & Oil and aptly named after an oil well Christmas Tree

For purchasing information please contact me directly at adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org as these won't be available with my distributors or retailers, they're going fast and before we know it the festive season will be over.

Why not buy your favourite bartender a bottle for Christmas?

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

The Professional Bartender (in the words of Fernando Campoamor)

2011-10-21T04:50:00.000-07:00

Arguably the modern bartender's holy grail, the following passage is taken from a book that very few have encountered in the physical sense. The book, by Cuban writer Héctor Zumbado, first came to my attention a few years back due to this exact passage and since then I've spent considerable time in the search for a copy. As it stands I've had no such luck.

This was until recently when a good friend (whose name I'm sparing as they'd be bombarded by pleas from bartenders and collectors) has promised that they will try and obtain a copy of this book for me, should this happen I will be eternally grateful as my search has proven both fruitless and frustrating. The latter due to the fact I originally believed the book was written by the author who first penned this definition of the perfect bartender, when in fact he was one of Héctor's influences and Héctor included it in his book. Funny thinking about it now, not so much at the time.

If there is a better definition of the professional bartender I've yet to read it.

"Diplomatic, polyglot, like skilled ambassadors... discreet and reserved... They have a good feel for psychology, and a deep understanding of human nature. They are father-confessors, competent advisors on a multitude of complex and delicate issues. They are stoic, capable of enduring with unlimited comprehension and courtesy, all the incoherence of the mad world that sometimes condenses in a bar.

They have the elegance of a symphony conductor, the precision and calm of a surgeon ready to operate. They are the chemists of today, the botanists of the eighteenth century, and the alchemists of the middle ages, capable of willing the creation of cool, shining gold.

They are experts in the topics of sport and international politics, but they never give into passionate discourse. They are philosophers, and when need be, telepaths… and to top it off; they need the memory of an elephant."

- Fernando Campoamor

As featured in El Sexto Sentido Del Barman (The Barman's Sixth Sense) by Héctor Zumbado Argueta.

You'll notice a lack of imagery in this posting as I've no image of the book, Héctor or Fernando to share so I'll leave you with a fitting video featuring 'Papa' Fabio Delgado who sadly passed away in 2004 but whose legacy lives on, not just in his home country but around the World;

Let's raise a Palmetto (a.k.a Cuban Manhattan) in honour of Fabio, Héctor and Fernando;

45ml Havana Club 7 year old
15ml Sweet Vermouth
3 Dashes Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Aphrodite Bitters

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass, fill with cubed ice and stir for 15-20 seconds. Julep strain.
Glass: Frozen cocktail glass
Garnish: Cocktail cherry
Ice: N/A

Sláinte!

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

26,000 hours

2011-10-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

...and counting.

No, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte aren't making another film, this is in fact the absolute minimum number of hours I estimate I worked behind a bar between 2001 - 2010;

10 years x 52 weeks x 50 hours per week (on average) = 26,000 hours

The next figure is 10,400 hours. That is the absolute minimum number of hours I estimate I've spent reading related literature, attending trainings, practising my hobby and conversing with fellow industry colleagues in that same timeframe (2001-2010);

10 years x 52 weeks x 20 hours per week (on average) = 10,400 hours

Total figure = 36,400 hours which I have dedicated to my career choice between 2001 and 2010, primarily relating to cocktails but encapsulating all things Food & Beverage. I'm confident the actual figure far surpasses that but we'll stick with it for now.

"Why is this relevant?" you say. "What are you rambling about?"

I have a theory that (for the most part) there's no such thing as natural-born-talent, it's all about hard-work, dedication, a want to improve, and a desire to learn. Continue reading and all will be revealed.

I'm proud to call myself a bartender. No fancy filth-flarn-filth name here, I'm a bartender and I'm good at what I do. As you'll see from the hours above I've spent considerable time, "in the trenches," as they say. I've had the ice-machine pack in at 9pm on a Saturday night when the bar is four-deep, I've had girls show me their breasts (and more), and a guy show me his penis (Scots in kilts are a tricky bunch), I've had to be the court jester, I've been given phone numbers (from both sexes), I've had drinks bought for me, I've had drinks thrown at me, I've been offered jobs, and marriage proposals, I've made friends, I've lost friends, I've cut-off friends, I've cut-off family damn-it, I've held back hair as people have thrown-up, I've then had my hand down that same toilet to unblock it, I've worked 100+ hour weeks, I've been on the open on the 1st January, and the close on Christmas Eve, I've been the photographer, the party-planner, the magician, the shoulder to cry on, the mixologist, the plumber, the pacifier, the historian, the bouncer, the children's entertainer, the politician, I'm the guy who ends up in the kitchen at a party making fucking drinks. I'm the bartender. It's what I do. It's quite an enjoyable experience truth be told.

I learnt the basics on the front-line at TGI Fridays and worked my last bartending gig at Yatai where we were offering libations on par with (in my humble opinion) the best that London and Edinburgh have to offer. Yatai is in the middle of a sabbatical with new premises on the horizon but I can confidently say that the beverage program I was putting in place was unrivalled in this part of the World. If only the premises owners had the long-term vision...

Unsurprisingly, many of the spirits, drinks and drink's styles introduced to that wee 25-seater bar have since cropped up on other local bar menus. I would even go so far to say that the Yatai menus along with the menus I've written for Mim (which I'm updating and showcasing to the owner next week) have been imitated in other local venues, many drinks repeated again and again. Many bartenders telling porkies about where they learnt that drink. My old shaking style also mimicked, which then led to me later being told by the same bartender/s (who started long after me and who I trained) that they came up with it. Even though I adopted it from one of my peers who is rightly mentioned in most training sessions I host. That peer is Angus Winchester, whose time in the trenches is likely the same as above, but with another 'zero' on the end. He's getting old, but he's fucking good. The other day Craig Harper referred to Angus as the modern day Charles H. Baker and I couldn't have put it better myself.

Skip to 1:41 to see that shake. In fact, don't, just watch the whole vid;

Imitation. Flattery. You know how it goes. It's when you're not prepared to give credit that people will lose respect. I digress.

I'm also proud to say that my menus have been featured around the World, notably in homage nights at Clive's Classic Lounge in Victoria, headed by bartender Shawn Soole and this year nominated for World's Best Hotel Bar at the prestigious Tales of the Cocktail Awards in New Orleans. That's a pretty humbling experience for someone who is primarily self-taught and from a city whose cocktail culture is no older than a decade. When I started the Mojito was like an alien to people. Nowadays? It's the norm to find Aberdonians sipping Last Words, Flips and Brandy Crustas. All beverages I introduced to the local scene and are now mainstays of menus in the better cocktail bars.

My influences come from far and wide and not just in the drinks industry, everyday life influences everything I do, I hoard drinks menus from all over, I pester the game-changers, the face-melters, the trend-setters, the ones truly at the forefront of the modern renaissance of cocktail culture, I have a book collection my bank manager disapproves of, I scour and collect rare spirits so I can recreate drinks as they were meant to taste, I am a regular contributor to forums such as Barbore, e-Gullet and The Chanticleer Society, there is a wealth of great videos on Youtube with hardly any views and the views they do have have been from me on more than one occasion, I attend trainings and seminars all over Europe, I don't go for a drink I go for an education. You get the idea, I am immersed in this shit. It's my life and I love it. "I'm going to get a real-job now!" I hear people declare. Why the fuck would you do that? Real job. Real job? Why have a job when you can have a life.

In 2006, halfway through those 10 years as a bartender, I set-up my own bar consultancy, training and events business. Evo-lution is now in its seventh year of trading making it one of the longest running consultancies of its kind, not just in the UK, but around the World.

I've consulted for a number of venues including Mim Lounge, Yatai and Dusk. These bars have been some of the main drivers in the ever-growing cocktail culture in my hometown.

I've trained hundreds of bartenders in traditional pubs, cocktail bars, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels, many of which continue to pursue successful careers in the Food & Beverage Industry despite never planning to stay in it.

I've set-up and run hundreds of events from themed corporate parties to cocktail evenings, private whisky dinners to tutored tastings, cocktail masterclasses to corporate entertainment. These have ranged in numbers from as little as four people attending to the many hundreds. Where there's beverages and food to be served, I've served it. And it's been bloody great fun.

I've only ever had one client that I've never worked with again and that was down to them not paying the agreed contract. This was my first client and the one that triggered me into setting up Evo-lution. You learn from your mistakes. Since then, every client I've ever worked with has either returned to me for business or referred me on to someone who has used my services. Not many companies have that success rate.

Evo-lution has later encapsulated the ever-growing Dr. Adam Elmegirab's... which is now running into its third year and is very much at the forefront of my career. I'm a full-time producer, brand ambassador, marketer and PR company all rolled into one. Expansion is in the works though for now, this baby is mine and she's quickly growing into a beautiful girl.

What started as the most in-depth research into the history of the Boker's Bitters company (due to this very project, which is only one-tenth completed) and a picture of five bottles posted online, has now grown into a global brand portfolio with four bottlings now being distributed in no less than sixteen global markets. To date, all my bottlings have scored between 4 and 5 out of 5 in highly respected industry magazine CLASS.

As I understand it I'm in the top five cocktail bitters producers in the World; behind only Angostura, The Sazerac Company, The Bitter Truth and somewhat on par with Bittermens. I've never spent a penny, a nickle or a dime on advertising. And still people ask what it is I do for a living. Go figure.

I aim to revolutionise the bitters market and consolidate it as a category in its own right. Along with the good work being done by those aforementioned it's already happening somewhat. It is us, the producers, that are responsible for the perception of a category and it is us who are now charged with giving the end consumer the knowledge they're after.

I think I've easily spent five-figures (in hours) on the bitters category, that goes back at least five years. Go look on Webtender if you don't believe me. My username there is Adam Elmegirab. Even taking this all into account, I've had bartenders tell me I'm wrong when offering advice with regards their housemade bitters. Advice they asked for in the first place. I'll touch on this in another article soon. Back on topic...

I'm currently working on new bottlings for my own portfolio (not just in the bitters category) and I'm in ongoing discussions with companies (that I can't name here) who are looking to use my expertise. I've also been outsourced by a handful of the most revered bars and bartenders the World has to offer with regards producing bespoke products. These are people with five-figure numbers in excess of my 36,400 asking me for advice. This pleases me. this pleases me greatly. The hard-work is beginning to really pay-off. There's those words again, hard-work.

All in all I think I've done alright so far in my short career. I've worked damned hard, I've still lots to learn, and lots I aim to achieve, but it'd be fair to say I've exceeded anything I've set out to do thus far. And probably worked harder than I knew I could.

Okay, okay, I'm getting to that. A few weeks back I was speaking with a local-bartender, an eager young whipper-snapper whose number won't even be in the high hundreds yet. I think he'll do alright, though I did lose a little faith in him when he made a remark similar to the following;

"It's not fair that you're such a good bartender and that you get to go on all these trips and win comps and stuff, why don't I get to go? I know a lot and I think I'm as good as anyone here."

Later he remarked, and asked;

"Some are born with it, do you think I'm one of them? Or maybe you're just lucky?"

I laughed this off. Lucky? He's lucky I didn't slap him up side his head, the cheeky sod. It made me think of this famous quote;

"The harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get." - Gary Player

Fucking luck. 36,000 hours and this is luck apparently. Pfft. I'll show him. So, I've been thinking a lot about what he said. Thinking about my career, and the careers of those that I respect, those at the top of our game. Then awards season rolled into town with both the CLASS Awards and the Mixology Awards taking place in the same week, and I'm seeing the same bartenders complain that they're not nominated. Complain that they haven't won. Complain that they've not been recognised. Complain that they're not respected. Complain that it's the same guys winning the comps and awards. And it got me thinking, why is that? We live in a time where people demand recognition and respect and it is a real ugly side of the bar industry, though it's prevalent throughout society.

By the same token I see the same people congratulating the winners and nominees. The same ones buying drinks and bending elbows with the winners at the award shows. These people are the ones that didn't win. These people are those that will go away and come back next year. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. And they will likely win. Their time will come. And it got me thinking, why is that?

Then I thought back to the, "Some are born with it," comment and similar thoughts I've seen in recent times with both an increase in the use of social media and in sharing ideas and techniques. Coupled with my belief that there is no such thing as natural-born-talent I started to look at recurring trends within the winners and trend-setters I refer to above.

The same names kept popping into my head. The first of which you'll all know, Erik Lorincz.

For those that have been locked away in an Austrian cellar for the last few years, Erik was the winner of Diageo's World Class competition in 2010 (fending off 9000 bartenders from across the globe), UK finalist in Bacardi's La Legacia competition (won by Matthew Dakers, another reaping the rewards of hours of hard-work), one half of the crime-fighting duo Ago & Erik that tended bar at the quite phenomenal Connaught, and is now the head bartender at the Mecca of bartending, The American Bar at London's Savoy Hotel.

He's like the Cristiano Ronaldo of bartending, highly-skilled, highly-respected, revered, good-looking. It's almost as if the man's blessed. Anyone that's seen Erik work will straight away tell me that he isn't exactly proving my point. He's so fluid, so slick, so fucking cool, that you can't learn it. You're born with it. What he's got is God-Given.

Well, you're wrong. What Erik's got is an immeasurable desire to be the best that he can be. A desire to work as hard as required to get to the top. He wasn't born with a barspoon and jigger in his hands, he's looked at the best around and worked exceptionally hard to get himself to a similar level. He mastered the hard-shake by going to straight to the source in Japan, Kazuo Uyeda. His mastery behind the bar is practiced and learned by a combination of hard-work and exposing himself to work in a variety of different bars, travelling to expose himself to the best bars and bartenders you can find in Germany, France, USA, the United Kingdom and Japan to name but a few countries. He's worked alongside some highly-talented bartenders, exposing himself to their skills and knowledge and showing him what he needs to do to get to the top of his profession. Key-words here, exposure and hard-work.

Whenever Erik's come into conversation the same words are used regarding him; gentleman, humble, driven, passionate, hard-worker. Having met the man on a number of occasions I can testify for all of these things. You are hopefully seeing a recurring theme here. Here's a direct quote from the man himself;

"For me it's not a job. It's not work. It's a passion, and a lifestyle." - Erik Lorincz

I'm confident that Erik has a similar five-figure number. I know he's also worked his hours in the trenches. I'm confident he would put his success down to hard-work.

To further my thoughts on bartenders such as Erik, the other day the following video appeared in my Facebook feed and it cemented another of my suspicions regarding those at the top;

Exposure. From a young age Erik was already learning skills that would assist him in later life. It never surprises me how many great bartenders have been exposed to the industry in some way, shape or form from a young age. Whether it be the likes of Gary Regan whose dad Bernard owned a pub, or the likes of Erik who had a grandparent making their own liqueurs, the exposure to the skills that would later shape their careers can't be a coincidence. Study this quote about Tiger Woods from the excellent article, 'The Talent Myth';

"The most talented player of all time," was the assessment of one pundit. But now consider that Woods was given a golf club five days before his first birthday; that by the age of two he played his first round of golf; that by five he had accumulated more hours of practice than most of us achieve in a lifetime. Far from being a golfer zapped with special powers that enabled him to circumvent practice, Woods is someone who embodies the rigours of practice."

Tiger Woods, the man oft-referred to as the most naturally-talented golfer of all time was in fact exposed to the game at a young age and put through an abundance of practice hours. In recent years his aura of invincibility has slipped somewhat, his rivals have had to put in the practice to match Tiger and eventually they caught him. Tiger's roar is more of a whimper now. The bar was raised but others have reached it. If Woods wants to return to the top, he will have to revisit his game and improve.

This is the same throughout the World and everyday life, music, sport and in this instance, bartending. Childhood prodigies are a myth. They more often than not have pushy-parents, opportunity, and the two things I've been referring to over and over in this article, exposure and hard-work. You want recognition and respect? You put the hours in. Simple really. If at this point you find that you're still not getting the respect and recognition it's because others are putting in more hours so you have to up your game yet again. The same faces at the competitions and award shows are there for a reason. Hard-work.

Still not having it? I refer you back to Matthew Syed, author of 'Bounce' and the article I linked to earlier;

"If you are still unconvinced by the power of practice, consider again my journey in table tennis. To many enthusiasts my skills seemed nothing less than a miracle. But was it?

When I hit the top of the England rankings, most of the other top players in the nation were not merely from the same town as me, but the very same street: Silverdale Road in Reading. Had some ping-pong virus spread through the area without touching the surrounding roads and villages? Of course not: the success was about the coming together of factors of a similar kind to those that have, from time to time, elevated other tiny places into the sporting ascendancy (Spartak, an impoverished Moscow tennis club, created more top 20 women players between 2005-2007 than the whole of the US).

In particular we all had access to a top coach (who happened to be a teacher at the local primary school) and to the only 24-hour-a-day club in the county. We started out as ordinary table tennis players but through a peculiar set of circumstances we were transformed into extraordinary players. The evidence is overwhelming: excellence in sport is not explained by talent, but by hard work, will and opportunity."

In an industry that is currently booming, to stay at the top and to stay relevant you've really got to work damned hard, but I really think the warning signs need to be put out. This article will upset some and those are the people it's aimed at. I can guarantee that those who have done their time will be nodding in approval. Don't get me wrong, this is not a tirade of old-school versus new, I'm merely pointing out the undeniable facts regarding those who are rightly held in regard in this wonderful industry. I've heard it argued that information is so widely available that less time is needed to move on and be successful. I disagree, as most information out there isn't worth considering and you're going to have done all the right things to be well-informed. Even then part of life is learning from mistakes, you learn more when things go wrong than you do when it's right all the time.

When we have bartenders hanging up their bar-blades and bar-spoons after less than a year's bartending to call themselves consultants that's problematic. That does nothing to help the industry and only ends up with bars not living to their true potential. It's damaging for what is a credible career. In nearly every other business that calls on consultants the minimum requirement is 10,000 hours, or five years full-time work. Think about the most common timeframe covering a university course and a year's placement. 5 years.

5 years x 52 weeks x 40 hours = 10,400 hours

The best consultants around have this as a minimum. In fact, they often surpass it. Tristan Stephenson, 2011 CLASS Bartender of the Year, I salute you.

When there are brand ambassadors who know less about their product than those they're supposed to be nurturing things aren't right. Brands need to address this, and bars and bartenders shouldn't accept it. The best bartenders around are dedicating a lot of time and money to learn about products and categories, so if you're a brand then your ambassador better know more by putting in the hours of hard-work. The best ambassadors around do this, they know who they are. They're time-served and more often than not got their position due to respect and recognition. Julien Lafond, 2011 CLASS Brand Ambassador of the Year, I salute you.

When there are those more interested in their fifteen minutes of fame than satisfying their guests needs it ruins the good image that bartending is currently gaining. We're bartenders, so stop trying to rename yourself to create a relevance. You are relevant, but not by calling yourself a Cocktologist, a Bar-Ninja, or a Mixtender, but by putting in the hours and the practice. Create menus specific to your bar and not to seek approval from your peers. They are where they are because they understand the business and will know straight away whether your menu is fit for purpose. They aren't interested in a fifteen minutes, they're filming a blockbuster and it's fucking hard work. Mal Spence, 2011 CLASS Best Bar Menu, I salute you.

And to the endless list of game-changers and face-melters I haven't mentioned and could've mentioned, keep up the hard work.

Related reading;

Matthew Syed - 'Bounce'

Matthew Syed - 'The Talent Myth'

Malcolm Gladwell - 'The Talent Myth'

An Affinity for Bramble? You could say that... (Barrel Aged Cocktails)

2011-08-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

This posting has been a work in progress for the last three weeks but due to a need for experimentation I'm only getting round to sharing now so apologies for the delay.

On Thursday 28th July I was invited to Bramble in Edinburgh to join a select group of drinks writers, enthusiasts and industry stalwarts to attend the launch of their new cocktail. Yes, you did read that right, the launch of a new cocktail.

There aren't many bars in the World who'd make me want to change my week's plans to attend a launch of a new beverage but after I received the invitation from Bramble I knew this was going to be worth making the effort for. When I discovered that this was their first foray into the World of aged cocktails the want to attend increased ten-fold given the coverage this trend has received in recent months. It took all of four seconds to convince my girlfriend to join me, she loves that place. To put it into perspective, if Bramble was a man I'd be worried...

After a fantastic dinner at The Bon Vivant we made our way down to the bar where we were quickly joined by a group of 20+, all there for the reveal of Bramble's Barrel-Aged & Bottle-Aged cocktail. Our host for the evening was Bramble bartender Tom Walker (pictured above with a drink in front of him, no surprise really), otherwise known as The Heavily Tattooed Bartender because he is a bartender and he is heavily tattooed. Clever bunch huh?

Tom spoke passionately about this venture and it was clearly something he couldn't wait to have us try. Tony Conigliaro and Jeffrey Morgenthaler were rightly cited as being influential in the revival of this trend however Tom was quick to acknowledge that we as bartenders are, "...bringing back the old", referencing the history of aged cocktails, in particular Club Cocktails. I'd like to think he'd read my earlier post on this subject.

Adding to what was already set-up to be a great evening was the discovery that Bramble had been working closely with Dr. Bill Lumsden (pictured above - head of whisky creation for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg Whisky) was also in attendance to share his expertise. Instantly I knew I'd made the right decision to head down. Bramble aren't the sort to do things by halves and to have somehow roped Bill Lumsden into the production process was something of a master-stroke, the guy is a genius when it comes to whisky creation and his knowledge and understanding of barrel-ageing would be vital in producing an aged cocktail of unrivalled quality.

Bill spoke of the many projects he's often asked to be involved with recalling one memorable, for all the wrong reasons, "shit drink," which included whisky and tomato. Innovation is something that Bill is noted for and this particular project was one that excited him due to its nature. Ageing spirits is his forte but he was happy to admit that the idea of ageing a cocktail was new to him.

At one point during the evening I joined a small group of whisky aficionados (tweeds and 'taches, and that was just the women) who were intrigued as to why Bill wanted to be involved in this project and I have to say I did raise a wee smirk when he responded, "that the whisky industry would be naive not to look at alternate vehicles to get people trying their bottlings." So much snobbery surrounds the whisky industry that surely the only thing that matters is that people are drinking the damned stuff. Anyway, I digress...

The early development stages were of notable interest as there are many barrel-ageing cocktails without putting any thought into what they are doing. It was refreshing to see a great deal put into the production of the cocktail and also enlightening that the bar had the experience of Bill Lumsden to call upon.

The launch previewed the first batch which is aged in New American Oak barrels (medium toast), with three further bottlings to be released, two more in New American Oak barrels (a light and heavy toast) and lastly in New French Oak (medium toast). I asked Bill why they'd opted to use New Oak to which he answered, "that both myself and Bramble are after a high level of control and consistency," which he felt they would not have by ageing in a used barrel. He didn't write-off the idea suggesting that it may be something they'd look at in the future as they learn more about the process but for now it was New Oak that was their main interest.

The barrels selected are 4 1/2 litre New Oak barrels sourced from Willie Taylor at the Speyside Cooperage. Bill touched upon the differences between the two oak barrels, American offering softer characteristics leaning toward vanilla, sweet spices and coconut in some instances, whereas the French Oak would be slightly more aggressive with savoury notes and an astringency as well.

For the cocktail Bill spoke of the need for a higher abv to keep the barrel sterile, telling us that ageing a drink with a low abv and a high level of sugar would not make for a great end-product.

The cocktail selected by Bramble for barrel-ageing was the Affinity, which first came to prominence around the turn of the 19th century. The oldest reference I've found to it is from The New York Sun printed on 29th October 1907;

"There's another new cocktail on Broadway. They call it the Affinity. After drinking one, surviving experimenters declare, the horizon takes on a roseate hue, the second brings Wall street to the front and center proffering to you a quantity of glistening lamb shearings; when you've put away the third the green grass grows up all around birds sing in the fig trees and your affinity appears. The new ambrosia contain these ingredients: One medium teaspoonful of powdered sugar, one dash of orange bitters, one jigger of Scotch whisky and a half jigger of Italian vermouth. These are shaken in cracked ice, cocktail fashion, until thoroughly blended and cooled, then strained and quickly served."

In new money the drink would translate as;

50ml Scotch Whisky
25ml Sweet vermouth
Dash of Orange Bitters
Barspoon powdered sugar

Like many cocktails of the time later recipes for this drink would change somewhat with the removal of some sweetness, in this case the sugar, and the addition of French vermouth making for a slightly drier and crisper potation. The above picture is taken from the Savoy Cocktail Book printed in 1930 which calls for equal parts Scotch whisky, French vermouth, Italian vermouth and two dashes of bitters.

Nabbing myself a couple of bottles (New American Oak medium toast for the purposes of this article and a bonus NAO heavy toast) I was eager to compare the Aged-Affinity to a freshly made variant as well as a bottle-aged cocktail (noting how Bramble have opted to serve it). Tom discussed that they are embracing consumer demand for heightened interaction with cocktails so Bramble have adopted a unique serve as follows;

Serve 100ml bottle straight from fridge alongside a frozen cocktail glass misted with orange bitters. Garnish with a housemade cocktail cherry and a strip of fresh lemon zest on the side. The Affinity is not diluted in any way.

A further element to take into consideration is that this drink is twice-aged, barrel then bottle-aged. After the initial 4-7 week cask-ageing process, 100ml bottles are filled by hand at Bramble with their labels detailing the date barrel-ageing commenced, the day of bottling, and who filled the bottles.

So, I guess the most important aspect is how the end product tasted in comparison to a fresh Affinity and a bottle-aged Affinity. This is where I come in and my thoughts are as follows;

Affinity Variant 1 (fresh)

37.5ml Glenmorangie Original
25ml Byrrh
25ml Noilly Prat Dry

Method: Add all ingredients to cheater tin. Fill a Boston with crushed ice and a touch of soda water then insert cheater tin into the large Boston to create an ice bath of sorts. Stir (without ice) until drink is well-chilled.
Thoughts: The Affinity is a drink I'm fond of but I have to confess to having never tried it undiluted or with Glenmorangie. It made for a very light, but bright, drink, pleasing on the palate with citrus prevalent. A pre-dinner cocktail if ever there was one. The benchmark had been set...

Moving onto;

Affinity Variant 2 (twenty-day aged)

37.5ml Glenmorangie Original
25ml Byrrh
25ml Noilly Prat Dry

Method: Add all ingredients to glass bottle, seal and keep refrigerated for twenty days.
Thoughts: Whilst only resting for two weeks the drink has undeniably mellowed in that time with a clear path of complex flavour. The integration of flavours and apparent mellowing doesn't take anything away from the cocktail with the characteristics of Glenmorangie still prevalent (fresh citrus, softly sweet, vanilla, floral) however it's as if the flavours have tied themselves together rolling across the palate as one. I can't explain why but the drink didn't seem as light and also seemed to have added body, almost chewy.

And lastly, the barrel-aged and bottle-aged;

Affinity Variant 3 (Bramble's Unique serve)

New American Oak Cask - Medium Toast - 6 week ageing

37.5ml Glenmorangie Original
25ml Byrrh
25ml Noilly Prat Dry

Method: Add all ingredients to 4 1/2litre new oak cask and rest for four to seven weeks. When ready, filter through coffee filter paper to remove any sediment then bottle and wax seal.
Thoughts: Upon pouring the liquid into the glass you're immediately hit with a waft of toasted wood, similar to the aroma when you walk into a room with a coal-fire burning. Again the characteristics you'd expect are there although the sweetness has changed, reminiscent of treacle toffee. It's also packed full of warmth, toasted spices with a subtle hint of smoke throughout, the finish just seems to go on and on. You can see why Club Cocktails linked their barrel-aged drinks to Christmas time. This is perfect as an after-dinner drink, or even to wind the evening down.

In conclusion... I don't really have much more that I want to add. Many will ask which was my favourite but the simple answer is that there wasn't one. Think of it as someone asking you, "What's your favourite jacket?" You may think you know but the true answer is that your favourite jacket is the one you need for any given occasion dependent on the circumstances. You may look dapper in your bespoke Brioni suit jacket but it isn't going to keep you warm in winter-time is it?

Before I sign off I'd like to say a thank-you to Bramble owners Mike and Jas for inviting me down to the launch, as well as extending the thanks to Paul, Niall and Terri who regularly take care of my imbibing needs. Should you find yourself in Edinburgh get yourself along to Bramble and try their Aged-Affinity for yourself, and if you see me at the bar I'll also take one alongside the bottle of Brooklyn you'll have to buy me as well.

Related reading;

Tom Walker - 'Get down and give me... Affinity.'

Darren Rook - Bramble, Edinburgh, launches barrel-aged Glenmorangie Cocktail

The Edinburgh Whisky Blog - 'Whisky is cool? WTF? Part 1: Cocktails, Bramble and Glenmorangie'

Aged-Affinity Cocktail
£9.00 (can also be taken away for £7.00 prior to 10pm)
Bramble Bar & Lounge
Edinburgh
16A Queen Street
EH2 1JE
Tel: 0131 226 6343
Email: mike@bramblebar.co.uk

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Cask Roadshow - Edinburgh Heat, 10th August 2011

2011-08-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday past I attended the CASK Liquid Marketing cocktail competition at Lulu in Edinburgh. Forming part of the CASK roadshow these are two-day events held in five cities across the UK in which CASK are looking to connect with the UK’s top bartenders, influencers, key journalists and bloggers.

CASK have only recently appeared on the scene but the experience already at the company alongside a stunning portfolio (including Merlet, Elements Eight and Ocho to name but three of their brands) means they are one to watch in the coming years.

Some people have commented that it's odd that, as a brand-owner myself, I'm still competing in bartending competitions but I still regard myself as a bartender and I'm currently researching and putting together details for a bitters competition of my own, stay tuned for details.

I couldn't make it to day one of the event which incorporated a master-class and cocktail training with the likes of Tony Conigliaro (Kigo), Luc Merlet (Merlet), Tom Estes (Ocho) and Carl Stephenson (Elements Eight) in attendance but having earlier qualified for the Scottish final after submitting a drink online I headed down to Edinburgh for the second day's cocktail comp. At stake was a trip to Cognac to compete in the UK final...

The rules were pretty straight forward, we had to prepare four drinks (as detailed below) in ten minutes, two of which also had to include Merlet fruit liqueur. The judges for the day were Nushi Wijewardena (Imbibe UK), Luc Merlet (Merlet), Scott Gemmell (LA Group) and Stuart Ekins (CASK).

My drinks were as follows;

1. Arrive with a ready-made infusion of Ocho Blanco or Reposado to use to create a unique drink with a unique serve

Eight in the Morning

50ml Apricot seed infused Ocho Reposado
10ml Merlet Creme de Peche
25ml Fresh lemon juice
12.5ml Gum syrup
15 Drops Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters

Method: Add lemon juice, egg white and gum syrup in that order then add remaining ingredients, shake without ice for five seconds then fill with cubed ice and shake hard for a further ten seconds
Glass: Chilled coupette
Garnish: N/A
Ice: N/A
Inspiration: As I produce bitters this round was one I really enjoyed given that we had to infuse a spirit. I wanted to stay away from the usual suspects (vanilla, chilli, lemongrass, etc.) and with my knowledge of botanicals opted for something a little different, in this instance apricot seeds. Prior to adding them to the tequila I lightly toasted them in a dry frying pan before crushing to a powder in a blender. I then added 10g of this toasted apricot seed powder to every 100ml of Ocho Reposado, macerating for eight hours at room temperature. The apricot seeds offered a depth of flavour including almond, apricot and marzipan, with a complex perfumed aroma that worked fantastically well with the earthy, spicy and citrus notes in the Reposado. Tom Estes couldn't get enough of this which is always a good sign...

Given the spirit I now had as the base I wanted to compliment and enhance the flavour profile with the ingredients I chose; Merlet Peche which is juicy, sweet and subtly spicy, fresh lemon juice for the citric backbone, Bittermens Xocolatl Mole which pulled together the deep spicy notes and also added warmth, then finally fresh egg white and gum syrup for added texture. The aroma was so rich that no garnish was required and the colour, reminiscent of peach, was so striking that the cocktail stood up on its own.

As for the name, well that came from the time I finally decided on the recipe, although it may also relate to the tequila I'll imbibe when I wake first thing.

2. Create a rum cocktail with Elements 8 that captures the spirit of St Lucia as well as your own home town, explaining the reason behind the drink

Guyana Toddy

50ml Elements Eight Platinum
12.5ml Merlet Triple Sec
50ml Fresh coconut water
12.5ml Gum syrup

Method: Build over ice and stir
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Fresh grated nutmeg and mint sprig
Ice: Cubed
Inspiration: Trying to find a common link between St. Lucia and my hometown of Aberdeen was very difficult at first but I quickly found something to build on; Elements Eight uses sugar cane from Guyana and Aberdeen (as a port-town) has a long history connected to rum, namely demarara rums. The region of Demarara was found in what is now known as Guyana so that gave me my first link.

Secondly, I've been researching the Toddy (spirit, water and sugar) these last few months and found some really interesting tidbits relating to toddy-drinking in Aberdeen in the 1700s, rum & coconut water is a truly exceptional drink that I imagine is regularly consumed in St. Lucia thus giving you a Toddy of sorts, though replacing water with coconut water. The Toddy can also be served hot (Scottish climate) or cold (St. Lucian climate) so again the link stood up for me.

With regards the other ingredients in the drink, the Merlet Sec offers citrus notes to compliment the rum and coconut water, the gum syrup an incredible mouthfeel lifting the creamy texture found in coconut water, the nutmeg a wood spice that brings out the toasted-oak from the rum, and the mint a fresh aroma which was a perfect way to finish off this cocktail.

3. Create your own interpretation of the Sidecar using Merlet Cognac and Merlet Triple Sec

Santina

40ml Merlet Cognac
10ml Merlet Triple Sec
3 Dashes Boker's Bitters
25ml Fresh lemon juice
10ml Homemade Orgeat
5ml Sugar syrup

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass and shake hard for ten seconds
Glass: Chilled vintage cocktail
Garnish: N/A
Ice: N/A
Inspiration: The Sidecar, as published in Robert Vermiere's Cocktails: How to Mix Them (1922) was a drink of equal parts Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice, served in a cocktail glass with no sugar rim and credited, like many other drinks, to Malachy MacGarry of the Buck's Club in London.

Where I took my Sidecar inspiration from was a quote in Embury's Fine Art of Mixing Drinks where he mentions that the Sidecar, "as originally concocted contained some six or seven ingredients." I've never found any definitive resource which points to a Sidecar recipe with this number of ingredients however some do believe he is referring to the Brandy Crusta (Cognac, Curacao, lemon juice, Boker's Bitters, sugar syrup) which does hold some weight but doesn't really sit well with me due to the fact Embury doesn't link the two in his book and that's something I'd imagine he would've done given the way he wrote. The other drink often linked is a Brandy Daisy (Brandy, Rum, lemon juice, Curacao, gum syrup and soda)

I opted to create a drink staying true to the original Sidecar whilst giving a little doff of the cap to others like the Daisy and Crusta. Another drink I took inspiration from was Jerry Thomas' Japanese Cocktail of 1862 (Cognac, orgeat syrup, Boker's Bitters, lemon peel). The name pays homage to Joseph Santini, the creator of the Crusta.

4. Provide an innovative short-serve for the judges

Panacea

75ml Merlet Cognac
37.5ml Stones Green Ginger Wine
5ml Jade Edouard Absinthe
5ml Merlet Creme de Cassis

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass without ice. Stir briefly then funnel into a hip flask
Glass: Hip flask
Garnish: N/A
Ice: N/A
Inspiration: In Scotland we don't go to the chemist, we reach for the hip flask.

I finished third overall which, although it's always good to take top spot, I was relatively happy with as my drinks were very well received. The winner was Adam Neal from Rick's in Edinburgh, many congrats to him and best of luck for the final in Cognac later this year where he'll be competing for a trip to St. Lucia or Mexico.

I'd also like to extend my thanks to the guys from CASK who put together a very well run competition. My only grievance would be regarding the time-limit rule as the eventual winner went way over the allotted time and would've had to have a host of points deducted. Bartending competitions are very professional nowadays with bartenders putting a lot of time and effort into their presentations so it can be a little frustrating when your presentation is geared toward a specific parameter that isn't adhered to by all competitors. Time-limits should either be in place or not. In saying that I wouldn't have liked to have seen anyone lose out in that way.

The CASK Roadshow and Competition continues in Leeds (6th September), Manchester (8th September) and London (21st September). Visit the website for more details...

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Who said drinks and science don't mix?

2011-07-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

The culinary arts have long been intertwined with science, something that has become more prevalent in the food & beverage industry with the likes of Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Harold McGee, Eben Freeman, Tristan Stephenson and Tony Conigliaro notably revered for their outstanding work.

At the weekend I worked some bartending shifts at one of my consultancies, Mim in Aberdeen, and found myself puzzled by the difference between two drinks that were practically identical save for the fact one was alcoholic and the other non-alcoholic.

A guest at the bar ordered two Mediterranean Fizzes, a cocktail on the menu that is available as both an alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage, requesting both variants.

Mediterranean Fizz

50ml Ciroc Vodka
6 White grapes
6-8 Basil leaves
25ml Fresh lemon juice
20ml Vanilla sugar syrup
Top with soda water

Method: Muddle grapes in mixing glass to extract all juice. Add remaining ingredients other than soda and fill with cubed ice. Shake until ice cold, fine strain, and top with soda water.
Glass: Collins/Highball
Garnish: Basil leaf
Ice: Cubed

At the point of serving I noticed that the non-alcoholic variant had taken on a considerably darker colour of green compared to the drink with alcohol. I tried both to ensure I'd made them right and found no problem whatsoever and didn't really think any more of it. Luckily these guests ordered the same round a further three times and on each occasion I found the colour to be exactly the same, darker for the non-alcoholic drink, lighter for the alcoholic version

Over the last couple of days I'd thought about it some more and it also reminded me of something I learnt in Germany last year about Joerg Meyer's Gin Basil Smash (pictured above) and the way they prepare it at Le Lion. Joerg discovered that shaking this drink with metal-on-metal tins versus metal-on-glass made for a darker green beverage. As far as I'm aware he still doesn't know why.

I posted the following question;

"When preparing two Mediterranean Fizzes at the same time (1 alc and 1 non-alc) the non-alc cocktail was always greener in colour. Same number of leaves/amount of liquid in both, so why was it greener? What was the non-alc 'extracting' that the alc wasn't?"

on Twitter this afternoon which piqued the interest of Tristan Stephenson and Scott Spolverino.

Our discussion covered a number of potential explanations with the likely conclusion that ethanol is a better solvent than water so the chloropyll (the pigment that gives basil its green colour) is soluble in alcohol. Now I'm no scientist but that makes perfect sense to me, however where the colour goes doesn't? I'm hoping someone can explain...

Just as we had seemed to hit upon an explanation Tristan raised the rather good point that the increased opacity of extra lemon juice and syrup added to the non-alc Mediterranean Fizz possibly made for what looked like a darker drink. Back to square one and in need of (a liquid) lunch, I decided to construct an experiment using Tristan's suggested method of water in place of gin in the non-alcoholic drink. I hoped this would give me some clarity to the green issue...

As chlorophyll is present in nearly all plant-life, and I had a box of freshly-picked mint leaves in my fridge, I opted to make a Southside to see if the results were the same as the Mediterranean Fizzes from Saturday. I tried to make the drinks identical barring the base (gin and water) but in no way do I profess to be a scientist so if there's something amiss please let me know and don't shout me down for my poor scientific methodology!

Alcoholic Southside

50ml Tanqueray Gin
25ml Fresh Lemon Juice
20ml Sugar Syrup
15 Small mint leaves

Non-alcoholic Southside

50ml Water
25ml Fresh Lemon Juice
20ml Sugar Syrup
15 Small mint leaves

Variables I took into consideration:

- All ingredients were added to a metal shaker before being filled with 200g of ice
- All ingredients were measured and/or weighed
- Both were shaken in a Boston (metal-on-glass)
- Both drinks were shaken for 10 seconds simultaneously (left hand and right hand) before being fine-strained.
- The lemon juice was squeezed from the same fruit
- The sugar syrup came from the same bottle
- The ice came from the same bag and almost every cube was the same size

Here is a picture taken immediately afterward. The alcoholic Southside is on the left...

As you'll see the result was exactly the same, for whatever reason the alcoholic version is lighter in colour which I find fascinating. Some will likely think I'm crazy but it's an interesting consideration for anyone who creates cocktails as colour plays a huge part on an individual's perception of a drink. Having the knowledge to anticipate the colour when mixing alcohol with herbs would be useful to know whether it be for bitters, liqueurs or in a cocktail.

Anyway, I'm passing this over to the many scientists out there who may be able to give me a definitive explanation to what is making the colour difference between the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variants?!? And just what is happening in Joerg's metal-on-metal tins? I'm sure he'd appreciate an answer as well...

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Scotch Whisky Pronunciations / Phonetic Spellings

2011-07-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to anyone who has ever rocked up to a whisky bar in search of a dram and in fear of getting the pronunciation wrong opted to go for a shot of Grouse. Well, never again, now you can order your whisky in confidence...

I was recently asked to clarify some Scotch Whisky pronunciations on Twitter and it got me thinking about the vast number of distilleries in Scotland whose names can be a challenge even to those that reside in this beautiful country of ours.

Having trawled through the internet I was surprised to find no one resource that detailed phonetic spellings of each distillery/whisky. There were various sites that had the odd bit of info but nothing extensive covering each and every distillery so I decided to take it upon myself to put something together. I've listed the distilleries dependent on the specific region they're found; Speyside, Lowland, Island, Islay, Highland and Campbeltown.

Please note that the pronunciation of ch (phonetically written ck) in some of the words below is pronounced how we Scots say Loch. I have marked these with an *. There's a good example here although sound is required.

I compiled this to the best of my knowledge and in some cases contacted the distilleries direct or referred to pronunciations from renowned whisky experts in Youtube videos for clarification. Should anyone wish to correct a phonetic spelling or query anything please do so in the comments below. If there are any distilleries missing or one that you'd like to see added please let me know.

Speyside (Spay-side)

Aberlour
Ah-burl-ow-er

Allt a'Bhainne
Olt a-vain

anCnoc / formerly Knockdhu
ah-nock / Nock-doo

Aultmore
Olt-mower

Balmenach
Bal-may-nack*

BenRiach
Ben-ree-ack*

Benrinnes
Ben-rin-ess

Benromach
Ben-ro-mack*

Cardhu
Car-doo

Cragganmore
Crag-an-mower

Craigellachie
Craig-ell-ack-ee*

Dailuaine
Dall-yoo-an

Dalwhinnie
Dal-whinnay

Drumguish
Drum-oo-ish

Dufftown
Duff-t-ow-n

Glenallachie
Glen-alla-key*

Glenburgie
Glen-bur-gee

Glendronach
Glen-dro-nack*

Glendullan
Glen-dull-an

Glen Elgin
Glen Elg-in

Glenfarclas
Glen-fark-lass

Glenfiddich
Glen-fidd-ick*

Glenglassaugh
Glen-glass-ock*

Glen Grant
Glen Grr-ant

Glen Keith
Glen Key-th

The Glenlivet
Glen-liv-it

Glenlossie
Glen-loss-ay

Glen Moray
Glen Mor-ay

Glenrothes
Glen-roth-iss

Glen Spey
Glen Spay

Glentauchers
Glen-tock-hers*

Inchgower
Inch-g-ow-er

Kininvie
Kin-in-vee-oo

Knockando
Knock-an-doo

Linkwood
Link-wood

Longmorn
Long-morn

Macallan
Muck-al-un

Macduff
Mack-duff

Mannochmore
Man-ock-mower*

Miltonduff
Mill-ton-duff

Mortlach
Mort-lack*

Roseisle
Rose-eye-l

Speyburn
Spay-bur-n

Strathisla
Strath-eye-lah

Strathmill
Strath-mill

Tamdhu
Tam-doo

Tamnavulin
Tam-na-voo-lin

The Balvenie
The Balv-en-ee

Tomatin
Tow-mat-in

Tomintoul
Tom-in-towel

Tormore
Tor-mower

Lowland (Low-lund)

Annandale
Ann-an-dail

Auchentoshan
Ock-en-tosh-en*

Bladnoch
Blad-nock*

Glenkinchie
Glen-kinch-ee

Island (Eye-lund)

Abhainn Dearg
Aveen Jer-uck

Arran
Ar-ran

Highland Park
Hi-lund Park

Isle of Jura
Eye-l of Joo-rah

Scapa
Ska-pa

Talisker
Tal-iss-kur

Tobermory
Tow-bur-mower-ay

Islay (Eye-lah)

Ardbeg
Ard-beg

Bowmore
Bo-mower

Bruichladdich
Brook-laddie / Broo-ick-laddie*

Bunnahabhain
Buh-nah-hav-enn

Caol Ila
Cull-eela

Kilchoman
Kil-ho-man

Lagavulin
Lah-gah-vool-in

Laphroaig
Lah-froyg

Port Charlotte
Port Shar-lot

Port Ellen
Port Ell-en

Highland (Hi-lund)

Aberfeldy
Ah-bur-fell-dee

Ailsa Bay
Ale-sah Bay

Ardmore
Ard-mower

Auchroisk
Ar-thrusk

Balblair
Bal-blair

Ben Nevis
Ben Nev-iss

Blair Atholl
Blair Ath-ull

Clynelish
Kline-leash

Dalmore
Dal-mower

Deanston
Deen-stun

Edradour
Ed-rad-ow-er

Fettercairn
Fett-uhr-care-n

Glencadam
Glen-cad-am

Glen Garioch
Glen Gee-ree

Glengoyne
Glen-goyn

Glenmorangie
Glen-morrun-jee

Glen Ord
Glen Ord

Glenturret
Glen-turr-et

Kilkerran
Kill-ker-ran

Loch Lomond
Lock Low-mund*

Oban
Oa-bun

Old Pulteney
Old Pult-nay

Royal Brackla
Royal Brack-lah*

Royal Lochnagar
Royal Lock-nah-gar*

Teaninich
Teen-in-ick

The Speyside
The Spay-side

Tullibardine
Tully-bard-in

Campbeltown (Cam-bell-town)

Glen Scotia
Glen Skoh-sha

Springbank
Spring-bank

Since the initial posting I've had some requests to add a list of distilleries that are no longer producing whisky (for whatever reason) so I've added these below. Many thanks to Sandy Kennaway from Deeside Drinks for helping compile the list.

Mothballed Distilleries

Braes of Glenlivet
Brayz of Glen-liv-it

Convalmore
Kon-val-mower

Coleburn
Coal-bur-n

Glen Albyn
Glen Al-bin

Glen Mhor
Glen Mower

Glen Avon
Glen Ay-vahn

Glenlochy
Glen-lock-ay*

Glenugie
Glen-oo-gee

Glenury Royal
Glen-oo-ree Royal

Rosebank
Row-z-bank

St. Magdelene / Linlithgow
Saint Mag-dah-lin / Lin-lith-go

Brora
Bro-rah

Mosstowie
Moss-t-ow-ee

Millburn
Mill-bur-n

Killyloch
Kill-ay-lock*

Now that you have mastered Scotch Whisky pronunciations why not fix yourself a Toddy (the precursor to the cock-tail, just add bitters) as recommended by Professor Jerry Thomas in his 1862 Bartender's Guide;

134. Whiskey Toddy

1 teaspoonful of sugar.
1/2 wine-glass of water (1 ounce, 25ml)
1 do. of whiskey. (2 ounces, 50ml - Glen Garioch 1991 54.7%abv)
1 small lump of ice.
Stir with a spoon.

Sláinte! (Slaw-n-jeh!)

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Real Cocktail Cherries

2011-06-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

I've always been inspired by the second half of Jerry Thomas' 1862 book written by Prof. Christian Schultz. It rarely gets the coverage that Jerry's section does but it features hundreds of recipes that should be noted by bartenders.

As a working bartender myself I've always tried to perfect my own housemade products, from syrups to flavoured sugars, liqueurs to sodas, with a high degree of success. It takes a lot of hard-work and dedication to produce a product that's (at a minimum) the equal of what is commercially available but with the advent of social media and having a wealth of information at your fingertips there's no reason why you can't have a go.

Giving something back to the global bar community is a small way of saying thank-you to everyone who continues to support my products. With that in mind, alongside my bitters bottlings I've made a concerted effort to release recipes for products which I feel bars and bartenders should produce on their own. Falernum, Orgeat and these cherries are just three of the recipes in the public domain.

A pet-hate of mine is the use of those bright red, almost plastic, cherries that some bars still opt to garnish their cocktails with. When it comes to the quality of spirit, liqueur, bitters, wine, beer, juices and syrups, bars will rarely cut corners which makes it even more baffling that some still insist on garnishing their Manhattans or Old Fashioneds with these grotesque items. Angus Winchester is known for calling olives, "the devil's testicles," but I'd have to disagree, it is these that once resided in Lucifer's nut-sack.

With cherries now in season throughout Scotland I've started batching my own cocktail cherries that will keep throughout the remainder of the year through to next season.

Should you be interested in making your own the main consideration will be the type of cherry available as there are a great many varieties on the market (marasca, those used in the production of Maraschino liqueur, and griottine are two you're likely to have heard of). It's worth speaking with your fruit and veg wholesaler to ascertain if they stock sweet or sour cherries, in most cases they'll likely have both. Either/or can make for a great product, you'll just have to put a little more thought into sugar levels dependent on which you use.

The recipe provided below is based on the use of sweet cherry but this specification should really be referred to as a guide and adjusted for your own needs. The addition of other spices or citrus peels can offer more depth, and the spirit or liqueur you also choose to macerate your cherries in will have a huge impact. Those pictured have been soaking in the Kraken Black Spiced Rum and a touch of Berentzen Wild Kirsche.

Real Cocktail Cherries

120g Soft demerara sugar
120ml Water
1 Cinnamon stick
Pinch nutmeg
Half scored vanilla pod
450g Cherries [pitted]
240ml aged rum or brandy/cognac

Wash and pit cherries. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients except the cherries and spirit then bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a light simmer immediately, add cherries and simmer for no more than five minutes. Remove from heat, add spirit and cool immediately. Sieve cherries from liquid then filter through coffee filter paper. When all sediment has been extracted, combine again with cooled cherries then transfer to a clean glass jar and refrigerate.

-----

Tips

- Use fresh products in every possible instance.
- Crush/grind all spices using a pestle & mortar prior to maceration.
- Cool cherries/liquid in an ice bath.
- Before straining ensure you moisten the filter paper. I recommend moistening with the liquid you are about to filter.
- If recycling jars allow to soak in soapy water and then freshly boiled water to avoid contamination.
- Store in kilner jars in every possible instance.
- After cherries are finished you can use the liquid as a homemade cherry liqueur.
- With regards a shelf-life I've had cherries keep for months so long as they're kept in the liqueur.

You may also wish to check out the cherries available from Griottine and Luxardo. Should you have your own preferred brand or recipe please share in the comments below.

No excuse to not kick Lucifer's nuts into touch now is there?

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Shameful Indulgences - The Bartender Confessional

2011-06-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

Let me regale you with a short story. I was recently out for some food and drinks with my better half when we stopped off by one of our regular haunts for a nightcap. The bartender, who has served us numerous times, greeted us and enquired as to what was taking our fancy.

"Oh I really don't know what I want. Something yummy," said the better half, being her usual indecisive self.

"Well I'm going to have a pint of Guinness and a whisky, Talisker would be good," said I, with the confidence of a man who knew he'd be ready to order his second round by the time the better half got round to ordering her first.

Fully expecting the bartender to start preparing my order I was somewhat surprised when this was the reaction I was met with;

Now, I hadn't asked for anything out of the ordinary but the level of bemusement was such that you'd have thought I'd asked for a Midori & Milk.

"No cocktail?" he asked.

"Not just now, Guinness and a Talisker would be grand."

After this exchange I started to ponder what he'd have done had I asked for one of my Guilty Pleasures, a Snowball or a Pina Colada for example. Granted my typical order in this bar will likely be something brown & bitter or have been created before my parents set foot on this Earth but surely I don't always drink cocktails in this bar. Surely...

Then just the other night I tweeted that I was eating lemon curd on toast (amazing), watching the new Karate Kid film (horrendous) and drinking the beverage I'm about to confess to having an affinity for. To say there were some surprised reactions is an understatement. So I thought, "Fuck it," we all know I'm partial to a Martinez, Zabriskie, Old Fashioned, Last Word, Negroni, Corn & Oil, and so on but sometimes all I want is an ice cold beer or a blended Pina Colada, and I know I'm not alone.

I decided to rope in some friends from around the globe to confess their sins, and I encourage you to do so as well.

First-up in the confessional is my good self...

Adam Elmegirab - Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

"My shameful indulgence is the White Russian. I like vodka (so long as it's not with coke), I like coffee and I like milk, so putting all three in the same glass is surely going to work, isn't it? Now I know some of you are sitting there thinking, "I like bourbon, peanut butter and ice cream but I wouldn't put them in the same glass?!?" Well, I urge you to rethink that. Bourbon & Peanut-Butter Milshakes are a thing of beauty.

I've often heard it said a White Russian is a girly drink but as I'm adding 50ml vodka, 25ml coffee liqueur and 75ml full-fat milk to my glass, I'll take a look at my friend's pint of ice-cold 4%abv Tennent's Lager and I know that all is well in the World.

When I'm tending bar and someone asks for a White Russian I always double-take as it's a rare order nowadays compared to a few years back but, I'm not going to lie, it's a damn good drink. And to those that disagree you're welcome to pick-up a carton of full-fat milk and head round to my house to watch The Big Lebowski. I've got the vodka and Tia Maria waiting..."

Next we cross the pond to New York to get a confession from everyone's favourite Gary;

Gary Regan - Ardent Spirits

"I guess that you’d have to say that Jagermeister is my shameful indulgence. People give it a bad rap, but I’m kinda fond of it really. I love Fernet, too, but I always find myself leaning toward the Jager bottle when it’s time for a round of shooters. And when I’m in the U.K. or Ireland, attending some swank cocktail convention or other, if you can’t find me you should look for the nearest pub with real ale and/or well-kept Guinness. It’s a sure bet that I’ll be propping up the bar there."

It is only due to the wonder of technology that we managed to extract the next confession from a man who spends as much time in the air as he does on the ground;

Angus Winchester - The original International Playboy Bartender and Tanqueray Global Brand Ambassador

"As a grizzled old bartender I have many 'shameful' indulgences drink-wise but I'll always claim some clever or sentimental reason behind it.

Firstly I love a WooWoo, you have to remember that I started bartending in the year 2BC (Before Cranberry) and it was an exotic juice plus my first Bar Manager (ex-Coconut Grove in the UK) told me that the WooWoo was cool; 2 parts Stoli, 1 part Archers and 2 parts cranberry juice built with easy speedshake in a rocks glass with lime wedge, and you had to shout woo - woo as you gave it a two step speed shake (or one woo on the back swing and one on the forward swing).

The first ever cocktail I ever drank in a bar (aged 13, I have always been big and looked mature/old/raddled) was a Brandy Alexander. It still makes me smile and I still take great care over making one with two straws laid over the top of the drink and nutmeg or cinnamon dusted over them to form an X.

I grew up in a time when most bars still had Warnink’s Advocaat, and a Snowball (Advocaat, bitter lemon and lemonade) always takes me back.

I spent many years hanging out in Planet Hollywood in London (I had chums and a brother who worked there) and the Goldfinger (a 1800 Marg with Grand marnier, sour mix, and OJ) drunk with five straws so you literally inhaled the drink, was the drink of choice and it just doesn't taste the same if you try and make it 'properly'.

And Mind Erasers, Jack, Kahlua and soda layered in a rocks glass with crushed ice and drunk in one go with 2 straws was equally popular!

And finally I love Macallan and Diet coke, I picked it up in Taiwan about a decade ago when Macallan seemed to be the tipple of choice for the young there, especially young ladies, and so to fit in I tried it and have to say it’s a tasty beverage!"

I'd like to point out that the next man may be of few words in this piece but I can assure you that's not the case should you be lucky enough to spend some time at his bar. I also have to say that this is really a confession to express his undying love;

Mike Aikman - Co-owner Bramble and The Saint

"Undoubtedly Malibu, with coke or pineapple, or even in a Daiquiri, no matter what you make with it you get the impression you are on holiday."

A short journey down to London for the next confession. You may laugh at his guilty pleasure but I can assure you you wouldn't if he came striding into your bar and asked for one;

Nidal Ramini - Bacardi Brown Forman

"Without a shadow of a doubt my shameful indulgence is Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris. Nay, I'll go further, Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris from the Hawaiian Tropic Lounge in Times Sq, NYC. You know the type, sours mix made from powder, strawberries from a can and enough sugar to rush a Water Buffalo. Best drink in the world..."

Next we have a man from the land down under who you'll regularly find behind the pine at a pretty well-known bar in Belfast;

Hayden Scott Lambert - Merchant Hotel

"Every year as a young kiwi boy I flew to that criminal destination known as Melbourne, Australia, to spend some time with my mum. By the time I was sixteen I was fully experimenting with alcohol, mixing anything with beer to make it taste nice. Bottles of cheap Cava flowed over summer and then someone gave me Midori and lemonade! Wow, I couldn't get over how wonderfully refreshing it was, but then it was gone, never to be seen again at any of the wild parties we threw.

Having never seen the bottle it lived only in legend when I was discussing how cool I was or bigging myself up. My next encounter with the Japanese green melon liqueur would be in a bottle shop in sunny Brisbane; my rugby team were on a tour showing everyone just how shit we were. After our tour ended we were allowed a couple of free days, which meant we were pretty much unsupervised, this lead too much booze and much mischief, in the way of fake identification and bottle-o's. Straight into a bottle shop with my shitty fake ID in hand, I rocked on up to the counter and asked for a bottle of famed Midori. I was nervous, I had every right to be, I had trouble getting into an r16 movie in NZ let alone passing for 18.

The bloke behind the counter pointed me in the right direction with a smirk on his face. After a few minutes I realised I was lost and couldn't find the Midori! Starting to panic my face went red and his condescending tone didn't help, “It's the green bottle right in front.” At last, my precious Midori, its famous electric green colour a true representation of melon. That night we all drank Midori and lemonade.

Now when I walk into bars and spot it on a backbar I smile, before quickly ordering a cocktail with it because it tastes bloody great!"

Back over to Scotland now. Here's Paul standing outside Crif Dogs (NYC) likely waiting his turn to get into PDT. Can't imagine he's going there for a June Bug. Or is he? Come on, fess up;

Paul Connolly - Amicus Apple

"Justin Bieber. Oh wait, you mean drinks. I guess I’d have to admit the cocktail I enjoy making more than any other is a Cosmopolitan, for all people knock it, a non-Sex and the City, non-bastardised Cosmo is in my books a greatly balanced drink. As for an indulgence I myself enjoy, although it’s been a while, pints of Snakebite; Lager, Cider and Blackcurrant in a glass, seriously, what’s not to like?!"

Added 12th July 2011 - The gentleman featured in this update would like to apologise for not sending this to me sooner but as you will see he's been working on this piece for the last fortnight. Word of warning, before you get comfortable go fix yourself a June Bug;

Jacob Briars - Formerly known as the Vodka Professor and now known as the Leblon Global Brand Ambassador

"If by 'shameful indulgence' you mean drinks that would appall the current crop of serious and scholarly bartenders, then I would be guilty as charged to loving both flavoured vodka, and blue drinks, but I'm not particularly shamed about my enthusiasm for either of them. In fact, I'll happily slide into the nearest faux-speakeasy and debate with the nearest faux-Professor about their deserved place in serious mixology.

But if by shameful indulgence, you mean a drink I'd make myself at home rather than be seen dead ordering in a bar full of fellow booze-jockeys, then I must own up to a sneaky affection for Frangelico. When I first started bartending in Wellington, my workplace shut at 3 and after cleaning down the bar, the only place left to head for a drink was the local nightclub. One night British ambient-noodle-DJ Mixmaster Morris was in town, and he was roaring through the Frangelico, and bought me one too. Tasting it, I was completely enchanted by this exotic flavour, and having grown up on a farm with dozens of hazelnut trees, no doubt nostalgia played a part too. Though I remain dubious as to how many hazelnuts are actually in it! Shortly after it became my standard after-work drink, and by the standard of both after-work and club tipples, it's pretty embarrassing. I guess I liked it as much for its low proof as anything else, it was a nice halfway drink between work and home. Eventually I was exposed to the (utterly delicious) Frangelico Sour, and now I had two ways to embarrass myself in public. Adding a dash of bitters to the Frangelico Sour became my next trick - spot the budding mixologist!

I was never particularly worried about my public affection for the Italian liqueur with the made-up heritage in the ridiculous bottle. In fact I bet I fancied I looked like someone freshly back from a walk in the hills of Piedmont, rather than sitting in a club listening to house music in the wild of a Wellington winter. I'd even try and convince friends to have one before they shuttled off onto the dancefloor. Eventually some fool working on Frangelico's marketing campaign come up with the dreaded 'Signature Serve' - Frangelico with a squeeze of fresh lime, which was subsequently plastered across the pages of Cosmo magazine and the like, and it became the staple drink for hen nights, and Frangelico and I parted ways (at least, publicly...)

But at home I still love to enjoy Frangelico and the Frangelico Sour (two parts Frangelico, one part lime juice, one part lemon, dash of gomme, dash of bitters please), though the silly rope around the bottle still gets the OCD reflexes going. In fact, after I left one bar job, the day bartender who'd known my hatred for the 'monk's rope' would remove them before putting the Frangelico on the back bar, and as a parting gift, he presented me with a bottle. Wrapped around it were the (literally) dozens of ropes he'd be saving for the last 12 months. Respect for a well-planned gag!

And yes, if I'm out of Frangelico I will admit to also loving Disaronno Amaretto and a freshly squeezed wedge of lemon..."

And to prove that we don't discriminate on this blog we've managed to persuade a midget to tell us about his shameful indulgence which he is conveniently drinking in his picture;

Craig Toone - Glover's

"When you look beyond the Sex and the City image and the badly made ones (girly, pink, therefore gomme is added) the Cosmopolitan is a well made drink - nice balance of citrus notes with a vodka kick, and a great piece of theatre in the flamed zest. Plus its a great conversation starter with the ladies. The unassuming pink concoction in the cocktail glass makes you stand out and lowers the guard of any target demographic (most likely as they think you are effeminate) but a quick quip, "those of us who are secure in our masculinity have nothing to fear about pink," and you're away.

Now I'm not saying when I'm out and about the first thing I go for is a Cosmo, I need to be well oiled (a few Daiquiri's will do that trick), but I'm usually in the company of a fellow bartender who has a sideline in professional MMA tournaments who'll order up the first round. Worryingly for the kind of guy that could teach Jason Bourne a thing or two he starts throwing shapes in the form of ballet moves after one too many! Time to introduce him to the Cosmo perhaps?"

So there we have it, some of the great & good of the bartending World confessing all. Next time you see us at the bar don't be afraid to buy us something outwith the bartender code of conduct, we'll likely buy you one back.

And just so you're aware the better half ended up ordering a Trader Vic Mai Tai with a Baileys on the side. Even she has her shameful indulgences...

*THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED REGULARLY SO SHOULD YOU WISH TO JOIN THE BARTENDER CONFESSIONAL DROP ME AN EMAIL*

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Bottle and Barrel Aged Cocktails. A new phenomenon or reinventing the wheel?

2011-05-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

Few can be oblivious to the trend of aged cocktails currently sweeping across the World. Through my work on the Jerry Thomas Project I've often asked myself if this was a truly modern creation due to the fact that the Professor's book featured recipes for bottled cocktails. Was I right to think this or was I merely applying a romantic notion to this newly discovered technique?

This current craze was kick-started by Tony Conigliaro at 69 Colebrooke Row in London. Tony is known for taking ideas and inspiration from all around and his bottle-ageing came into play after he tried a vintage bottling of Dubonnet which he found to be more beautifully complex than modern bottlings.

With this in mind Tony started experimenting with various bottle-aged cocktails, none of which had any lasting impression on him when he tried them after six months. It wasn't until nigh on a year later that he stumbled across these bottlings again and found the Manhattan he'd aged to be a beast worth sharing with his guests. The bottle aged cocktail was (re)born...

After a visit to Colebrooke Row and discovering Tony's bottle-aged cocktails, Jeffrey Morgenthaler (pictured) pondered the question; "what if you could prepare a large batch of a single, spirit-driven cocktail and age it in a used oak barrel?". Sourcing used barrels from the Tuthilltown distillery Jeff decided to start barrel-ageing cocktails at Clyde Common in Portland. Thus the barrel-aged cocktail was (re)born...

Jeff has kindly taken the time to write about his barrel-aged cocktails on his blog which saves me having to write about it but means you have to pop on over there then pop back.

I'm always fascinated at the boundaries being broken down by the many creative geniuses, such as Tony and Jeff, that we have in the bar industry. At the same time, as a self confessed cynic, I'm always asking myself, "Are we reinventing the wheel?"

Numerous techniques are discovered and then found to have been rediscovered. A recent example would be the fat-washing trend of recent times often attributed to Eben Freeman. Now there's no doubting Eben's outstanding work however the idea of adding the flavour and mouth-feel of fats to liquid is something which goes back to the 17th century as found in Milk Punch recipes.

Taking all this into consideration, and the fact that bottled cocktails go as far back as the 1800s I considered if anyone was bottle-ageing and/or barrel-ageing cocktails at that time.

Applying logic I assumed that there would have been however I hadn't found any evidence of intentional ageing of this type. That was until I stumbled across a picture posted on Facebook by Trader Magnus dating back to 1910...

This picture was an advert for Club Cocktails, a brand of aged cocktails produced by G.F Heublein & Bro. of New York. The text in the picture reads as follows;

"CLUB COCKTAILS for your friends this Christmas.
Soft as the shadows of firelight, fragrant as the birch log on the hearth - a golden drink in keeping with the fine jof of Christmas time.
CLUB COCKTAILS are mixed to measure - by experts - of selected liquors. Then they are aged in wood."

Some of you may recognise the Heublein company name. It is at this point that it is worth noting that John Martin was President of the aforementioned business, that be the same John Martin of Smirnoff and Moscow Mule fame...

Upon discovering this advert I did a little searching and came across this next advert from the same company originating from 1912;

The text reads as follows;

"No matter how good a cocktail you make you will notice a smoothness and mellowness in the Club Cocktail that your own lacks. Club Cocktails after accurate blending of choice liquors obtain their delicious flavor and delicate aroma by ageing in wood before bottling. A new cocktail can never have the flavor of an aged cocktail."

To me these finds were astonishing as it showed that barrel-ageing of cocktails had been going on for over a century. Now my interest was piqued in finding evidence of intentional bottle-ageing, in this case I was looking for something which pointed to the liquid mellowing in the bottle due to the oxidation of compounds in the various ingredients. I didn't have to search far to find an advert from the same company originating from 1940;

The text reads as follows;

"Unlike most harried hosts and amateur mixers, The Club Barman never misses. Every HEUBLEIN CLUB COCKTAIL is exactly right. The finest ingredients are accurately measured and blended - then inter-mellowed by long union in the bottle. It's perfection that mere bank presidents and captains of industry can't hope to match."

These recent discoveries do nothing to detract from the work of Tony and Jeff who are directly responsible for these trends sweeping the globe, if anything they should be applauded for continually pushing the boundaries of innovation in their quest to create truly wonderful libations. If you must it's a simple case of great minds thinking alike...

On that note I'll leave you with a recipe for a bottle-aged cocktail I'm currently ageing myself. The original recipe for this drink was sent to me by the guys at The Oak Room in Copenhagen which I've adapted for ageing purposes and to fit in a 750ml bottle which I'll rest for the next year and open on 1st June 2012 to celebrate the undoubted time I'll now spend researching the Heublein company;

The Kennedy Manhattan

500ml El Dorado 15
200ml Dolin Blanc
40 Dashes Boker's Bitters
10 Barspoons maple syrup

Method: Add all ingredients to jug and stir until maple syrup has dissolved and all ingredients are combined. Funnel into a clean glass bottle then cork down and store in a cool, dry place for one year. When ready to open add 75ml liquid to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and stir for 15-20 seconds
Glass: Vintage cocktail
Gasnish: Home-made cocktail cherry
Ice: N/A

Recommended reading on aged cocktails;

Barrel Aged Cocktails by Darcy O'Neil

Barrel Aged Cocktails by Jeffrey Morgenthaler

Bottle and Cask Ageing of Cocktails - A Future Concept? by Camper English

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

What is spiced rum? It's Kraken me up...

2011-05-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

As I imagine you'll have guessed by now this posting is about Kraken Black Spiced Rum and the question it's left me asking myself since I sampled this bottling for the first time, "What is spiced rum?"

For those that didn't guess this straight away I'm not really sure what to say to you, so here's a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on its head;

I'll admit, spiced rum is a category of spirit that I've never really given much time to for a number of reasons, namely that I've never really understood the point, that the category was geared to sweeter products and that I much prefer an aged rum in my glass.

My first experience of it, as I'm sure with most, was with Morgan's Spiced. A few years back I remember talking about spiced rum at a tasting in London and being surprised at how little was sold in England compared to Scotland, and Aberdeen in particular. There were claims bandied around that upwards of 75% of all Morgan's Spiced was sold up this way although I've never had this verified.

For whatever reason "Spicy and coke..." is a cry often heard in bar-rooms across Scotland referring to a Morgan's Spiced & Coca-Cola. Not the most complex of orders, granted, but the simplicity of it has been called into question in recent times with a deluge of spiced rums hitting the market. No longer is spiced rum solely a sickly-sweet product, complexity and craftsmanship is now the order of the day. Ignoring the spiced category is no longer an option...

Lamb's, Chairman's Reserve, Foursquare, Papagayo, Green Island and my own personal favourite Element's 8, are just a few of the brands that have given birth to a true spirits category. Too much derision even the most successful brand of recent years, Sailor Jerry, have re-introduced their original recipe which focused more on its rum base and less on the sweet flavour associated with the recipe they had a great deal of success with.

Unlike scotch or bourbon (and as far as I'm aware) there is no legal definition or regulations in place for this category so a simple way to define them would be to say that they gain their flavour through the addition of spices. This brings me nicely onto the bottling I'm writing about this evening...

Kraken Black Spiced Rum was something that first came to my attention over a year ago after hearing and reading about it through American friends. Officially hitting the shores of the UK in November 2010 through Marblehead UK, it's created quite a buzz through its promotional activity and also due to it being somewhat different to your typical spiced rum. I don't really want to focus on the marketing but I will point you in the direction of the Kraken website.

The first thing that strikes you is the bottle the liquid is housed in. To me it's the sort of bottle that could have been found on old naval expeditions, with stunning curves and two fingerholes at the neck of the bottle. Were it ceramic it would be almost identical to the type of bottles regularly discovered by archaelogists. It's a multi-purpose bottle that will soon become a candle-holder in a bar near you...

For reasons unknown not much has been given away when it comes to the production of the Kraken so I'll give you, word for word, what is presented in the handbook I was sent along with the bottle;

The rum is distilled in pot stills (see image above) on the Virgin Islands and fermented from naturally sweet molasses made from sugar cane grown on nearby riverbanks. Natural yeasts are used to ferment the water thinned molasses, which is converted directly into alcohol. The rum is distilled to 97.5% alcohol. Kraken rum is then aged in oak barrels for between 12 and 24 months before being blended with a range of spices (I believe 14) including cinnamon, ginger and clove.

As said the production process is relatively secretive but the basics are offered which means it's best just to get on tasting the damned stuff. The following are my own tasting notes;

Colour: Black, like molasses. Or squid-ink, if you must
Nose: Milk chocolate and coffee with a slight alcohol burn.
Palate: Chocolate sweetness and vanilla mingle with spices commonly associated with rum; clove, cinnamon, ginger and galangal.
Finish: Slightly warming with a big punch of vanilla, a touch of coffee and a hint of pepper.
Thoughts: Unlike any of the other spiced rums on the market with an apparent focus on chocolate, coffee and vanilla as opposed to the typical Christmas spice notes you find. Another interesting aspect is that it's versatile enough to be drank neat, on the rocks, with a variety of mixers such as coke, ginger beer or apple juice, as well as in a variety of cocktails.

This brings me to my only real gripe with the Kraken and what left me asking myself the question in the title of this thread. There is an apparent trend in the drinks industry for products to be released into categories they simply don't belong to, gin and bitters being the two suffering more than most. Put simply there are a lot of brands jumping on the bandwagon, they see the success and interest of a specific category and then attempt to bracket their product into it as well.

With all this in mind I really don't know if the Kraken is a spiced rum. Yes it has a predominant vanilla note throughout with hints of spice prevalent but these are flavour notes typically associated with rum. The problem here may not actually be with the Kraken but with me and my own misunderstanding of this category? Maybe it's me who needs to re-evaluate what I perceive to be spiced rum given that there are no laws or regulations in place.

The Kraken is a great product in its own right with a variety of uses. This evening I've already made a brilliant Corn & Oil variant with sugar syrup and some Falernum Bitters I compounded, an outstanding Palmetto (a Rum Manhattan for those who prefer to call it such), and as a fan of Rum & Raisin ice-cream I am sure I'll be making a batch with the Kraken.

I really would like to hear your thoughts with regards the spiced rum category, is it me who needs to appreciate the diversity or am I asking a valid question? For now I'm off to ponder some more whilst fixing myself a wee nightcap, in this case a tipple created by Rikki Brodrick of London's Trailer Happiness.

A Kraken Cake

50ml Kraken Black Spiced Rum
2.5ml Cherry Heering
5ml Grand Marnier
3 Dashes Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bokers Bitters

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and stir for 15-20 seconds
Glass: Chilled cocktail
Garnish: Lime zest
Ice: N/A

Kraken Black Spiced Rum
40%abv
www.krakenrum.com
70cl available for £19-23
Distributor

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

A Bitter Sweet Symphony by Adam Elmegirab

2011-03-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

This article was originally written by Adam Elmegirab for MUDL in South Africa;

“Sir, I observe in your paper of the 6th instant, in the account of a democratic candidate for a seat in the legislature, marked under the head of Loss, 25 do. Cock-tail. Will you be so obliging as to inform me what is meant by this species of refreshment? Though a stranger to you, I believe, from your general character, you will not suppose this request to be impertinent.”

“I shall not hesitate to gratify the curiosity of my inquisitive correspondent: Cock-tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said also, to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.”

First printed on Tuesday 13th May 1806 in New York’s Balance & Columbian Repository this exchange details the definition of the Cock-tail. Whilst there is no definitive literature that explains the origins of the term, this repartee clarifies exactly what was to be expected of a beverage of its type.

Nowadays it is typically the norm to classify all mixed drinks with three or more ingredients as a Cock-tail; however the Cock-tail was classically a morning drink, hair of the dog, a pick-me-up or an eye-opener if you must. At a time when drinks families had clear definitions the one detail that separated the Cock-tail from other families was the crucial inclusion of bitters.

So what are bitters I hear you ask? Put simply, they are a compound of herbs, roots, barks, spices and spirit which were originally used as a medicine. The final product should have layers and layers of flavour with a pronounced bitter, or bittersweet, flavour.

It is worth noting that there are two common types of bitter, potable and non-potable, and it is advisable to understand the differences. Potable bitters, the likes of Campari, Underberg, Fernet Branca (pictured) and Jägermeister which can be consumed on their own, typically act as digestifs. Non-potable bitters such as Angostura Aromatic, Peychaud’s Aromatic, Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Boker's, Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Dandelion & Burdock or Regan’s Orange #6 are not intended to be imbibed on their own, but instead are typically dashed into drinks or food to act as a flavouring agent and binder. Our interest for the moment is in this non-potable variety.

Historically bitters were lauded for their ability to cure a vast number of ailments with many bitters producers making absurd claims that their product could cure a variety of illnesses. With that said, what is undeniable is their ability to aid digestion. When bitter flavours come into contact with the human tongue it stimulates a sequence of events that culminates in the flow of digestive juices to the stomach, liver, duodenum and pancreas. Many doctors believe it is the lack of bitter flavours in the diet of some United States citizens that is a contributory factor to digestive related health issues prevalent in the US. When you compare these digestive problems to the lack of such in Germany and Italy who are regular imbibers of bitter drinks such as Underberg and Campari it appears that they may indeed have a valid point.

Although bitters were traditionally consumed for their medicinal properties they later found their way into food and primarily drink as a flavouring agent and digestive stimulant, first being consumed with gin in 1700s London (Gin & Bitters) and then in the Cock-tail as described above. Due to the many layers of flavour they contain bitters assist in the integration of flavours found within cock-tails, bridging gaps between the various components and adding layers of complexity, depth and character. Think of food without seasoning and you are on the way to understanding why bitters play an essential role in many mixed drinks. Some refer to bitters as the salt & pepper of cocktails, and although I don’t feel that entirely does them justice I fully understand where they are coming from with the analogy.

Bitters were a mainstay of mixology throughout the 1700s and early 1800s in spirituous drinks such as the Cock-tail. At their peak during the 17-1800s there were literally hundreds of bitters on the market such as Hostetter’s, Stoughton, Caroni, Boker's, Peychaud's, Egon Braun, Pepsin and Schroeder, et al. In the mid-1800s, sometime after 1840 and likely the early 1850s, the Cock-tail as it was known would experience something of an Evo-lution [shameless plug]. Joseph Santini, the recently appointed manager of the New Orleans City Exchange, took the classic Cock-tail and added lemon juice, ice in place of water, Curacao and a sugar-crusted rim, thus giving birth to the Crusta. The Cock-tail would never be the same again.

In the late 1800s, with vermouth and maraschino added to a bartender’s armoury, the likes of the Martinez, Improved Cocktail, Martini and Manhattan were born. Perhaps the greatest example of the Cock-tail’s development was witnessed in 1887 when the Morning Glory Cocktail first went to print in Jerry Thomas’ rewritten bartender’s guide. The name alone spells out this drink’s intentions to act as a corpse reviver of sorts. Take the classic Cock-tail of spirit, sugar, water and bitters, in this case brandy, whiskey, gum syrup, ice and Boker’s. Add to that some dashes of Curacao and Absinthe, two more favourites of bartenders in the late 1800s, a twist of lemon peel and stir with ice. Strain into a small highball to remove the ice, top with soda water and finish with a teaspoon of powdered sugar which will add some froth and fizz to the drink. And there you have a hangover cure as prescribed by Professor Jerry Thomas.

These relatively simple changes to the Cock-tail gave us some of the greatest drinks ever created, with bitters at the heart of all these libations. Sadly, this was arguably the pinnacle of bitters’ influence on mixology as it was about to enter a period which would signal the death-knell for many US-based bitters companies.

As we moved into the early 1900s the palates of bar patrons were ever-evolving with an increasing demand for lighter drinks that were predominantly citrus led. Bitters were not the only product to suffer during this time, with English Old Tom gin and Dutch Genever losing favour to London Dry gin, and dark, funky rums falling behind light rums. Couple this with the passing of the Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906, which stipulated that patent medicines (the distinct classification that many bitters fell under due to their questionable medicinal properties) could no longer be sold with misleading labels or as a product which had no substance to their alleged claims, and the writing was on the wall: even more so when you consider what was about to happen in the succeeding years.

Those companies that were fortunate to survive these troubled times were dealt the final nail in their coffin with the passing of the Volstead Act in 1919, which we now commonly refer to as Prohibition. This act prohibited the sale, manufacture, transportation, import and export of alcohol and alcoholic beverages and was in effect in the United States of America between 1920 and 1933. The lasting effects of Prohibition, the details of which are too lengthy to go into just now, were to be felt for decades, not just in the US but across the World with Cock-tail culture falling by the wayside until recent years.

Thankfully two bitters producers survived this traumatic period, Peychaud’s Aromatic from New Orleans and undoubtedly the most famous bitters of them all, Angostura Aromatic, originally of Venezuela but nowadays based in Trinidad. It is the survival of these bottlings that has ensured the importance of Cock-tail bitters has never been forgotten, leading to the bitters renaissance we are currently experiencing.

Across the globe bars and bartenders are experiencing something akin to a second coming of the Cock-tail, with many revisiting and rediscovering the lost arts of the 17-1800s, combining them with new-found methodologies, techniques and a deeper understanding of the history of the Cock-tail. Whereas before we would pick up vintage cocktail books and only dream of Tom Bullock’s Celery Sour with Celery Bitters, or Jerry Thomas’ Japanese Cocktail with Boker’s Bitters, or a Martini with Orange Bitters, we can now reproduce these classics and sample a little bit of history for ourselves.

Luke Redington of Eau de Vie in Sydney constructs his Bloomsbury Bitter utilising Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Dandelion & Burdock Bitters

During the first Golden Age of the Cock-tail in the 1800s, bartenders had access to a variety of bitters with which they created a number of timeless libations such as the Martinez, Crusta, Manhattan, Sazerac, and Japanese Cocktail, to name but a few. The good work of a certain Dr. Adam Elmegirab and companies such as The Bitter Truth, Regan’s, Scrappy’s, and Bittermen’s, who have all reformulated bitters that were lost to the sands of time or have themselves created new bottlings, has meant the baton has now been passed from our forefathers to the bartenders of today so they can create their own classics in this new Golden Age of Cock-tails…

Recommended reading on bitters;

The Mysterious Magic of Bitters by Dan Priseman (Bitters & Twisted)

The Bitter Truth by Neil Ridley (Imbibe UK)

Bittersweet Symphony by Paul Clarke (Imbibe US)

Bitters by Jaq Bayles (Drinks International - page 35)

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters - The story...

2011-02-23T10:51:00.001-08:00

In early 2009 I began a project to recreate every drink from Jerry Thomas' 1862 bartender’s guide ‘How to Mix Drinks or the Bon Vivant’s Companion’. Cleverly titled ‘The Jerry Thomas Project’, this blog was set-up to document my findings. The initial intention was to recreate the drinks as close as humanly possible to how they would have been constructed in the 1800s and to compare them to how we would make them today.

The bitters that were continually name-checked in the Professor’s book were Boker’s, a brand created in 1828 by Johann Gottlieb Boker. These were a key ingredient in drinks such as the Japanese Cocktail, Crusta, Martinez and Improved Holland Gin Cocktail. As we all know they’ve been defunct for many a year, with no record of them being produced after Prohibition, so they’ve long gone into the annals of history. After receiving a sample batch in February of 2009 I set about to perfect my own...

Carrying out the most extensive research into the history of Boker's Bitters, which is now being reworked into a readable format and will be released for the wider bartending community, I used my findings and the various formulas from the 1800s that I uncovered as my guide. This research culminated with me being in direct contact with direct descendants of the families who set-up and ran the Boker’s company before it sadly closed due to the ravages of Prohibition. After months of sampling and a lot of frustration I finally got the product I wanted.

After posting a picture of the five bottles I had online, I began to receive dozens of emails a day requesting to purchase a bottle. Initially I was reluctant to do so but after much contemplation I set about compounding a batch of 150 bottles which sold within three days. Realising a gap in the market for reformulated products and also a demand for new bitters, I released my bottling to the wider bartending community with unheralded success under the guise of Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters, a tongue-in-cheek stab at the medicinal qualities bitters were originally alluded to possess.

Following the global acclaim of Boker’s, with them being in demand by bars, bartenders and enthusiasts alike, I started work on another bitters idea that I’d always wanted to perfect, Dandelion & Burdock Bitters. Based on the traditional English beverage that dates back to the 1300s and a particular favourite of mine during my childhood years, these have also received worldwide global success since their release in January 2010 and recently received 5 out of 5 in CLASS magazine.

Since then I have released a further bottling (1131 bottles), Limited Edition Spanish Bitters. Again these were based on a vintage bottling available in the 1800s but have been reformulated to work with modern spirits and libations.

Having always had a keen interest and passion in bitters I have been collecting over the last two years a number of vintage bottlings as well as researching the history of what is a regularly misunderstood and misinterpreted product. I'm committed to increasing the understanding and knowledge of bitters as well as dispelling some of the myths and accepted practices when it comes to bitters. Too often bitters have a single flavour note, are sweet and are in no way bitter at all, which completely misses the point of what bitters are supposed to be.

I have a passion to recreate defunct bitters, to create new bottlings, and as an aside I have been perfecting recipes for other products such as Falernum, Orgeat and Real Cocktail Cherries which I then release to the bar community to give something back to those who have supported my business.

With a deeper understanding of the bitters category and of their impact on drinks culture over the last few centuries, I am now doing my utmost to share my new found knowledge with the wider bartending community. I invite you to join me on this journey...

The range of bitters currently available from Evo-lution under the branding Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters;

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Boker's Bitters Webpage

Rated 4 / 5 in CLASS Magazine

Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s Bitters are a recreation of the classic bottling from 1800. Founded by John G. Boker in 1828, Boker's Bitters gained popularity in New York and around the World as the finest bitters of the Golden Age of mixed drinks.

Handcrafted, hand-bottled and hand-labelled, Boker’s Bitters are once again becoming a staple for bars across the World and are once again being used by bartenders to recreate original libations such as the Japanese Cocktail, Martinez, Manhattan, Crusta and Improved Cocktail as well as inspiring a new generation of classic beverages.

Tasting notes: Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s Bitters have an abundance of aromatic flavour and intense bitterness with eucalyptus-pine, cardamom, coffee and orange with an intensely long finish with hints of coffee and chocolate.

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Dandelion & Burdock Bitters Webpage

Rated 5 / 5 in CLASS Magazine

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Dandelion & Burdock Bitters are a new creation that is entirely British and entirely unique. Based on traditional Dandelion & Burdock; a medicinal beverage believed to have been created by St. Thomas Aquinas sometime in the 1300s, this helped inspire him to create a bitters using their flavour profile so they can be used within many modern cocktails and classic drinks. These bitters are now in demand across the globe.

Handcrafted, hand-bottled and hand-labelled, Dandelion & Burdock Bitters are a great addition to any bitters collection to add depth to a Gin & Tonic or in classics such as the Martini, Martinez or Dr. Adam’s Usuki Old Fashioned.

Tasting Notes: Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Dandelion & Burdock Bitters have layers of complex flavour including ginger, anise, lemon, orange, liquorice, clove, honey, muscavado and malt; which combines to give an earthy, bittersweet product backed up by natural sweetness.

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Limited Edition Spanish Bitters Webpage

Rated 4 / 5 in CLASS Magazine

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters evoke memories of a style of bitters dating back to the early years of the cock-tail. Based on Spanish Bitters recipes from the 1800s, these bitters have been reformulated to work in harmony with modern spirits and libations and are now in demand across the globe.

Handcrafted, hand-bottled and hand-labelled, Spanish Bitters are a great addition to any bitters collection adding depth to simple beverages such as Tequila & Tonic, a point of difference in a wide range of classic cocktails, or in original libations such as Dr. Adam's Union Flip.

Tasting Notes: Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters have layers of complex flavour including coriander, violet, raspberry, honey, citrus, pomegranate, toasted orange and predominant chamomile all leading to a long bittersweet finish.

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Aphrodite Bitters Webpage

Rated 4.5 / 5 in CLASS Magazine

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Aphrodite Bitters take their name from the Greek goddess of sexuality and love. Aphrodisiacs are substances that are alleged to increase sexual desire and like many traditional bitters the botanicals selected for this bottling have been chosen for their alleged medicinal qualities, in this case as an aphrodisiac. The finest chocolate, cocoa nibs, ginger root, red chilli, Arabica coffee and ginseng are compounded to create a complex flavour profile with each botanical playing off and enhancing one another.

Handcrafted, hand-bottled and hand-labelled Aphrodite Bitters are a great addition to any bitters collection adding depth to simple beverages such as the Moscow Mule, a point of difference in a wide range of classic cocktails, or in original libations such as Dr. Adam's Merchant Quarter.

Tasting Notes: Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Aphrodite Bitters have a creamy texture capturing fresh roasted espresso, bitter dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts, rum & raisin truffles, vanilla and a soft spicy kick throughout leading to a long wood-spiced bitter finish with a soft kick of chilli.

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For purchasing information please contact me directly at adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org, visit my weblink for a list of current distributors or check Dr. Adam Elmegirab's... on Facebook for known retailers based all around the globe.

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

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Links of interest;

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters Product Portfolio
Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Botanical Info

Opportunity knocks

2011-01-27T09:41:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of a break-away from my usual musings but feel that it's such a great opportunity that it'd only be a good thing to share with as wide an audience as possible...

Bartenders have always found it hard to get their break in the drinks industry, sometimes it comes down to pure talent, luck, potential, ambition, accident or a combination of all these. With an increase in the number of people now actively pursuing a career as a bartender the most sought after positions are becoming harder and harder to land.

I've recently been made aware of three outstanding venues that are currently recruiting bartenders and waitstaff; two venues that are now easily regarded as bartending meccas and one as yet unopened venue that I have no doubt will join that list in the very near future. Personally speaking if it wasn't for my other commitments I would drop everything for the chance to tend bar with these guys and will be letting them know that when I'm down London way I'll be more than happy to work the odd shift for them should they want to let me loose behind their bar.

PLEASE NOTE - Before I go any further I have to let you know that I do not have any details regarding hours, salary and any other info you may be after and would direct you to the email addresses provided should you have any questions. Failing that ask them in the comment section and I will alert the guys at the venues to any queries.

Colebrooke & ZTH

Currently boasting a bar-team with the likes of Stuart Bale, Ryan Chetiyawardana, Marcis Dzelzainis and of course, Tony Conigliaro, 69 Colebrooke Row and their new venture Zetter Townhouse Bar (where you may see some new products from Dr. Adam Elmegirab) are now recruiting waitstaff and bartenders for both venues. Those interested, and there's no reason why you shouldn't be, should contact Marcis Dzelzainis at drinks@69colebrookerow.com quoting 'Job Opening' in the subject line.

For more info on 69 Colebrooke Row and their bar program please check out the following link.

69 Colebrooke Row
Islington
London N1 8AA
United Kingdom
07540 528 593

Purl

Brought to you by Tristan Stephenson and Thomas Aske, Purl are now recruiting bartenders and waitstaff. Anyone interested in these positions should forward their updated CV's to info@purl-London.com, again quoting 'Job Opening' in the subject line.

For more information on Purl and their bar program please check out the following link

Purl
50/54 Blandford Street
Marylebone
London W1U 7HX
United Kingdom
020 7935 0835

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Best of luck to anyone that applies and I hope to see you behind these bars in the very near future!

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

World Class 3? More like World War 3...

2011-01-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

Those in the bartending community may have recently read or heard of a situation in Russia regarding Diageo's World Class bartending competition. For those that haven't here's a little bit of background into what happened;

As the competition was taking place in Russia for the first time, Diageo's local office in Moscow decided which bars, and essentially bartenders, were allowed to compete based on their usage of the Diageo Reserve Brand portfolio which the competition is built around. The decision was also taken that only bars from Moscow would compete excluding all other Russian cities.

As you would expect this created some grievance with a number of Russian bartenders who felt they were being excluded from the competition. In this case Roman Milostivy from Bamboo Bar, well-known globally for his bartending expertise and success in competitions such as Bols Around the World, posted on his Facebook page about his annoyance that he could not take part.

The power of social media was then shown as bartenders across the globe rallied to back Roman with some threatening and apparently pushing ahead with removing all Diageo products from their bars.

Before I go any further I would like to point out that I am in no way affiliated to, or making this post on behalf of, those at the heart of this matter, namely Diageo's World Class team and the many Russian bartenders aggrieved at their exclusion from the competition. This is solely based on me looking at the facts and becoming a tad baffled by the reaction of a vast number of bartenders across the globe given that I have been putting together ideas for a bitters competition of my own (which I will touch on later).

From what I have seen and read the whole situation has spiralled into something that it should never have become with people jumping in to say their bit when they hadn't taken on board the full facts of exactly what was going on and/or disregarding the inner workings of drinks competitions.

Roman was, and is, fully entitled to ask the question of why he couldn't take part in this year's Russian leg of the World Class comp, whilst at the same time Diageo have a right to reply. With an obvious misunderstanding of what was actually happening, call it chinese whispers if you will, we have ended up with bartenders across the globe threatening to boycott products for no real reason whatsoever. Anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook will have no doubt read my opinion on this current phenomena of mock outrage, the humour of which is found in the picture below...

The collective unity of the global bartending community is unlike anything I have witnessed in other professions and I for one am delighted and honoured to be a part of it. My career has been built on the network I have built and without it I wouldn't have achieved anything, however there's a distinct difference between showing support to a fellow bartender and making rash decisions/assumptions based on hearsay.

Regardless of what anyone tells you ALL bartending competitions are about raising awareness and knowledge of products first and foremost, everything else is secondary. In this case, from my own experiences of the competition and also speaking with people behind the comp and bartenders that regularly compete and have achieved a great level of success in it, Diageo are also doing their utmost to give bartenders a platform in which they can showcase their talents and to elevate our standing in the public eye. The promotion of one leads to success of the other, and vice versa.

However, what mustn't be forgotten is that Diageo is a business who will run things in a way which benefits them. The growth of the competition in the few years it has been on the go tells me that they will roll this comp out across as many territories as possible and to as many bartenders as possible, logistically this isn't a straight-forward process and there are hurdles which need to be jumped first and hitches that will need to be overcome.

Success will in turn give room for expansion and the World Class comp is one that fits perfectly here. With regards to the Russian leg of this global competition bartenders need to let them get their feet under the table and then take it wider next year. This is the same for any bartender that feels they have been excluded in their country. At the same time it must also be remembered that no one person has an entitlement or divine right to enter/compete in any comp.

Diageo are big enough to fight their own battles and don't need me to offer my tuppence worth but as mentioned before my interest in this stems from my desire to hold a bitters competition later this year. If a company such as Diageo can't get it right in the eyes of bartenders then what hope is there for a much smaller company like mine?

If the inaugural World Class competition in Russia is limited solely to Moscow and select bars who stock the Reserve Brands portfolio so be it. This is no different to any other drinks competition that I have seen with heats usually selected in prominent cities and certain bartenders invited to take part at various stages dependent on their profile/etc. I know because it's happened to me...

For the last few years through my work for Evo-lution and Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters I've been doing my utmost to get my home city of Aberdeen on the professional bartending map alongside the likes of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I can safely say that I have succeeded in doing so with competition heats now regularly held up here whereas before we were continously overlooked. Part of the reason for Aberdeen being ignored wasn't solely down to the ignorance of brands but also due to bartenders who had no desire to progress in the trade. Thankfully there has been a change in mind-set recently and we are no longer being ignored.

This change also transmits to trainings, tastings and the like. Whereas before I had to hop on a train to Edinburgh or Glasgow, even further sometimes, it is now with increasing regularity that I will receive a phonecall from a brand/ambassador/etc. who will ask me to help set up a tasting or training in Aberdeen. Those who have already held sessions reads like a who's who of the bartending world (Jamie Stephenson, Craig Harper, Steffin Oghene, Daryl Haldane, Ian McLaren and Jamie Mac to name but a few) and the list of people who have expressed a desire to hold one in the near future is also staggering.

It is no surprise that an increased number of sessions has seen an increase in the passion, commitment and level of quality in Aberdeen. As mentioned before, the promotion of one leads to success of the other.

It is people like Roman who make a difference and will ensure that every Russian bartender benefits next year. Hopefully by raising the issue with Diageo next year's World Class Russia will include an increased number of bartenders from cities across the country. What doesn't sit right with me is people, who really should know better, jumping on the bandwagon to have a go about something that they didn't know the full facts of.

From the outside looking in, these same people are undermining the hard work being carried out by the vast number of people involved in the competition (too many for me to mention here). As I type, last year's winner Erik Lorincz is holding training sessions and seminars for hundreds of bartenders in Korea, just a small part of the good that is coming from this comp.

Those in the hospitality trade will be more than aware that when you do something good it's rarely applauded but if you mess up there's no hesitation in people wishing to complain. I'm not suggesting that Diageo are faultless and that they couldn't have done things better but those who have been quick to deride them should also be the first to applaud them for some of the great things to have come from World Class.

If in a year's time we have a similar situation you're all more than welcome to grab your pitchforks but until then let's all relax with a Japanese Cocktail courtesy of the great Professor Jerry Thomas;

1 table-spoonful of orgeat syrup
½ teaspoonful of Boker’s Bitters
1 wine-glass of brandy
1 piece of lemon peel

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and stir for 15-20 seconds.
Glass: Frozen vintage coupe
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ice: N/A

The Botanist gin by Bruichladdich

2011-01-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that right, gin from Islay. This may seem like an alien concept, something that is more science fiction than fact, but it's a New Year and, to look at anyway, 2011 is definitely more sci-fi than 2010 so it makes perfect sense to have an Islay distillery producing gin. No really it does. Let me explain...

The general concept behind science fiction is to contradict what we perceive as reality, however, more often than not there is a degree of reality or possibility behind the fiction. In this instance we have to skip back a few hundred years to a time before before whisky as we know it.

Long before the days of barrel-aging and advanced technologies in distillation, illicit stills were the order of the day, producing a rustic spirit called usgebaugh (Gaelic for 'water of life' and pronounced ish-ka ba-ha). To mask the raw flavour of this spirit and to make it more palatable distillers would often add flavourings to their liquid, in many cases wild aromatic plants such as bog myrtle and juniper.

This spirit would have been closer in style to gin or genever as opposed to the whisky that we know today, even more so when you consider that juniper was regularly one of the main flavourings used in usgebaugh.

When you take into account the history of this gin-like spirit; that Bruichladdich are one of the most forward-thinking and adventurous Scotch whisky distilleries; and that botanicals such as juniper grow all over Islay, the idea of an Islay gin doesn't seem so alien after all, does it?

Another factor, one that distilleries may not wish to admit to but is completely understandable in these challenging financial times, is the length of time and financial commitment that goes into each bottle of whisky. The minimum that you have to wait before you can start legally selling a product that you can call Scotch whisky is three years so it makes financial sense for brands to manufacture a product which they can produce, bottle and sell relatively instantly.

Made up of 31 botanicals, 22 native to Islay;

Apple Mint Birch leaves, Bog Myrtle leaves, Chamomile (sweet), Creeping Thistle flowers, Elder flowers, Gorse flowers, Heather flowers, Hawthorn flowers, Juniper (prostrate) berries, Lady’s Bedstraw flowers, Lemon Balm, Meadow Sweet, Peppermint leaves, Mugwort leaves, Red Clover flowers, Sweet Cicely leaves, Tansy, Thyme leaves, Water Mint leaves, White Clover and Wood Sage leaves

...and 9 that are typically regarded as more traditional;

Angelica root, Cassia bark, Cinnamon bark, Coriander seed, Juniper berries, Lemon peel, Liquorice root, Orange peel and Orris root

...this is a product that fits perfectly within the Bruichladdich portfolio as one that stands out from the competition. The interest in this gin from every corner of the globe tells you everything you need to know...

Produced in a unique Lomond still, Ugly Betty, that has been specially adapted for The Botanist's production, the distillation of this gin takes three times longer than the distillation for their whiskies, running at an extraordinarily low pressure in which the liquid gently simmers. This process offers up a more textured gin with enhanced floral and aromatic notes, making for a robust gin unlike any other that have come onto the market in recent years.

Diving in to the bottle gave me these tasting notes;

Colour: Perfectly clear
Nose: A big punch of sweet juniper surrounded by a subtle creamy aroma, fresh cracked pepper and the merest hint of apple
Palate: Creamy in texture, buttery if you must, starting with a touch of sweetness before juniper takes centre-stage alongside dry orange, grassy notes, pine and soft hints of raspberry and, oddly enough, salt
Finish: Medium length with orange predominant and warm spices providing a wee kick
Thoughts: Big, bold and full of character. Like Islay whiskies it won't be for everyone but I would urge you to explore this if and when you get the chance.

As I have mentioned previously the true test for any gin is how it stands up in a Gin & Tonic and The Botanist doesn't disappoint. Made at a 2-1 ratio using 100ml of Fentimans tonic water and 50ml of the gin I chose to garnish the drink with a strip of grapefruit zest and it worked wonderfully bringing out notes of pear. There's sweetness, there's bitterness, there's floral/aromatic notes and at the finish we have those layers of citrus and spice.

Sipping the G&T I pondered what cocktails The Botanist would work best in and for some reason I kept coming back to the Twentieth Century Cocktail;

40ml The Botanist
20ml Cocchi Americano
20ml Bols White Cacao
20ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and shake hard for ten seconds
Glass: Chilled cocktail
Garnish: Lemon twist (optional)
Ice: N/A
Thoughts: I'm still not sure what it was that made me want to try the gin in this cocktail but it made for a cracking drink. The floral notes of the gin were enhanced with the fresh lemon juice and the extra bitterness of the Cocchi Americano was offset against the sweet chocolate notes of the cacao, which brought out the perfect partner to the subtle orange and spice notes found in the gin.

I'm happy to confess that this drink didn't last long (as it followed a long day painting at my new house) so I was eager to fix another drink. Thinking back to the grassy and pine notes I detected I opted to fix a Martini variant using some bitters I scored when I was over in Berlin for Bar Convent;

50ml The Botanist
10ml Cocchi Americano
3 Dashes Eucalyptus Bitters (from Salon 39 in Copenhagen)
2.5ml Sugar syrup

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and stir for 15-20 seconds.
Glass: Frozen vintage coupe
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ice: N/A
Thoughts: As far as true Martini variants go this was nothing short of sensational. The Eucalyptus Bitters brought out the freshness of the gin with the pine and grassy notes coming to the fore alongside the aroma of fresh citrus. The addition of a little sugar syrup, and ensuring the drink was as cold as possible, meant that the cocktail really held in the mouth whilst also enhancing the sweet juniper you will find when nosing the gin.

As London Drys go this is a very good bottling. Granted it's not the cheapest around but more often than not if you part with a few extra pounds you're guaranteed extra quality. Compared to the vast majority of recent gin releases this bottling is a doff of the cap to true London Dry in the respect that it is packed full of juniper. At the same time Bruichladdich have not overlooked the apparent want for floral gins and it comfortably ticks that box as well.

I would never tell anyone what they must or mustn't buy* and can only offer advice, in this instance I've just ordered another couple of bottles of The Botanist. Take from that what you will...

UPDATE - 20th July 2011

Some people that had stumbled upon my review of The Botanist got in touch with me to say their bottle had some sediment or specs and were curious to find out what it was. I dropped Bruichladdich an email and was given the following info;

"They are silica particles from the Islay spring water we use for the gin. For the first bottling, the high strength of the spirit and the specific minerality of the water meant, that the silica (from the ancient Islay rock through which the water percolates) is, after several weeks, forced out of suspension by the alcohol molecules in to a deposit.

Usually the silica content of the water would be invisible, however it is actually proof positive that the spirit has not been chill-filtered, which enhances the texture of the spirit.

This simply visual imperfection has been prevented in subsequent bottlings by additional filtering of the spring water before adding to the spirit.

The gin can of course be enjoyed as usual."

The Botanist gin by Bruichladdich
46%abv
www.bruichladdich.com/latestnewsarticles/the_botanist.htm
70cl available for £24-28
Limited availability

*Unless it is that gin which in no way should be allowed to classify itself as such as it is truly awful (ask me nicely and I'll give you the name). As for bitters that aren't bitter, well that's another debate for another time...

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

The Life and Times of Jerry Thomas...

2010-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

With the growing interest and research into our cocktail forefathers and vintage libations, particularly the punch category, I thought it'd be appropriate to share the following article by Herbert Asbury, first published in December 1927 in H.L Mencken's American Mercury;

Asbury's article is a fascinating look at the life of Professor Jerry Thomas, written right at the heart of Prohibition in America which goes some way to explain the tone adopted by the author. Asbury later reprinted Thomas's work in 1928 and went to the effort of returning the book to its original state after being bastardized in the 1887 reprint.

This really is a must-read for anyone that has an interest in cocktails and cocktail history, particularly those who have read Dave Wondrich's outstanding Imbibe. The article is broken down into six parts so you may want to nip away from your computer now to fix yourself a couple of glasses of Gin Punch, however if you can't make it in one sitting then please bookmark the link and return at a later date.

For those that wish to compound any of the recipes included in the article please see the following Table of Measurements which is included again at the bottom of this page.

Enjoy!

PROFESSOR JERRY THOMAS by HERBERT ASBURY

PART I

The Lord smiled benevolently upon the city of New Haven, Connecticut, on a stormy Winter’s night in 1825, and his official tot-bearer, the stork, rode the gale from heaven and deposited a little stranger within the little cottage home of Mr. and Mrs. William Daniel Thomas, respectable though pious people, who were ever ready to drop a coin into the collection plate or provide a fried chicken for the pastor. They gazed upon the infant in bewildered but worshipping awe, and listened raptly to the wails which racked his puny frame. They named him Jeremiah.

“We’ll make him a preacher,” said Mr. Thomas. “Or a professor,” he added, thinking of the adjacent Yale College and the dignified savants of the faculty.

“A preacher,” Mrs. Thomas decided, and murmured ecstatically. “The Reverend Jeremiah Thomas! Oh, will, maybe a D.D.!”

“Of course,” agreed Mr. Thomas. “By all means a D.D.”

But, alas, the fond hopes of doting parents! A power transcending that of man had decreed the fate of the innocent babe, and no such exalted destiny had been plotted for him upon the heavenly charts. He did not become the Rev. Jeremiah Thomas; it was not written that he should receive and interpret, and, when necessary, amend the commands and wishes of the Almighty. Nor did he become a teacher at Yale, although the Yale boys learned much from him before he left New Haven to give his message to the world. Instead he became simply Jerry Thomas – but for more than three score years he lived a life of singular usefulness, and blessed many communities with the abundance of his service. He was a great artist with a touch of true genius, and the importance of his influence upon the gentler and more aesthetic aspects of American culture has been neither properly recognized nor properly estimated. Indeed, he lies in an obscure grave, untopped by granite shaft or public memorial.

Briefly, Jerry Thomas was a bartender, but what a bartender! His name should never be mentioned in the same breath as that of a frowsy gorilla, who, in these dark days of Prohibition, may be found lounging behind the bar of a dingy basement speakeasy, sloshing lukewarm ginger-ale into a dirty glass half-filled with raw alcohol, and then calling the unspeakable concoction a drink. Jerry Thomas had nothing in common with the Volsteadian simian, there is no more a basis for comparing them than there is for comparing Michael Angelo to Bud Fisher, or Dante to Eddie Guest. For Jerry Thomas was neither frowsy nor an ape; he was indeed an imposing and lordly figure of a man (Homo sapiens), portly, sleek and jovial, and yet possessed of immense dignity. A jacket of pure and spotless white encased his great bulk, and a huge and handsome moustache, neatly trimmed in the arresting style called walrus, adorned his lip and lay caressingly athwart his plump and rosy cheeks. He presented an inspiring spectacle as he leaned upon the polished mahogany of his bar, amid the gleam of polished silver and cut glass, and impressively pronounced the immemorial greeting, “What will it be, gentlemen?” – a sacred rite which the modern poison slinger has corrupted into a swipe at a pine board with a greasy cloth and a peevish, “Whatcha want, gents? Hooch?”

In these decayed and evangelical times, when drinking has reverted to a savage guzzling of liquid dynamite, the name of Jerry Thomas arouses no answering spark of manhood from the craven victims of bootleg liquor or the cowed and beaten slaves of the Anti-Saloon league. But to the ancients who weep beside the bier of a lost art it brings back beautiful memories of golden fizzes and stimulating juleps, of cobblers, slings and sangarees. For Jerry Thomas was the greatest drinks mixer of his age; his praises were sung by enlightened and Christian men from the Gulf of Mexico to the barren coast of Maine, and from the Golden Gate to Broadway. Aye, even in Europe he was recognised as a master craftsman; he visited Liverpool, Southampton, London and Paris in 1859, bearing with him his magnificent set of solid silver bar utensils, constructed at a cost of $4,000 for his own personal use, and astounded the effete of drinkers of the Old World with the variety and extent of his virtuosity.

It was Jerry Thomas – rise please – who invented those celebrated cold weather beverages which have come down to us as the blue blazer and the Tom and Jerry, the former a powerful concoction of burning whiskey and boiling water which, if properly employed, would render the hot water bottle obsolete. And it was Jerry Thomas who, a few years before the Civil War, gave the aid and encouragement of his genius to the cocktail, then a meek and lowly beverage pining for recognition and appreciation, and by self-sacrificing work in the laboratory raised it to its rightful place among the drinks. A perfect flood of new mixtures soon showered upon a delighted world, and the Metropolitan Hotel at Prince Street and Broadway, in New York, where Jerry was Principal Bartender in the days when New York was the scene of the soundest drinking on earth, became the first great cocktail house.

As a mark of gratitude for his invention of the Tom and Jerry and the blue blazer, and for his researches in the field of the cocktail, his host of admirers invested him with the honourable, if honorary, title of Professor, by which he was thereafter known, and which he carried with becoming dignity through the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage. Thus he fulfilled one of the ambitions which his father had expressed for him as he lay, a helpless little one, in the cradle of the New Haven cottage. But the church, ever an obstacle to human progress, failed to recognise his genius.

PART II

But it was not only as a scientist and beverage dispenser that Professor Thomas deserves a monument and the plaudits which are now wasted upon generals, bishops, movie actors, channel swimmers and aviators, for his interests were numerous and his fame in other lines was great; in many different ways, indeed, he lent force and direction to the cultural advance of the nation. He was a pioneer minstrel showman of the Pacific coast, and owned a music hall in New York wherein Lew Dockstader began the career which was to make him the most celebrated minstrel man of his time; and he sponsored the first public exhibition of Thomas Nast’s cartoons, and did much to popularise the work of that famous artist. And he also achieved renown as a collector, ; he owned more than three hundred gourds, of every conceivable shape and size, the finest and most important group of these natural curiosities in the United States, if not in the world. Indeed, the collection may well have been unique. Moreover, he was an author whose work has been sadly neglected by the critics, even by those high-powered, super-intellectuals among them who possess the occult power of reading things in a book the writer never heard of. These giants sing the praises of realism, yet have persistently ignored the product of one of the few men who were ever able to make the real even more so, and who at the same time could take a frightened, trembling wretch and by the skilful application of a cocktail, cobbler, a julep or a sangaree, sweetened to his taste, transform him into a stalwart hero, eager and able to bare the world upon his shoulders. The attention of these critics is respectfully invited to the volume into which Professor Thomas poured his vials of his wisdom; nay, his very soul, and published under this simple title:

This erudite work first appeared early in 1862, and quickly went through half a dozen large printings. Said the preface to the first edition:

It struck us that a list of all the social drinks – the composite beverages, if we may call them so – of America, would really be one of the curiosities of jovial literature; and that if it was combined with a catalogue of the mixtures common to other nations, and made practically useful by the addition of a concise description of the various processes for brewing each, it would be a blessing to mankind. There would be no excuse for imbibing, with such a book at hand, the villainous compounds of bar-keeping Goths and Vandals, who know no more of the amenities of a bon-vivant existence than a Hottentot can know of the bouquet of champagne. “There’s philosophy,” says Father Tom in the drama, “even in a jug of punch.” We claim the credit of philosophy preaching for example, then, to no ordinary extent in the composition of this volume, for our index exhibits the title of eighty-six different kind of punches, together with a universe of cobblers, juleps, bitters, cups, slings, shrubs, etc., each and all of which the reader is carefully educated how to concoct in the choicest manner. For the perfection of this education the name, alone, of Jerry Thomas is a sufficient guarantee. He has travelled Europe and America in search of all that is recondite in this branch of the spirit art. He has been the Jupiter Olympus of the bar at the Metropolitan Hotel in this city. He was the presiding deity at the Planters’ House, St. Louis. He has been the proprietor of one of the most recherché saloons in New Orleans as well as in New York. His very name is synonymous in the lexicon of mixed drinks with all that is rare and original. And as he is as inexorable as the Medes and Persians in his principle that no excellent drink can be made out of anything but excellent materials, we conceive that we are safe in asserting that whatever may be prepared after his directions will be able to speak eloquently for itself. “Good wine needs no bush,” Shakespeare tells us, and over one of Jerry’s mixtures eulogy is quite as redundant.

So rapturously was “The Bon Vivant’s Companion” acclaimed, and so phenomenal its success that scores of imitations soon appeared, and the book-stalls of the nation groaned beneath the weight of volumes purporting to give directions for the concocting of all sorts of delectable beverages. But through all this excess of publishing Professor Thomas’s work remained steadfastly fist in the hearts of his countrymen, everywhere accepted as the production of a Great Master. Even to this day the real adept at manipulating a cocktail-shaker and other such utensils, one who approaches the act of compounding a drink in the proper humbleness of spirit, regards it somewhat as the Modernist regards the Scriptures: as perhaps a trifle out-moded by later discoveries, yet still worthy of all respect and reverence as the foundation of creed and practice. The last edition was published in 1887, and was something to weep over, for not only had the elegant preface and the important contribution of Professor Schultz been omitted, but Professor Thomas’s bursts of lyric writing had been subjected to the censorious scissors and the ravening blue pencil, and the title of the work had been changed from the roisteringly significant “Bon Vivant’s Companion” to the vulgar and prosaic “Bartender’s Guide, or, How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks.” Worse, the elegant preface had given way to uninspiring, “Hints for Bartenders.” In this form the book lacked spirit, it was little more than a dull account of instructions to take a little of this and a little of that, shake them up and pour them down. I have been unable to find any record of how and when Professor Thomas passed to his reward, but I should not be surprised to learn that he expired of shock and horror with the final edition of his invaluable contribution to American science and culture in his hands. It is impossible to believe that he acquiesced in the editorial mutilations.

When Professor Thomas sat down to write “The Bon Vivant’s Companion” and spray his nectarian delights upon a parched and thirsty world, he was very full of his subject – I speak figuratively – and his enthusiasm took the form of appending brief but appropriate comment to certain of his most beloved recipes. Thus, when he had set down the sum total of human knowledge concerning the preparation of that blood brother to the cocktail, the brandy crusta, one snifter of which would make a Prohibition agent of today burst into tears and tear up his bootlegging contracts, he added, “then smile.” Again, when he had described a favourite beverage in great and glamorous detail, he concluded with the simple injunction, “Imbibe!” Occasionally he soared into the more rarefied strata of literary endeavour and brought down a poem; it is one of those inspired moments, when the mantle of Omar lay caressingly across his shoulders, that we are indebted for the proper method of preparing mulled wine, a not so mild beverage which in those simple and lawless days was usually consumed amid the tender intimacies of the home;

PART III

The dictionary of American Biography and other standard works of reference, to their shame be it said, contain no accounts of Professor Thomas’s life, and extensive research has failed to unearth any information about the period of his early youth. It seems fair to assume, however, that he did not attend Yale College or otherwise employ his time in dissipation, for at the age of twenty we find him a very eager but humble assistant to the Principal Bartender of a New Haven saloon, where he soon attracted favourable attention by his indefatigable quest of knowledge and lush inventiveness. He remained in New Haven for two years, constantly adding to his store of wisdom, and conducting a series of experiments by which he definitely disproved the theory, then widely held, and in recent years revived, that the alcoholic capacity of the American college boy was (and is) unlimited. In 1847, having exhausted New Haven as well as a majority of the Yale lads, he decided to seek hardier subjects for his tests, and so shipped before the mast and sailed out of New York aboard the Annie Smith. The skipper of the Annie Smith was a notorious martinet, but he served excellent grog, and Professor Thomas hoped that with this as a basis he might invent something which would relieve the sailor’s life of much of its hardship. The plight of the seaman had always saddened him.

The Annie Smith docked at San Francisco in the early Fall of 1849, after an eventful voyage around Cape Horn, and Professor Thomas left the vessel without the formality of saying goodbye to the skipper, for that verjuiced person had failed to recognise genius even when it was constantly under foot, and had looked with vigorous disapproval upon al his attempts to improve the grog and drinking habits of the crew. The Professor wisely remained in seclusion until the Annie Smith had sailed on her return voyage, and then became first assistant to the Principal Bartender of the El Dorado saloon, a famous resort of early San Francisco. There he continued his researches, and found excellent laboratory animals in the booted, bewhiskered, red-shirted, artillery-laden miners who flocked into the Dorado eager to exchange their new-found wealth for the products of the bartender’s genius. For these gentlemen, rough of exterior but sound drinkers, Professor Thomas prepared the simple beverages of the period, but on occasion he compounded novel mixtures which crashed through their systems and shook them loose from their boots, or at any rate from their gold dust. It is related that once, when a party of desperadoes swarmed into the El Dorado intent on robbery, he suavely suggested that they refresh themselves before proceeding with their nefarious enterprise, they assented, whereupon he prepared a dram which stretched them quivering and helpless upon the floor. The Vigilantes then hanged them with considerable ceremony.

Professor Thomas refused to divulge the composition of the potion with which he laid the bandits low, insisting that it had neither commercial value nor artistic merit, and that he would never again mix it unless confronted by a similar emergency. So far as can be ascertained he died with the secret locked in his heart. But the undoing of the robbers had not exhausted his powers of invention, as the customers of the El Dorado learned a few days later when there came into the saloon a giant laden with gold dust and with three layers of pistols strapped around his equator. He had been many months in the mines and was fit to be tied; he yearned for adventure, and loudly proclaimed that whiskey was a beverage for nursing infant, and that the only way a distillery could get him would be to fall upon him.

“Barkeep!” he roared. “Fix me up some hell-fire that’ll shake me right down to my gizzard!”

Professor Thomas surveyed him calmly and shrewdly estimated his capacity, which was obviously abnormal. He realised that here, at last, was a man worthy of his genius.

“Come back in an hour,” he said, “I shall have something for you then.”

The giant stamped out of the saloon, and Professor Thomas retired to the back room. His reputation, he realised, was at stake; if he did not produce something which would take the roar out the colossus, all would be lost, even honour. So he grappled with the problem and within an hour emerged, his brow wrinkled by furrows from the violence of his effort, but with a magnificent idea sizzling and crackling in his brain. A deep silence fell upon the barroom as the Professor, looking neither to the right nor the left, moved slowly into position behind the bar, and with great care took from their places in a special rack two silver mugs, with handles. These were the show utensils of the El Dorado, for they had been imported from New York at great expense, and the mere fact that they were being handled was sufficient to indicate that something of importance impended. Carefully setting the mugs upon the bar, Professor Thomas twirled his great moustache and turned to his audience.

“Gentlemen” he announced, impressively, “you are about to witness the birth of a new beverage!”

A sigh of anticipation arose from the assemblage, and with one accord the mass of men moved forward, respectfully, until they stood five feet before the bar, with the giant, still booted, in the front rank. Professor Thomas smiled and poured a tumbler full of Scotch whiskey into one of the mugs, following it with a slightly smaller quantity of boiling water. Then, with an evil-smelling sulphur match of the period, he ignited the liquid, and as the blue flame shot toward the ceiling and the crowd shrank back in awe, he hurled the blazing mixture back and forth between the two mugs, with a rapidity and dexterity that were well nigh unbelievable. This amazing spectacle continued in full movement for perhaps ten seconds, and then Professor Thomas quickly poured the beverage into a tumbler and smothered the flame. He stirred a teaspoonful of pulverised white sugar into the mixture, added a twist of lemon peel, and shoved the smoking concoction across the bar to the booted and bewhiskered giant.

“Sir!” said Professor Thomas, bowing, “The blue blazer!”

The boastful miner threw his head back and flung the boiling drink down his throat. He stood motionless for a moment, smacking his lips and tasting the full flavour of it, and then a startled and horrified expression spread over his face. He swayed like a reed in the wind. He shivered from head to foot. His teeth rattled. His mouth opened and closed, but he could say nothing. He sank slowly into a chair. He was no longer fit to be tied.

“He done it!” he whispered at last. “Right down to my gizzard! Yes, Sir, right down to my gizzard! Yes, Sir, right down to my gizzard!”

Finally, he staggered to his feet, flung a bag of gold dust upon the bar, and wandered unsteadily into the night; and thereafter drank no more for three days, for the effect of a blue blazer, prepared by an artist, is by no means ephemeral. “The blue blazer does not have a very euphonious or classic name,” wrote Professor Thomas in the “Bon Vivant’s Companion”, “but it tastes better to the palate than it sounds to the ear. A beholder gazing for the first time upon an experienced artist compounding this beverage, would naturally come to the conclusion that it was a nectar for Pluto rather than Bacchus. The novice in mixing this beverage should be careful not to scald himself. To become proficient in throwing the liquid to one mug from the other, it will be necessary to practice for some time with cold water.”

Dave Wondrich compounds a blue blazer

Throwing technique from the Far East

PART IV

The blue blazer soon became the most popular winter beverage on the Pacific Coast, but the strain of constantly preparing it so wearied Professor Thomas that within a few months he concluded to retire from the practice of his art for a short period of recuperation. He therefore resigned his position as first assistant to the Principal Bartender of the El Dorado, and betook himself to the Yuba River goldfields, near Donaville, where he staked out a claim and busied himself with the prosaic occupation of digging gold. But after a week he could no longer stand supinely by and witness monstrous indignities which the unskilled bartenders of Donaville perpetrated nightly upon helpless liquors, so he returned to his life work, tending bar in the saloon owned by Claycraft & Cheever. During the daylight hours, however, he continued to work his mine, and by the following spring had amassed a fortune of some $16,000 in gold dust. And having by that time educated the Donaville bartenders in good mixing habits, he cast for cultural benefits that he might confer upon the booted and bewhiskered miners. After a careful survey of the field, he decided that the principal need of the goldfields was refined amusement. It is true that the mining camps fairly swarmed with drinking places, and dance-halls staffed by hussies in short skirts, but Professor Thomas judged that such entertainment as they provided was neither refined nor educational; he was especially pained by the drinking habits of the hussies and their admirers, who generally took their liquor straight and thereafter abandoned themselves to disgraceful antics. To remedy this situation, he organised a minstrel band, with which he toured the gold country throughout the summer. Ned Beach and Tom King were the end men, while the troupe also included Billy Wallace, Dan Coombs and Charley Stevens, all very famous singers and blackface comedians. The show prospered, but when winter came Professor Thomas suddenly abandoned the enterprise and sailed for Central America. The reason for his departure remained a mystery until a miner, another bewhiskered giant, boasted that he had asked Professor Thomas to prepare a certain beverage, and that the Professor was obliged to hang his head and admit that he had never heard of it. The giant explained that the drink was peculiar to Central America.

Within a few months Professor Thomas had stocked his mental reservoir with the wisdom of Central Americans, and then took ship to New York. There he learned that the Yale boys were again strutting boastfully about New Haven with no bartender to guide them. He immediately answered the call of duty and hastened to his home town, where he opened a new barroom, introduced the blue blazer, and soon put the Yale lads in their proper places. His task completed, he disposed of his New Haven holdings and journeyed to South Carolina to study the julep in its native haunt. When he had added this to his repertoire he went to Chicago, and for several months eked out a lonely existence in that outpost of civilisation, which had not then been subjected to civilising influences of machine guns. From Chicago he dropped down to St. Louis, where he became Principal Bartender at the Planters’ House, one of the most famous hotels in America, especially noted for its fried chicken and waffles, its catfish and candied sweet potatoes. It was while he was presiding over the Planters’ House bar, in the early fifties, that Professor Thomas reached the apex of his career by inventing a beverage which he first called the Copenhagen, and then the Jerry Thomas, but which has thundered down the years as the Tom and Jerry. I give herewith the original recipe for this prince of cold weather drinks. It should be prepared in a punch bowl, or other large container:

Five pounds of sugar
One dozen eggs
Half a small glass of Jamaica rum
One and a half teaspoonful of ground cinnamon
Half teaspoonful of ground cloves
Half teaspoonful of ground allspice

Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and the yolks until they are thin as water, and mix together and add the spice and rum, and thicken with sugar until the mixture attains the consistence of a light batter.

Take a small bar glass, and to one teaspoonful of the above mixture, add one wineglass full of brandy, and fill the glass with boiling water; grate a little nutmeg on top. Adepts at the bar, in serving the Tom and Jerry, sometimes adopt a mixture of one-half brandy, one-fourth Jamaica rum and one-fourth Santa Cruz rum, instead of brandy plain. This compound is usually mixed and kept in a bottle, and a wineglass is used to each tumbler of Tom and Jerry.

A teaspoonful of cream of tartar, or about as much bicarbonate of soda as you can get on a dime, will prevent the sugar from settling to the bottom of the mixture.

With the invention of the Tom and Jerry and the introduction of the blue blazer into the Missouri metropolis, Professor Thomas concluded – though mistakenly – that he had civilised St. Louis and taken the curse off the hard mid-Western winter. So he surrendered his post as Principal Bartender at the Planters’ House, and amid the wailing of the citizenry embarked upon flat-bottomed stern-wheeler which, in time, landed him at New Orleans. There he dipped into his money bags and opened a barroom which the preface to his literary work describes as a very recherché establishment. But he soon became discouraged, for his heart was in the preparation of cold-weather beverages, and there was scant demand in Louisiana for the blue blazer and the Tom and Jerry. So he sold his New Orleans holdings and returned to New York, where he was immediately engaged as Principal Bartender of the Metropolitan Hotel, then under the management of William M. Tweed and the centre of the city’s nightlife, which in those days was quite abundant. Professor Thomas celebrated his return to the chilly North by mixing a huge punch bowl of Tom and Jerry, which was given away free to all customers for a week, and by introducing several fine Southern mixtures to the jaded palates of the principal men of Gotham. Chief among them was the crusta, a beverage of rare merit, first compounded by Santini, owner of a celebrated Spanish café in New Orleans. In “The Bon Vivant’s Companion” Professor Thomas gave the following instructions for preparing the brandy crusta, head of the family:

Three or four dashes of gum syrup
One dash of Boker’s bitters
One wine-glass of brandy
Two dashes of Curacao
One dash of lemon juice

First, mix the ingredients in a small tumbler, then take a fancy red-wine glass, rub a sliced lemon around the rim of the same, and dip it in pulverised white sugar, so that the sugar will adhere to the edge of the glass. Pare half a lemon the same as you would an apple (all in one piece) so that the paring will fit in the wine-glass, as shown in the cut, and strain the Crusta from the tumbler into it. Then smile.

PART V

When Professor Thomas began his experiments with the cocktail, this splendid concoction, whose name is now daily taken in vain by thousands of weird mixtures in thousands of American homes, was then the puling infant of the great family of beverages, and had few friends and practically no admirers. “The cocktail,” wrote Professor Thomas, “is a modern invention and is generally used on fishing trips and other good sporting parties, although some patients insist that it is a good in the morning as a tonic.” Indeed, at this period it was not only a morning drink, an eye-opener, but was seldom served over the bar: as Professor Thomas indicates, it was generally bottled and sold for trips into the country and other expeditions. In the course of time it became more popular, but as late as 1879 it had not become the standard before-dinner drink that it was in later years, and as it is now throughout this great land. “In the morning,” said a paper called Under the Gaslight, in 1879, “the merchant, the lawyer, or the Methodist deacon takes his cocktail. Suppose it is not properly compounded? The whole day’s proceedings go crooked because the man himself feels wrong from the effects of an unskilfully mixed drink.”

After much research, Professor Thomas concluded that the lowly estate of the cocktail was in part due to the faulty bitters employed in its composition. He therefore busied himself in his laboratory, and in due time appeared with Jerry Thomas’s Own Bitters, prepared accordingly to the following formula:

One-fourth pound of raisins, two ounces of cinnamon, one ounce of snake root, one lemon and one orange cut into slices, one ounce of cloves, and one ounce of allspice. Put the mixture in a good sized bottle and fill with Santa Cruz rum.

This discovery was made soon after Professor Thomas opened the first of his New York barrooms at Broadway and Washington Place, and during the next few years cocktail drinking increased so greatly that the beverage became the favourite morning tipple of all men of convivial habit, and few self-respecting New York businessmen would attempt to begin a day without one. However, very few of the myriad of present day cocktails were known. The first edition of “The Bon Vivant’s Companion” lists but ten different varieties – the bottle, the brandy, the fancy brandy, the whiskey, the champagne, the gin, the fancy gin, the Japanese, the soda, and the Jersey. They were all simple mixtures, and with the exception of the last three are sufficiently described by their names. The Japanese cocktail was thus prepared by Professor Thomas:

One tablespoonful of orgeat syrup
One half teaspoonful of Boker’s Bitters
One wineglass of brandy
One or two pieces of lemon peel

The Jersey cocktail he composed of sugar, bitters and cider, while in the soda cocktail he substituted soda for the cider. Both were rather innocuous.

Professor Thomas’s ballyhoo for the cocktail was carried on with great energy for almost a score of years, and the last edition of his masterpiece contains the formulae for no fewer than twenty-four different kinds, including such favourites as the Manhattan, the Absinthe, and the Martini, which was originally called the Martinez. He also gave directions in that edition for preparing the morning glory, the Saratoga and the coffee cocktails, which were popular for many years but seldom heard now. He made the morning glory thus:

Three dashes of gum syrup
Two dashes of Curacao
two dashes of Boker's bitters
One dash of Absinthe
One pony of brandy
One pony of whiskey
One piece of lemon peel, twisted to express the oil
Two small pieces of ice

Stir thoroughly and remove the ice. Fill the glass with Seltzer water or plain soda, and stir with a teaspoon having a little sugar in it.

And thus the coffee cocktail:

One teaspoonful of powdered white sugar
One fresh egg
One large wineglass of port wine
One pony of brandy

Break the egg into the glass, put in the sugar, and lastly the port wine. Shake up very thoroughly, and strain into a medium bar goblet. Grate a little nutmeg on top before serving.

“The name of this drink,” wrote Professor Thomas with characteristic meticulosity, “is a misnomer, as coffee and bitters are not to be found among its ingredients. But it looks like coffee when it has been properly concocted, hence probably its name.”

Professor Thomas, in his work, also described five very interesting drinks called the Bishop, the Protestant Bishop, the Archbishop, the Cardinal, and the Pope. Thus he made a Bishop, “Stick an orange full of cloves and roast it before a fire. When brown enough, cut it into quarters, and pour over it a quart of hot port wine, add sugar to taste, and let the mixture simmer for half an hour.” To make an Archbishop, he substituted claret for port, to make a Cardinal, he substituted champagne for claret, and to make a Pope he substituted Burgundy for champagne. He prepared a Protestant Bishop thus: “Mix four tablespoons of white sugar, two tumblers of water, one lemon in slices, one bottle of claret, four tablespoons of Santa Cruz rum or Jamaica rum, and ice.” All of these beverages were described in the first edition of “The Bon Vivant’s Companion,” but in the last edition the Archbishop, the Cardinal and the Pope were omitted because of protests from the Protestant denominations, which complained that the proportion of four Catholic drinks to one Protestant was unfair.

PART VI

Professor Thomas left the Metropolitan in 1859 to brave the dangers of a trans-Atlantic voyage, but he was both seasick and homesick, and in less than a year he was again in New York, and at Broadway and Washington Place opened the most ornate barroom in the metropolis. But within another twelve months the Wanderlust led him in a covered wagon to San Francisco, where he was Principal Bartender at the Occidental Hotel for almost two years. Then he joined a wagon train to Virginia City, Nevada, where he introduced sound drinking practices and amassed another small fortune in gold dust. In 1865 he returned to New York and roamed no more.

He opened a barroom at Broadway and Twenty-Second Street which became one of the most celebrated saloons in the history of the city, and was frequented by the best citizens. Thomas Nast was then a young man struggling to find his place in the field of art, and Professor Thomas graciously extended a helping hand to him by opening his back room to the first exhibition of Nast cartoons. A hundred drawings of prominent personages were displayed upon the walls, and Nast leaped into instant popularity. Later Ned Mullin, a brilliant but dissipated caricaturist, exhibited his work in Thomas’s gallery.

After seven years of continuous success and popularity, he sold his property at Twenty-Second Street and opened another equally elaborate place at 1239 Broadway, where he remained for eight years. He finally disposed of this establishment to John Morrissey, a noted sporting figure. Morrissey came to New York in the early fifties during Gotham’s golden age of gambling, when more than 6,000 gaming places were in open operation on Manhattan Island. Of these some 3,000 were first class establishments catering to men of sound financial substance and furnished with an elegance unsurpassed in later years. A majority of these early houses were in Park Row, Park Place, and lower Broadway, and in Barclay, Vesey and Liberty Streets, which are now entirely given over to business. They included such celebrated resorts as those operated by Orlando Moore, Handsome Sam Suydam, Jack Wallis, John Colton and Pat Herne. Wallis was a Chinaman who had been a Faro dealer for French Jose, but had won the business from his employer on the toss of a coin. Many of the best houses were owned or backed by Reuben Parsons, the gambling monarch of the period, who was widely known as the Great American Faro Banker. Morrissey’s most noted place was in Broadway just north of Tenth Street, not far from the present Grace Church. His house in Saratoga Springs, which he founded in 1867, later came under the ownership of Richard Canfield, probably the most famous gambler New York has ever produced. In all of these elegant establishments faro was the principal game, and for more than twenty years after the Civil War it occupied the place in the affections of American fanciers that bridge and poker hold today.

After John Morrissey had purchased the Broadway property Professor Thomas moved downtown and in August, 1875, opened Thomas’s Exchange at No. 3 Barclay Street, which soon became as popular as any of his other places. Morrissey operated the Broadway house as a pool-room for a year or so, when it again came into the hands of the Professor, and was remodelled as a theatre. It opened with a minstrel show in which Lew Dockstader made his first hit as a comedian. Dockstader’s brother Charley was also a member of the company, as were Tommy Turner, Billy Bryant, Frank Kent, and Charley White, then the dean of minstrelsy. It was soon after he opened his Barclay Street bar that Professor Thomas began to form his notable collection of gourds, which soon crowded cartoons and caricatures out of his mind, and within a few months literally covered the walls of his back room.

In Barclay Street, now largely devoted to the sale of religious images and literature, Professor Thomas spent the remainder of his professional career, surrounded by his gourds and warmed by the respect and admiration of all enlightened drinkers. He strove to the last to inculcate proper drinking habits in his clientele, and during his later years, as is the fashion of decaying men, became just a bit finicky, particularly about the Tom and Jerry and the blue blazer. He insisted that they were intended for cold weather only, and refused to prepare a Tom and Jerry until the first snowfall. It is related that he once smashed a punch-bowl containing the mixture which he found in the bar of a business rival in early September. He was even more strict with the blue blazer, and would prepare it for no man until the thermometer registered ten degrees or less above zero. Thus battling for classical standards in his chosen art, he passed away, mourned and honoured. He remains the greatest bartender in American history.

Extracted from American Mercury Magazine, December 1927

Complete Table of measurements with conversions

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Bar Convent Berlin, Geranium Gin, Henrik Hammer and his brother MC

2010-11-12T13:01:00.000-08:00

The last few months have been extremely busy for myself with both Evo-lution and my bitters being involved at numerous events around Europe.

October in particular was hectic from start to finish; at the start of the month I hosted the drinks reception for the private launch of the Lewis Chessmen exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery, attended the opening and closing parties for London Cocktail Week, had dinner with Chico and MC Hammer (see bottom of blog), took part in CLASS magazine's UK Bartender of the Year competition (where I finished third behind Justyn Bell and the winner Joey Medrington), attended the SLTN Awards dinner where I was nominated for Mixologist of the Year (finishing runner up to Mal Spence) and hosted a presentation on the history of bitters with Stephan Berg and Alexander Hauck of The Bitter Truth at Boutique Barshow Edinburgh.

The month didn't end there, or should I say, that's not where the month started. The 4th and 5th saw me fly out to Berlin to take in the delights of Bar Convent Berlin for the first time.

Brought to you by Helmut Adam, Jens Hasenbein and Bastian Heuser of Mixology magazine, and now in its fourth year, BCB has grown into what is arguably the most important bar show in the World. The roll call of speakers is like a who's who of the drinks industry, and dotted all around the rooms are the great and good of the bartending circuit, whether they're exhibiting, networking or just checking out what's happening across the globe. I couldn't possibly list everyone that I had the pleasure of sharing a drink or talking shop with, but it was an honour and privilege to be in such good, and esteemed, company. If you haven't already done so, get your tickets booked for the 2011 show...

On my first night in Berlin I planned to attend the Travelling Mixologist's Unofficial Opening Party (try saying that after a Martinez or three) but also hook up with Jimmy Olsen, brand ambassador for Geranium Gin. I first met Jimmy earlier in the year at the Imbibe Barshow in London where I also had the chance to try Geranium for the first time. After hearing loads about this relatively new gin I jumped at the chance to get myself a taster, a sample bottle (which I had to leave with some random bloke at Luton Airport) and to chat with Jimmy about the bottling. Jimmy is a top, top guy and a fantastic ambassador for the product.

Prior to BCB I learnt that Henrik Hammer (pictured, and the man behind the brand) was also going to be at the show. Shortly after I landed in Berlin Jimmy called to say that I should join him and Henrik at Hotel Amano for some drinks before the opening party. Not one to miss the chance of a few beverages and to meet the people behind a brand, I got my glad-rags on and hopped in a taxi.

Having not been to Denmark before I can't vouch for Danish hospitality, but if it's anything like what Jimmy and Henrik extended to me that night then my next stop will definitely be Copenhagen. I hadn't even sat in my seat before a gin & tonic was thrust in my hand, and upon admitting I was a little hungry the next thing I knew I was tucking into a platter of cold meats, olives and breads. Washed down with some more gin of course. And then there was Champagne. Lots of Champagne. It was great to chat with them in detail about the gin and their plans for the future, but most of all it was great to spend some time with them outwith work-mode. Brilliant guys with a promising future.

Before leaving to head home I managed to grab another bottle from Jimmy to let bartenders back home try it and to also write up this blog posting.

Henrik had been working with gin for a number of years as an accredited judge in international spirit competitions and found that the flavour spectrum of gin was very narrow. With that in mind he set out to create a gin in the true London Dry style that pushed the boundaries of the category.

Geranium was something that always cropped up in Henrik's mind as the aroma of the leaves reminded him of gin & tonic. On top of that, geranium has been used for centuries due to its medicinal properties and also by chefs in kitchens to purify the air and flavour food. This history has stark similarities to that of juniper, the heart, lungs and spine of any quality gin.

Chemical analysis of geranium found the oils present (geraniol, geraniol formate, linalol, rose oxide, citronelol) were identical to the oils in many fruits, vegetables and spices. This discovery showed that in a roundabout way, the essence of geranium was already prevalent in most gin with common botanicals such as juniper, lemon, coriander and angelica possessing these oils.

The challenge for Henrik was to then extract these oils by way of distillation which would then give birth to a new breed of London Dry gin. Fortunately for Henrik his father (who sadly passed away before the first batch was bottled) had decades of experience as a chemist, having worked with essential oils in the food and perfume industry. It was with this expertise that they found a way to extract exactly what they needed...

As Henrik always wanted to create a gin that stayed true to London Dry, he set-out to enter into partnership with a company in England where the history, knowledge, expertise and equipment could already be found. After spending some time with their chosen distiller to perfect the recipe, they eventually perfected the bottling that is available to us all now.

Produced at the Langley Distillery just outside Birmingham, Geranium is made up of ten botanicals that include juniper, geranium, lemon peel, coriander, cassia, orris root, angelica root, liquorice root and two secret botanicals that can not be revealed.

These botanicals are matured for 48 hours in 100% pure grain spirit (English wheat) before being distilled in a beautiful 100 year old copper pot still called Constance (pictured). The gin is bottled in London at 44%abv.

Let's sip some and see what happens;

Colour: Perfectly clear.
Nose: Fresh citrus, juniper and floral notes.
Palate: Clean and complex with a punch of juniper alongside citrus, rose and a subtle hint of eucalyptus.
Finish: The floral notes hold for a long finish that combines with violet and a hint of pine.
Thoughts: Exactly what Henrik wanted, a gin that is London Dry at heart but with just that little extra something.

Pouring myself a large, and quite delicious, Geranium & tonic (the true test for any gin) I pondered as to what cocktails would really bring out the best of Geranium. The first that came to mind was a Bee's Knees, a combination of gin, fresh citrus and honey.

Little is known about this libation other than it appeared sometime during Prohibition and was originally made in equal parts, undoubtedly to mask the flavour of the bath-tub gin that would've been doing the rounds at the time.

Thankfully the gins produced nowadays are of a much higher quality so the need for the equal parts ratio has been nullified.

50ml Geranium Gin
25ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice
5ml Freshly squeezed orange juice
20ml Honey syrup*

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and shake hard for ten seconds
Glass: Chilled cocktail
Garnish: N/A
Ice: N/A
Thoughts: As suspected, this is the perfect cocktail to showcase the nuances of Geranium, so much so that I added it to the drinks listing at Mim Lounge, the first Geranium gin cocktail on any drinks menu in Scotland. The floral notes of the gin combine wonderfully with the honey, the citrus elements are lifted by the addition of fresh lemon juice, and through all that the juniper is still knocking on the door.

The majority of Bee's Knees recipes don't call for fresh orange however I opt to use just a touch as it offers a little more depth to the drink.

*Honey syrup is easily made by combining equal parts honey and boiling water. Allow to cool then transfer to clean glass bottles and refrigerate. Using honey in this way ensures that it is easily worked into drinks.

After quickly working my way through this drink I wanted to try it out in a cocktail that was all spirit. Remembering what Henrik had told me about the essential oils in geranium also being prevalent in fruits, vegetables and spices, I turned to drinks with vermouths and bitters (no surprise there). At BCB Angus Winchester had been presenting for Tanqueray and mixed a superb cocktail called a Zabriskie that originally called for Boker's Bitters. As a fan of Manhattan and Martini style drinks (when I say Martini I am talking about a drink with spirit, vermouth and bitters, not those bastardized concoctions that bare no relevance to the original) the Zabriskie now features highly in my favourite's list.

It is first referenced in Jack's Manual in 1876 when Boker's were still at the height of their fame. Consisting of gin, Italian vermouth, (also referred to as sweet, with French vermouth being of the dry variety), a touch of Maraschino and Boker's Bitters, on paper this was only going to give one result with the botanicals in all three products working in harmony.

60ml Geranium Gin
20ml Carpano Antica Formula
Dash Luxardo Maraschino
4 Dashes Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Boker's Bitters

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and stir for 15-20 seconds.
Glass: Chilled vintage cocktail
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ice: N/A
Thoughts: Not much to say here other than, WOW. This is highly recommended.

So there you have it, a new world gin with old-school values. For lovers of true London Dry that are feeling a little adventurous this should be the next bottling you pick up. Thankfully the liquid more than lives up to its back-story and we've all hopefully learnt a little more. Even if it's just that I really need to invest in a light-box...

Geranium Gin
44%abv
www.geraniumgin.com
70cl available for £23-25
Distributors

At the dinner with MC Hammer and Chico I asked if anyone had the time. It was absolute carnage.

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Why did the Mexican push his wife off the cliff? Tequila! (Calle 23 Blanco)

2010-08-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

I recently helped organise a tutored tequila tasting and training at Orchid in Aberdeen hosted by Cazadores Brand Ambassador, manager of Green & Red and all round bar legend Steffin Oghene.

Other than being industry colleagues, boozehounds and lovers of all things drink related, Steffin and myself go way back as we attended primary school together and also played in the same football team in our younger years (that's soccer to my American readers).

Steffin moved back to Edinburgh just as I was starting secondary school in Aberdeen and a good few years passed before we randomly bumped into each other again in 2006 when we were both competing finalists in the UK final of the Grand Marnier Bartender of the Year competition at Apartment 195. It was strange that the two of us had both chosen the same career path but it was great to finally share a legal drink with Steffin. In all seriousness, myself and Steffin weren't drinking at primary school age. Well, no more than twice a week...

After a few years working in Edinburgh and then moving down to London to run the bar at Green & Red, Steffin has become something of a tequila guru whose knowledge and passion for the category is as impressive as you'll find. His role as Brand Ambassador for Cazadores has enabled him to spread his love for the category far and wide which I believe is a great benefit to a spirit which is often left lagging in the popularity stakes behind rum, gin and whisk(e)y due to a misunderstanding of what the product has to offer.

Through his connection to Aberdeen and from hearing from myself about the emerging scene in the city Steffin had expressed a strong interest to come up and host a session and talk us through, and more importantly taste, a selection of bottlings that included; Cazadores Blanco, Olmeca Tezon Blanco, Patron Blanco, Herradura Blanco, El Tequileno Blanco, Cazadores Reposado, Cuervo 1800 Reposado, Cazadores Anejo, Gran Centenario Anejo, Cuervo Especial and Del Maguey Mezcal. As you'll see, he doesn't do things by halves. How he managed to carry all that in his case I'll never know...

I'd love to go into more details regarding the session, which was as informative as it was entertaining, with everyone in attendance commenting on the fact that they gained a lot of from it. I've been to a good few tequila trainings in the past (and product trainings in general) and have to admit that Steffin's presentation was as good as any I've been to, doff of the cap to you Sir.

Before he headed up from London I asked Steffin if he would be interested in trading a bottle of tequila for some of my bitters. It is this trade that brings me to the purpose of this blog posting...

In my hands appeared a bottle of Calle 23 Blanco (pronounced Kai-yay and meaning street in Spanish). Relatively new to the UK market, I'd first read about this tequila a few weeks previously and again in a feature of the sixth issue of CLASS magazine. From the rave reviews it had been receiving I was eager to try it for myself so was delighted to finally get my hands on a bottle

The brainchild of French-born biochemist Sophie Decobecq, Calle 23 is produced in Zapotlanejo from agaves grown in the Highland region of Jalisco (in fields between Arandas and Tepatitlan). The reason they chose to use the agave produced in this area is down to the mineral-rich soil and the climate which is perfectly suited to the agave plant with long spells of blistering heat followed by wet rainy seasons.

Terroir is an important aspect of tequila production with the profile of Highland tequilas often found to be fruitier, sweeter and spicier than their Lowland counterparts which tend to lean toward the vegetal, earthy and herbaceous flavour profile. Something worth considering next time you're pondering which tequila to part your hard-earned for...

After harvesting the piñas are cut in half. At this point Calle 23 slowly cook their agaves in one of three stainless steel autoclaves (two with a capacity of 22 tonnes and one of 30 tonnes) for seven hours then let the temperature drop for a further three hours. This slow cooking process allows the heat to get to the heart of the agave ensuring the plant is not overcooked or burnt, flavours that are not desirable in the tequila-making process as I'm sure you'll understand.

After cooking, the agave plants are milled using a modern roller mill with which they produce their aguamiel which is diluted to 8-9brix for fermentation. It is at this point that Sophie's background comes into play as she opts to use three different strains of yeast for the expressions of Blanco, Reposado and Anejo, each producing tequilas with completely unique characteristics.

The fermentation process that follows takes place in one of fourteen 30,000 litre stainless steel tanks and takes an average of around 72 hours to produce a mosto of 3.8% to 4.5% ABV. This fermented juice then goes through a double-distillation process in stainless steel pot stills that have copper serpentine steam elements inside the still. The first distillation (called ordinario and really not recommended to be consumed, just ask Steffin) takes place in one of two 6000 litre stills and lasts no longer than 4 hours to produce and ordinario of around 28-30%ABV.

The ordinario is filtered before the second distillation takes place (all tequila must go through a minimum of two distillations) in slightly smaller stills (5000 litre) which takes approximately 12 hours with the cut (heart of the run) taken between 87% and 17% ABV producing a tequila of 54-56% ABV. The heads (around 30 litres between 89% and 87%ABV) and tails (maximum 60 litres between 17% and 7%ABV) are recycled and added to the next first distillation.

While Blanco tequilas are allowed to be aged for a maximum of 59 days, Calle 23 opt not to age their Blanco as they prefer to fully express the character of the agave. Before bottling, Calle 23 Blanco is diluted to a strength of 40%ABV with water drawn from the distillery's own well. Although the bottles are filled by an automated filling system, all labels and seals are applied by hand.

After learning as much as I could about the brand I couldn't wait to taste the tequila. And by taste I actually mean to nose, sip and savour the liquid, not lick some salt, throw a large shot down my neck then bite into a dry, browning lime wedge. Whilst I'm an advocate of people drinking things they way they enjoy them, this really isn't the way to enjoy tequila in my humble opinion. If you preceded anything by licking some salt, then throwing it down your neck missing your vital taste receptors on your palate, and finished it by biting into a lime wedge you're naturally going to begin hating it. Particularly if this ritual is performed at the end of a night where you've already consumed 'x' amount of alcohol. And some people wonder why they're not big big fans of tequila...

If you really must carry out the lick-shoot-suck method, I'd recommend trying it with some cinnamon in place of the salt and a fresh orange wedge in place of the lime.

Anyway, onto the liquid;

Colour: Perfectly clear.
Nose: Light, fresh and inviting, cooked agave is evident with subtle herbaceous notes.
Palate: The freshness carries through with sweet pineapple, fresh lime and fresh lemon zest balanced against the spicy kick of cracked black pepper.
Finish: Long spicy finish with dominant black pepper continuing from the mid-palate.
Thoughts: A wonderful example of what to expect from a Highland tequila; sweet, fruity, spicy and fresh.

After an impressive showing whilst sampling the Blanco straight, I quickly wanted to throw together a drink that would showcase its flavour profile whilst also representing a style of drink I imagine Jerry Thomas would have made if he'd been given a bottle of Calle 23...

Look no further than the classic Margarita (tequila, triple sec and fresh lime juice). In place of the dry triple sec I opted to use the more robust curacao that was prevalent in the 1800s, in this case I chose Grand Marnier with its complex profile of bitter orange and spice. With the dominant black pepper found in Calle 23 Blanco I thought it made perfect sense to use some of my homemade raspberry syrup as the flavour of berries is enhanced with black pepper. To add to the subtle spice elements I also decided to use my reformulated Hellfire Bitters from Charles H. Baker's must-read 'Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Glass'. The added advantage of these bitters was that they contained some cooked agave that Steffin had passed onto me at the training session so it would add further depth to what was already becoming a complex drink.

And so the Mexican Firebush was born;

60ml Calle 23 Blanco
12.5ml Grand Marnier
12.5ml Homemade raspberry syrup
25ml Fresh squeezed lime juice
6 Dashes Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Hellfire Bitters

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and shake hard for ten seconds. Fine strain.
Glass: Frozen coupe
Garnish: Green chilli or strip of citrus zest
Ice: N/A
Notes: Whilst admittedly not being a wholly unique drink, it's essentially just a Raspberry Margarita with a twist, this is a fantastic drink in which to showcase the base spirit. The cooked agave notes shine through alongside layers of citrus, the black pepper and raspberry notes combine brilliantly together before moving toward the spicy kick of the complex Hellfire bitters with dominant chilli softened with herbaceous notes.

Calle 23 is quickly establishing itself as one of my favourite tequilas and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on their Reposado and Anejo expressions.

My advice to you would be to get yourself along to Green & Red and share a Calle 23 or ten with Steffin, just don't let him drive you home afterward. That's a story you'll need to get him to explain...

Calle 23 Blanco
40%ABV
http://www.tequilacalle23.com/
50cl available for: £16-18

-----

Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Announcing: Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters

2010-07-28T06:28:00.000-07:00

Over the last few years I've not taken part in as many cocktail competitions as I would have liked due to a combination of not having the time but also being asked to judge as opposed to compete.

After winning the Drambuie UK cocktail competition both locally and nationally earlier this year I regained the desire to take part wherever possible as I believe it's a great way to see what various bartenders are playing around with across the World whilst also meeting the best of the best.

I recently took part in Licor 43's UK competition at Raconteur in Edinburgh. The comp was relatively straight-forward, create one Vanilla Daiquiri and two seasonal cocktails of your choice, with Licor 43 at the heart of these drinks.

When it came to the Vanilla Daiquiri I wanted to pay respect to the classic Daiquiri, adding subtle twists whilst serving it in the way we expect these days.

40ml Bacardi Superior
20ml Licor 43
15ml Fresh lime juice
10ml Fresh lemon juice
12.5ml Champagne syrup [1 glass Perrier Jouet, 1/2 glass unrefined caster sugar]
4 Grinds black peppercorns

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and shake hard for ten seconds. Fine strain
Glass: Frozen coupe
Garnish: N/A
Ice: N/A
Judges scores: The three judges scored this drink 15, 16 and 18 out of 20.

My first seasonal drink which I named Shochu Punch was created for Spring and modelled on the classic punch definition.

50ml Iichiko Shochu
20ml Licor 43
15ml Chase Rhubarb
25ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 Dashes Dandelion & Burdock Bitters
1 Fresh egg white
5ml Sugar syrup

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass and dry shake for five seconds. Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for a further ten seconds. Fine strain
Glass: Small wine
Garnish: Two dots of Peychaud's Bitters
Ice: N/A
Score: 19, 22 and 23 out of 25.

With the heritage of Licor 43 in mind for my final drink, I wanted it to have an association with Spain in as many ways as possible. A beverage that was warming and soothing, spicy with a little bit of flair, full-flavoured but more-ish, intriguing and luxurious...

Using my knowledge of previous comps, I made the decision to add an element of risk to my drink. I've noticed that the vast majority of winning drinks are often risky to create in a competition setting, whether it be the method you use, the style of drink, or a particular ingredient.

Looking at seasons in a wider context than I previously thought possible (don't even ask), I decided to base it on the modern definition of the Flip category (spirit, sugar, spice and a whole egg). I've found Flips to be a misunderstood category and a style of drink that people are happy to dismiss without even trying to explore. More often than not it is a category which is loved by all when the barrier is broken down.

On top of that I wanted to create an ingredient of my own, something that I knew no-one else would have. I was fully aware that this wouldn't just be a couple of hours work. I don't do things by halves so when I make a commitment I know it's going to be weeks, if not months of work, as opposed to hours and days. In this case it was bitters again. Spanish Bitters to be exact.

What I came up with was the Union Flip...

1 Barspoon Caraway Seeds
1 Whole egg
37.5ml Appleton 8 Year Old
37.5ml Licor 43
4 Dashes Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters
5ml Sugar Syrup
4 Crunches Black Peppercorn

Method: Muddle caraway seeds in base of mixing glass, add remaining ingredients and dry shake for five seconds. Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for a further ten seconds. Fine strain.
Glass: Liqueur
Garnish: Roasted tonka bean grated over top
Ice: N/A
Score: 20, 21 and 24 out of 25

The Spanish Bitters are based on a number of recipes I dug up from various points of the 1800s and early 1900s. Based on predominant citrus and chamomile, the final product was unlike no other bitters I've tried boasting a great deal of versatility.

After passing on two bottles to Jamie Mac at the Raconteur in Edinburgh and Steffin Oghene of Green & Red in London, word got out about these bitters and I started being contacted by bartenders and enthusiasts across the globe enquiring if I'd be compounding more than the six bottles I had initially constructed and if I planned on releasing them to the wider market.

Initially I didn't intend to, this was to be a one-off, but due to demand, the fantastic feedback I received at the Licor 43 competition and from those who have since tried them I've decided to make a limited edition small-batch, with these bottles initially released in the UK but now available in Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, USA and Australia to name but a few. See below for a list of distributors.

The label design is still a work in progress and I'm currently awaiting delivery of some botanicals for this limited edition batch, but to try and appease the clamour and the many questions I'm being asked I now bring you Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters...

Aberdeen, 28th July 2010

Since the release of Adam Elmegirab's Boker's reformulation in July 2009, he has been researching the work of our cocktail forefathers for ideas and inspiration to follow up with other unique products. Like his predecessors, Adam is constantly striving to break down boundaries in order to give bartenders products they wish to work with; bottlings created with natural ingredients, flavours and passion, whilst staying true to the traditions of classic bitters. In this case, Adam took inspiration from Spain...

Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters evoke memories of a style of bitters dating back to the early years of the cock-tail. Based on Spanish Bitters recipes from the 1800s, these bitters have been reformulated to work in harmony with modern spirits and libations and are now in demand across the globe.

Handcrafted, hand-bottled and hand-labelled, Spanish Bitters are a great addition to any bitters collection adding depth to simple beverages such as a Tequila & Tonic, a point of difference in a wide range of classic cocktails, or in original libations such as Dr. Adam's Union Flip.

Tasting Notes: Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Spanish Bitters have layers of complex flavour including coriander, violet, raspberry, honey, citrus, pomegranate, toasted orange and predominant chamomile all leading to a long bittersweet finish.

Bottle webpage - Limited Edition Spanish Bitters
Bottle Image - TO COME
Purchasing contact - adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Distributors/Suppliers - Global Distributor PDF

If anyone would like further information regarding the bitters, please contact me directly on adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org, quoting Spanish Bitters in the subject line.

Sláinte

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

Darnley's View Gin, Bramble & Bonfires

2010-07-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

To mark the return of The Jerry Thomas Project, I've recently dedicated a fair bit of time deciding on some extra features I'd like to throw in alongside the 236 drinks I am recreating from Jerry's 1862 guide. Any excuse for another drink I guess...

As someone who comes into contact with new products every other week, I thought it'd only be right to start reviewing these by sampling them in various drinks then posting the results up here. I'm trying to imagine what Jerry Thomas would've done when he got his hands on something new and I guess he'd have tried them in existing drinks as well as creating his own.

On a recent trip to Edinburgh, during my customary visit to Bramble and after my obligatory missed train/plane [delete as applicable], I was lucky to be joined by bartender extraordinaire Jason Scott, part-owner of the aforementioned bar and The Saint, who had been out with his beautiful lady celebrating their anniversary. Congratulations again to the two of them.

Over a cheeky peat-smoked Manhattan, and in-between random conversations about bartenders raiding antique shops, the need for peat-smoked bacon and the lack of bartender influenced bonfires, Jas kindly gave me a sample bottle of the brand spanking new Darnley's View gin.

Hailing from Edinburgh and brought to you by the Wemyss* family, the gin takes its name from the moment Lord Darnley first met Mary Queen of Scots at their family home, Wemyss Castle in 1565. One for the romantics out there, and an interesting back-story which every great brand seems to have.

*pronounced Weems

The first thing that caught my eye regarding the bottle was the declaration 'small-batch' and 'handcrafted' printed on the side; these are words that are close to my heart as a fellow producer of small-batch products.

Jas began telling me a little about the gin, revealing that Madame Gin herself, Geraldine Coates, had been instrumental in helping the family put together the recipe and that it had only been released in the previous couple of months.

After a few more beverages and more in-depth chat regarding my fantastic bartender's bonfire idea (which at this point had become the bartending equivalent of the Wicker-Man) I finally made it home at 8am the next morning (via Garibaldi's of course). With no further delays, I emailed the guys behind the gin to find out more...

The concept behind the gin was to create a bottling that was slightly lighter in style with a pronounced floral aspect compared to traditional juniper-heavy gins, whilst at the same time not deviating from London Dry by still having juniper leading the way.

Alongside the Juniper (from Southern Europe), Darnley's calls for five other botanicals, the classic Lemon Peel (Spain), Coriander (Morocco) and Angelica Root (France) alongside the complex Orris Root (Benelux countries) and floral Elderflower (Scotland). It is distilled five times in a pot still in the traditional London Dry style (nothing is added after distillation other than water) and it is bottled at 40%ABV.

Feeling a little tender, I reluctantly cracked open the bottle to try the Darnley's on its own. In my humble opinion this isn't necessarily the best way to judge a gin as it's extremely rare for someone to drink it straight but it does give you a better idea of the quality of the spirit and what you have to work with.

Here are my tasting notes;

Colour: Perfectly clear.
Nose: Fresh citrus, coriander and a little spice.
Palate: Creamy, clean and complex, lots of delicate citrus, cracked pepper, freshly cut grass, a touch of sweetness and evident juniper.
Finish: Lingering floral finish that holds the previous flavours combined with elderflower, violet and raspberry.
Thoughts: A superb gin definitely worth exploring.

As anyone who has been to Garibaldi's will testify the next morning is guaranteed to hurt, so what better way to try out the Darnley's than in a Bloody Mary. I really needed it...

50ml Darnley's View
100ml Libby's Tomato Juice
20ml Fresh lemon juice
4 Grinds black pepper
1 Grind rock-salt
1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 Teaspoon Por Kwan chili sauce
6 Dashes Worcester sauce
4 Dashes Cholula hot sauce

Method: Add lemon juice and mustard to mixing glass and stir until it forms a paste, add remaining ingredients and roll back and forth between the mixing glass and tin until emulsified. DO NOT SHAKE
Glass: Collins/Highball
Garnish: Lime wedge, freshly ground black pepper and fresh coriander sprigs.
Ice: Cubed
Notes: I was interested to see how the juniper and coriander would come through in this drink, bearing in mind that Darnley's is lighter than other London Drys, and it stood up pretty well. The gin characteristics were evident amongst the spice and tomato with citrus also prevalent making for a damn good Bloody Mary.

Now that I was regaining some form of normality and my watch had ticked beyond 10am, the time had come for my second drink which would give me an opportunity to see how it faired in arguably the most popular gin serve of all, Gin & Tonic.

50ml Darnley's View
100ml Fever Tree tonic water

Method: Build over cubed ice and stir briefly
Glass: Collins/Highball
Garnish: Lemon peel
Ice: Cubed
Notes: I'm sure most would agree that how a gin tastes in a G&T is as important as anything, and Darnley's have done themselves proud. For those that prefer gins such as Martin Miller's, Hendrick's, Caorunn, Plymouth and Geranium, this is another to add to your list of favourites. Silky, floral, subtly sweet (think candied citrus peel) and with a touch of liquorice and pepper. Clean-tasting and very, very tasty.

So that's the morning taken care of, and it's now 11am. Or Martini time as I call it in my house. Well, that's what I call it now, because that's the time and that's next on the agenda for Darnley's...

60ml Darnley's View
20ml Noilly Dry (chilled)
2 Dashes Regan's Orange Bitters

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass, fill with cubed ice and stir for fifteen-twenty seconds. Julep strain
Glass: Frozen coupe
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ice: N/A
Notes: For me the key to a good Martini is to make it cold, colder, and colder still, without over-diluting, adding as much subtle flavour as possible. So freeze your glass, chill the vermouth that you will use, and stir with the coldest, hardest ice you can find. This really isn't a drink for wet ice. On top of that, add some form of bitters. This is a cocktail, not a glass of cold gin, and we're all about flavour otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog. Everything should be geared toward the gin, so garnish the drink accordingly with citrus peel. Lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit. It's up to you, but do tryu and accompany existing flavours within the drink...

The Bloody Mary was good, the G&T was tasty, but this was sublime. Dominant citrus on the nose, which for some unknown reason leaned toward orange as opposed to lemon, with floral aromas. A delicate entry followed by the return of that silkiness, creamy in texture, my mouth filled with notes of juniper, coriander, citrus, pepper and layers of subtle fruit. The added 'X' factor which really took this drink to another level was the enhanced parma-violet finish that would've come from the orris. It's rare to be able to distinguish virtually every botanical in gin, but in this case I could. So good, I went for another (remember, it's not even lunchtime yet)...

The day was slowly coming together now, things were looking up and the taste of Garibaldi's in my mouth was slowly disappearing. Lunchtime was no longer feared, and was actually being welcomed. It was time to consume something with a bit more substance. After a very brief consultation with Angus Winchester about what I should have we both quickly came to an agreement. It was time for a White Lady...

50ml Darnley's View
25ml Cointreau
25ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass fill with cubed ice and shake hard for ten seconds. Fine strain.
Glass: Frozen coupe
Garnish: N/A
Ice: N/A
Notes: Recipe wise, I thought I'd stay true to the recipe as printed in the Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930.

The White Lady really is one of my all-time favourite cocktails, it's so hard to get wrong. Ice-cold, clean, refreshing and packed full of flavour, the floral aspect of Darnley's really stepped up to the plate without overshadowing the bold citrus and juniper you'd expect to shine through. Lunch was good. Very good. Clover Club for dessert?

If you're looking for a versatile gin to quaff in regular G&Ts but also for use in a variety of mixed drinks, at the same time looking for something with a different edge then look no further. It's modern, yet traditional, simple, yet complex. I wonder if they'd be up for a bonfire?!?

Darnley's View Gin
40%ABV
www.darnleysview.com
70cl available for: £19-22
Distributors

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

24. English Milk Punch

2010-07-08T17:24:00.001-07:00

Like buses, you wait around for a long time then two come along at once. Two drinks in consecutive days, believe it or not. It's safe to say that the project is back on track.

Put the following ingredients into a very clean pitcher, viz. :

The juice of six lemons.
The rind of two do.
1 lb. of sugar.
1 pine-apple, peeled, sliced and pounded.
6 cloves.
20 coriander seeds.
1 small stick of cinnamon.
1 pint of brandy. (20 ounces - Hine Prestige - 40%ABV))
1 do. rum. (10 ounces - Appleton V/X - 40%ABV and 10 ounces - Woods 100 - 57%ABV)
1 gill of arrack. (5 ounces - Batavia Arrack - 50%ABV)
1 cup of strong green tea. (8 ounces)
1 quart of boiling water. (40 ounces)

The boiling water to be added last; cork this down to prevent evaporation, and allow these ingredients to steep for at least six hours; then add a quart (40 ounces) of hot milk and the juice of two lemons; mix, and filter through a jelly bag; and when the punch has passed bright, put it away in tight-corked bottles. This punch is intended to be iced for drinking.

Method: - Peel and slice pineapple, then pound with a rolling pin in base of vessel.
- Ground cloves, coriander seeds and cinnamon stick and add to vessel.
- Carefully grate the zest of two lemons taking off as little pith as possible.
- Squeeze these along with another four lemons and add the juice to the ground spices and pounded pineapple.
- Add 1lb of powdered/caster sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved.
- Add brandy, rum, arrack and one cup of strong green tea and stir thoroughly.
- Add boiling water, stir well, then seal and leave to macerate for no less than six hours.
- After six hours add hot milk and the juice of two lemons, stir to combine then allow to rest for five minutes or until milk has curdled.
- Filter through muslin cloth to extract large debri. Repeat if necessary.
- Allow to rest for a further five minutes and refrigerate to allow the finer debri to rest at base of vessel.
- Filter through coffee filter paper to extract all fine sediment until the liquid has obtained clarity. Repeat coffee filter paper filtration if necessary.
- Bottle in clean glass bottles and keep refrigerated.
- The punch is now ready to serve as and when required.
Glass: Highball/Collins/Wine Glass
Garnish: Seasonal fruit, berries and herbs
Ice: Cubed
Notes: Before I start, I want to remind you that there is a Table of Measurements on this blog which gives you handy conversions for all your old measures. It also gives an explanation of 'do.' which was an early way of saying ditto. Anyway...

Nowadays most punches made at home tend to lean toward bowls full of cheap fruit juice from concentrate, sweet liqueurs that smell and taste like sun tan lotion, neutral tasting vodka, and chunks of exotic fruit fresh from the tin. *Shudder*

The English Milk Punch is the complete opposite of this, and to me is a shining example of what punch is all about. Bold, funky spirits softened with water or tea, lifted with fresh fruit, given a bit of spark by freshly ground spices and sweetened with a little sugar. These ingredients represent the five key elements of the basic punch; spirit, sugar, water, spice and citrus.

However, like all great drinks families they go through something of an Evo-lution, in this case it was the addition of milk which took the punch forward.

The Milk Punch is believed to have been created sometime in the 17th century and is credited to the English novelist Aphra Behn. Full-fat milk is added to your base punch (see above) and allowed to curdle, at which point the solids are strained out, leaving behind a texture and mouthfeel you would not get without the addition of milk.

What I must make clear is that this drink is not milky in the way you probably imagine, other than the fact it has a subtle creamy, velvety mouthfeel. It is entirely transparent, bright, and golden yellow in colour (which I hope you can make out in the picture). I chose not to garnish the drink in the photo as I didn't want to detract from the liquid in the glass.

The finished drink is quite simply one of the most alluring libations I have ever constructed and drank. Smooth yet dangerous, it is extremely baffling, but in a good way. You just keep going back to it and asking yourself, "How?"

I don't want to go into detail about how this drink tasted as I'd prefer to keep some level of intrigue in the hope that everyone reading this will attempt to construct one, but not for yourself, you'd be cheating yourself if you did.

This is a punch to be savoured with a group of friends. It's a conversation starter, and a conversation ender. You will have lots of questions, but you will be lost for words. It has everything you'd want from a drink, and more. Layers and layers of flavour, fresh, intriguing, refreshing, puzzling, more-ish and delightful. There's a very good reason why punches are making a comeback across the globe, and this is one of them...

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

23. Hot Milk Punch (and an apology)

2010-07-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

First off, my sincerest apologies.

As you're all undoubtedly aware, the Jerry Thomas Project (which started off so well) fell by the wayside a little bit when I started preparing for future drinks by reformulating my own Boker's Bitters. What occurred off the back of making five bottles for my own use was something I didn't prepare for and really did not expect.

I'm not going to get into great detail regarding the Boker's reformulation which has become an element of my primary business, as I want my attention to be focused on the drinks again. I do promise to offer further insight into the goings on of Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters in a further posting but for now let's just crack on with the drinks.

To all those who have been asking what happened to the project and all those who have shown an interest in it, I offer you once again my sincerest apologies.

(Use large bar glass)

This punch is made the same as the above, [22. Milk Punch] with the exception that hot milk is used, and no ice.

1 table-spoonful of fine white sugar.
2 do. water (1 ounce)
1 wine-glass of Cognac brandy. (2 ounce - Hine Prestige - 43% ABV
1/2 do. Santa Cruz rum. (1 ounce - Appleton 12 Year Old - 40% ABV)
Fill with hot milk, stir the ingredients well together, and grate a little nutmeg on top.

Method: Add first four ingredients to glass, fill with hot milk and stir well until sugar has dissolved.
Glass: Glass footed/stemmed glass or mug
Garnish: Freshly grated nutmeg
Ice: N/A
Notes: As you might remember (highly unlikely considering how long ago it was, again I'm sorry) I'm happy to admit that I am partial to the odd creamy drink here or there, and this didn't disappoint. Ultimately a nightcap or a cold-weather drink, the Hot Milk Punch has enough going on that it's not one to be ignored.

I highly recommend using bold spirits in this drink; in this case I opted for Hine Prestige for its notes of vanilla, spice, tobacco and coffee and a funky rum in Appleton 12 Year Old which is packed full of warm spices, vanilla, cocoa, treacle and orange peel. On the milk front, you should only use full-fat. You need something to stand up to the bold spirits and anything less than the real deal is going to disappoint.

The nose on the finished drink was fantastic, with the nutmeg predominant due to the garnish but balanced against warm notes of coffee and dark chocolate. On the palate this continued through with subtle cream-fudge opening up into more complex spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, creamy chocolate), apricot, a little orange peel and a touch of cigar smoke all immersed in a rich creamy mouthfeel. The finish lingered for a long time, and for some reason reminded me of toasted-bread. The cigar smoke also continued through from the mid-palate.

If you're partial to drinks like the Tom & Jerry, or if you like a cheeky hot drink or night-cap, then I heartily recommend this. Most people rarely drink spirits when they're warmed up and with the likes of cognac and rum which are packed full of flavour it's great to experience them in a new light.

The great thing is that you don't have to be a mixological guru to throw this drink together, and you don't need a great deal of tools either. In my opinion there's so much you could do with this to add your own little twist that I think it's definitely one worth storing away in the memory bank. I'm already on my second, so much for going to bed...

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

22. Milk Punch

2009-08-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass)

1 table-spoonful of fine white sugar.
2 do. water
1 wine-glass of Cognac brandy. (2 ounce - Soberano - 36% ABV
1/2 do. Santa Cruz rum. (1 ounce - Matusalem Gran Reserva - 40% ABV)
1/3 Tumblerful of shaved ice.
Fill with milk, shake the ingredients well together, and grate a little nutmeg on top.

Method: Add all ingredients to mixing glass, add cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Freshly grated nutmeg
Ice: Cracked
Notes: The night I made this drink and sat down to write about it, The Big Lebowski was on Sky Movies. I found it fitting that I was going to be sampling a milky/creamy drink whilst watching a film that has a White Russian in just about every scene.

Like 'The Dude', I'm partial to the odd White Russian here and there, although I substitute the vodka for a brandy/Cognac, so this was one Punch I'll happily admit to looking forward to. I know some bartenders will turn their nose up at creamy drinks and quite rightly so as the vast majority are absolute rubbish, but there are some out there which are worth exploring like the Brandy Alexander for example. And I'll add this recipe to that short list.

The reason I opted to use the Matusalem Gran Reserva in this drink was down to its taste which has a touch of cinnamon, chocolate and vanilla which I believed would combine well with the other ingredients. And also because it's a bloody good rum.

It will come as no surprise that the nose in this drink was cream, nutmeg and just a touch of chocolate. The initial sweetness of caramel upon tasting quickly opened up to hints of butterscotch, cinnamon, toffee and a slight touch of banana. There was a slight woodiness to the finish but again it was mostly the sweet-spice of cinnamon and nutmeg that dominated the medium finish.

There was something about this drink which took me back to my childhood when my mum used to make home-made rice pudding which she would finish with everyone's favourite cinnamon substitute, nutmeg. Happy days...

And by the way, if you've not yet seen The Big Lebowski then get yourself sorted out for goodness sake!

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

21. Roman Punch

2009-08-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass.)

1 table-spoonful of sugar. (2 Barspoons - caster sugar)
1 do. do. raspberry syrup. (Barspoon - raspberry syrup)
1 tea-spoonful of Curaçao. (Barspoon - Grand Marnier - 40% ABV)
1 wine-glass of Jamaica rum. (2 ounce - Woods 100 - 57% ABV)
1/2 do. do. brandy. (1 ounce - Soberano - 36%)
The juice of half a lemon. (1/2 ounce - fresh lemon juice)
Fill with shaved ice, shake well, dash with port wine and ornament with fruits in season. Imbibe through a straw.

Method: Squeeze lemon into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add remaining ingredients, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Seasonal fruits
Ice: Cracked
Notes: Similar in style to the Curacao Punch, but this time with rum as the dominant spirit and the addition of raspberry syrup to add some more depth.

As mentioned previously I thought this would be a good recipe to use a darker rum as the raspberry syrup would marry well with the spicy notes found in Woods 100 as well as the chocolate, honey and orange found in the Soberano and Grand Marnier. The addition of port would also add the extra layer of dark fruits, in turn enhancing the raspberry syrup.

The nose was all about the rum, smooth, spicy with a touch of citrus. As expected the palate had a fantastic combination of dark fruits, spice, honey, chocolate and orange, with just a hint of raisin. The finish had a hint of ginger about it, warm, long, spicy and sweet.

A superb drink with an incredible amount of depth...

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

20. Curaçao Punch.

2009-08-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass.)

1 table-spoonful of sugar.
1 wine-glass of brandy. (2 ounces - Soberano - 36% ABV)
1/2 do. do. Jamaica rum. (1 ounce - Appleton VX - 40% ABV)
1/2 do. do. water.
1/2 pony glass of Curaçao. (1/2 ounce - Grand Marnier - 40% ABV)
The juice of half a lemon. (1/2 ounce - fresh lemon juice)
Fill the tumbler with shaved ice, shake well, and ornament with fruits of the season; sip the nectar through a straw.

Method: Squeeze lemon into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add remaining ingredients, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Seasonal berries
Ice: Cracked
Notes: Following on from the disappointment of the Pineapple Punch, I wanted to use the same three spirits as called for in this recipe. And thankfully they combined perfectly this time.

This meant I was opting for a more modern style of Jamaican rum versus the older style which would've been darker, but with the Roman Punch to come after this I thought that would've been a better recipe to try out a darker rum.

The nose had a subtle mix of dried fruits, orange peel and toasted nuts . The palate began with sweet honey moving onto hints of chocolate, nuts, orange peel, wheat bread and a hint of butter. The finish was long, warm, oaky, and lightly spiced. All round a damn fine drink!

I liked this, I liked it a lot. I'm off to make another...

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
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19. Orgeat Punch

2009-08-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass.)

1 1/2 table-spoonful of orgeat syrup.
1 1/2 wine-glass of brandy.
Juice of 1/2 a lemon, and fill the tumbler with shaved ice.
Shake well, ornament with berries in season, and dash port wine on top.
Place the straw, as represented in cut of mint julep.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

18. Pine-Apple Punch

2009-08-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

(For a party of ten.)

4 bottles of champagne.
1 pint of Jamaica rum. (1 ounce - Appleton VX - 40% ABV)
1 do. brandy. (1 ounce - Soberano - 36% ABV)
1 gill of Curacao. (1/3 ounce - Grand Marnier - 40% ABV
Juice of 4 lemons. (1 ounce - fresh lemon juice)
4 pine-apples sliced.

Sweeten to taste with pulverised white sugar. (1 tablespoon caster sugar)

Put the pine-apple with one pound of sugar in a glass bowl, and let them stand until the sugar is well soaked in the pine-apple, then add all other ingredients, except the champagne. Let this mixture stand in ice for about an hour, then add the champagne. Place a large block of ice in the centre of the bowl, and ornament it with loaf sugar, sliced orange, and other fruits in season.

Serve in champagne glasses.

Pine-apple punch is sometimes made by adding sliced pine-apple to brandy punch.

Method: Add pineapple chunks and sugar to glass and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and stir until sugar is dissolved, add rum, brandy and curacao, fill with cracked ice and mix well. Top with Champagne and garnish with various seasonal fruits.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: Seasonal fruits
Ice: Cracked
Notes: It's very frustrating when you come across a recipe you think will be very good, but actually disappoints, and this was one of them. There should've been a lot going on but it was very bland if I'm being honest. I'm not sure if I got my ratios mixed up, used the wrong spirits, or didn't prepare it right but it just wasn't very exciting.

The nose was dominated by the zingy freshness of pineapple, orange and lemon. Upon tasting nothing really outstanding came through, the spirits all came through on their own but they didn't work in harmony as I hoped. The finish was short, with the drink overall reminding me of some sort of palate cleanser.

It wasn't a terrible drink but it's nothing to shout home about. Possible revision of the recipe I think...

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

17. Vanilla Punch

2009-07-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass)

1 table-spoonful of sugar.
1 wine-glass of brandy. (2 ounce - Martell Noblige - 40%ABV)
The juice of 1/4 of a lemon.

Fill the tumbler with shaved ice, shake well, ornament with one or two slices of lemon, and flavor with a few drops of vanilla extract.

This is a delicious drink, and should be imbibed through a glass tube or straw.

Method: Squeeze lemon into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add brandy, 3 drops of vanilla extract, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: 2 wedges lemon
Ice: Cracked ice and 3 drops of vanilla extract.
Notes: Dominant lemon on the nose with a hint of vanilla. The pear notes found in this brand of Cognac were apparent but not dominant. Pronounced vanilla flavours were obvious although very dry. A hint of caramel was also notable, with the finish not lasting as long as we'd hoped.

Potentially a fantastic drink, although it tasted better with vanilla syrup (or sugar) in place of the drier vanilla extract which made it a little too dry.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

16. Port Wine Punch

2009-07-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass)

The same as claret punch, using port wine instead of claret, and ornament with berries in season.

3 ounce - Cockburn's Ruby Port - 20%ABV
1 1/2 table-spoonful caster sugar.
1 slice of lemon (1/8)
2 or 3 do. orange. (1/4)

Method: Squeeze lemon and orange into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add port wine, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: Lemon slice, orange slice and seasonal berries.
Ice: Cracked ice
Notes: As per the Sherry Punch, the nose was all about the citrus, again mainly coming from the orange. The palate was dominated by dark fruits, - blackberry, raspberry, dates, raisins and blackcurrant were all in there - finely balanced with the citrus and a sweetness reminiscent of honey/maple syrup. Hints of vanilla were also noticeable. A long finish, slightly spiced, almost like sweet chilli.

As someone who loves finishing a meal with a cheeseboard and a glass or two of port, this was one of my favourite drinks so far. Pleasantly surprising as it wasn't as rich as I thought it might turn out. I think it'd be a very versatile drink which would taste extraordinary were you to add some gin or St. Germain to it. A great summer drink which would be ideal for making in pitchers for a large group.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

15. Sauterne Punch

2009-07-09T09:53:00.002-07:00

(Use large bar glass)

The same as claret punch, using Sauterne (4 ounces) instead of claret.

4 ounces Sauterne Wine
1 1/2 table-spoonful of sugar.
1 slice of lemon.
2 or 3 do. orange.

Method: Squeeze lemon and orange into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add Sauterne, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: Seasonal berries
Ice: Cracked
Notes: I don't really have anything to say on this drink other than it was rubbish beyond measure. Like reality TV, I don't understand how anyone could enjoy it?!? I will revisit it after carrying out a little more research...

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

14. Claret Punch

2009-07-09T09:53:00.001-07:00

(Use large bar glass)

1 1/2 table-spoonful of sugar.
1 slice of lemon.
2 or 3 do. orange.

Fill the tumbler with shaved ice, and then pour in your claret (4 ounces - Radcliffe's Bordeaux Rouge), shake well, and ornament with berries in season. Place a straw in the glass. To make a quantity of claret punch, see "Imperial Punch," No. 41.

Method: Squeeze lemon and orange into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add Claret, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: Seasonal berries
Ice: Cracked
Notes: Claret is a protected name in the EU which can only be used on red wines from Bordeaux. With this in mind I opted to use Radcliffe's Bordeaux Rouge which has lots of dark fruit on the palate, namely cassis and blackberry, with a deep savoury finish. I've drank a few bottles of this on its own many times in the past so couldn't wait to try it out in the Claret Punch.

This had a wonderful nose, with hints of blackberry and lemon, similar to that of Dick Bradsell's Bramble. The blackberry continued through on the palate with a fresh berry flavour enhanced by the citrus. I detected subtle hints of dark chocolate with hints of oak on the long finish.

Not quite as good as the Port Wine Punch but it does run it close.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

13. Sherry Punch

2009-07-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

(Use large bar glass)

2 wine-glasses of sherry. (4 ounces - Tio Pepe - 15%ABV)
1 table-spoonful of sugar.
2 or 3 slices of orange.
2 do. do. lemon.

Fill tumbler with shaved ice, shake well, and ornament with berries in season. Sip through a straw.

Method: Squeeze lemon and orange into glass, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add sherry, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: Lemon slice, orange slice and seasonal berries.
Ice: Cracked ice
Notes: Dominant citrus on the nose, mostly coming from the orange. Hints of apple are taken over by chocolate and plum sauce flavours on the palate, with a slight pecan nut taste coming through as well. The plum sauce flavour was very cloying. Very dry toward the finish, before ending with a subtle bitterness.

I wasn't hugely impressed with this drink although I'd like to try it again with a different expression of sherry, probably one that's not as dry as Tio Pepe as it really wasn't the right sherry for this drink. And also because drinking is fun.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

12. Champagne Punch

2009-07-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

1 quart bottle of wine. (Filled with Champagne)
1/4lb. of sugar. (1 teaspoon - caster sugar)
1 orange sliced. (2 slices - fresh orange)
The juice of a lemon. (1/2 ounce - fresh lemon juice)
3 slices of pine-apple. (3 chunks - fresh pineapple)
1 wine-glass of raspberry or strawberry syrup. (1/2 ounce - berry syrup)

Ornament with fruits in season, and serve in champagne goblets.

This can be made in any quantity by observing the proportions of the ingredients as given above. Four bottles of wine make a gallon, and a gallon is generally sufficient for fifteen persons in a mixed party. For a good champagne punch, see "Rocky Mountain Punch," No 43.

Method: Add sugar and lemon juice to glass and stir until dissolved. Add berry syrup, pineapple chunks and orange slices, fill with cracked ice and churn. Fill with Champagne and churn again.
Glass: Wine
Garnish: Seasonal berries
Ice: Cracked
Notes: I tweaked this recipe slightly to make a serving for one versus a punch-bowl serving. I did consider putting together the full recipe but decided against it due to the fact I had work the next morning. Anyone who's ever witnessed my hangovers will testify that was probably the best course of action...

As a self-confessed Champagne fan I was admittedly looking forward to this drink, and I wasn't disappointed. I opted to use raspberry syrup in favour of strawberry as the deli near my house (Rocksalt & Snails) had some fantastic local raspberries in stock from Barra Berries in Aberdeenshire

There was a lot more going on in the nose than I expected, enhanced by the fizziness of the Champagne, with citrus notes of lemon and orange as well as hints of raspberry jam. The taste started with the raspberry jam again which continued through to the sweet pineapple before moving into orange and lemon sherbet in the middle, all mellowed by the dryness of the Champagne toward the finish. The drink stayed fizzy throughout which created a flavour similar to that of Refresher sweets. Very refreshing and very moreish.

This is definitely a drink for hot summer days which I see as being a perfect accompaniment for barbecues alongside jugs of Pimms. More depth could be added with some fresh mint and/or some liqueur but I think it's perfect as it is.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters

11. Gin Punch

2009-07-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

(From a recipe by Soyer)

1/2 pint of old gin. (1 1/2 ounce - Both's Old Tom - 47%ABV
1 gill of maraschino. (1 ounce - Luxardo Maraschino - 32% ABV) -
The juice of two lemons. (1 ounce - fresh lemon juice)
The rind of half a lemon.
Four ounces of syrup. (3/4 ounce - sugar syrup)
1 quart bottle of German Seltzer water. (Topped with soda water)

Ice well.

Method: Add gin, maraschino, lemon juice and sugar syrup to mixing glass, fill with cracked ice and shake well for approximately 10 seconds. Top with soda water and stir.
Glass: Boston
Garnish: Lemon twist (extracted using a channel knife)
Ice: Cracked
Notes: This was a very interesting recipe from the outset, due to the amount of maraschino called for in the recipe. Most recipes that call for maraschino rarely use any more than a half shot. It made me wonder if the maraschino used in this recipe was as dry as the Luxardo that is behind most bars nowadays. I'd be intrigued to taste the results using a different brand of maraschino (any brands reading this, please feel free to send me a bottle, you know you want to).

The nose on this drink was all about the citrus, mostly lemon with a little grapefruit. Upon tasting I discovered an initial sweetness reminiscent of lychee syrup balanced extremely well with the complex floral and citrus notes of the Both's Old Tom. All of this was off-set by the maraschino, which led to a dry almond (?!?) finish. I also detected the flavour of aniseed which I've since discovered was coming from the gin after doing a neat-tasting of the Both's.

I envisage this drink working well with Asian cuisine as it definitely had an oriental feel to it. I'd possibly tone down the maraschino and/or the sugar syrup as it was a little sweeter than I like, but it is a nice alternative to the Tom Collins.

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Adam Elmegirab
Bar Consultant / Compounder
Evo-lution / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters

E-mail: adam.elmegirab@evo-lution.org
Web: www.evo-lution.org / www.bokersbitters.co.uk
Facebook: Adam Elmegirab / Evo-lution Bar Consultancy / Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters
Twitter: @AdamsBitters