opinionated alchemist

Folks- just a short and clarifying post about agave nectar. I talked yesterday with Felix, who told me, that my post made his mixologist unsure about using the product… and this was not my intention. Yes - agave nectar is not super healthy. Yes - it might be not beneficial at all [neither taste, nor health, nor cost advantages]. But it is not harmful, either. Yes - I even suggested before, to use fruit sugar [which is fructose] in a Mojito. Crystalline fructose dissolves much easier and faster in cold liquid. And lets face it, the alcohol in the drink, is much more harmful, than the fructose. The reason, why it is such a big bummer is, that organic and health stores, pseudo health products are using it to make things healthier than sugar - and apparently it does the opposite. Some of you might say, that agave nectar has a low glycemic index. And this is true. But this happens due to a trade off: the fructose can only be broken down by the liver - and you can imagin

Click the box to get to the interview of Bobby "G" Gleason. Yesterday, I have read on Facebook a link of Ulric, in which the master mixologist of Jim Beam [I didn't fully understood, why he was called the personal mixologist of Kid Rock, but this is a whole different story] gave his  opinion about cocktail trends. In this piece, he mentioned that he doesn't like barrel aging cocktails, due to the inconsistency [different barrels with different origins and so on]. See link below. Ulric agreed on this - while I wrote a counter-comment, that sometimes consistency is not everything. Deservedly I got punished by a sarcastic comment by Ulric, that I don't like to deliver consistent cocktails in the bar - I only replied "Touché" - as I had in mind to write this piece here. What i meant [and partly also mentioned] was, that consistency is important. But it is not everything! Especially not in a very good bar. Stop ! Don't you think to leave thi

After the agave nectar scandal , nothing seems to be big enough to post about. At it seems odd, that I am coming here to review a commercial and mass produced product. But hey- I do admit, that I love coke and really like some other commercial sodas. I only try to stay away of artificial ingredients. This said, Fanta Pineapple doesn't start a nice relationship with me. While the front states "Pineapple flavored soda with other natural flavors" - the ingredient list looks like a witches brew: carbonated water, HFCS, citric acid, natural flavors, modified food starch, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate [to protect taste], sodium citrate, coconut oil, salt, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, yellow 5, yellow 6 Well - that doesn't really look like my homemade sodas. Yes citric acid, sodium citrate [a simple product, when you let citric acid and bicarbonate of soda react], carbonated water… this is understandable. HFCS is obviously far cheaper than sugar - this is

First of all - sorry, that I haven't posted for quite some time. I am still in the process of moving over from the modern Yas Viceroy to the venerable Ladies & Gentlemen of the Ritz Carlton Dubai [JBR] - and for the moment I have morning shifts [orientation and familiarisation]. Today I actually discovered that I have a morning allergy [I made this up - but I guess, it would be an amazing excuse, for never come in the morning]… Anyway - besides of getting to know the new hotel, I am already in full effect with the overhauling with beverage menus. As in the Middle East, a bigger fraction of people are looking for alcohol-free drinks and ordering sometimes "paradox" things like virgin margaritas, I was researching, if there is anything like agave flavored syrup. Obviously the search engine results are full of references to agave nectar. But under the results I also found the very interesting website www.foodrenegade.com , which stated the question, if agave nec