opinionated alchemist

picture by Mother Earth Living   Again reflecting on Darcy O'Neil's visit to Dubai (and to Library Bar), he used natural aromas and essential oils (...), to produce house-made syrups for his drinks. This is pretty smart, because: ...there are far more natural aromas than syrup flavors. ...it is probably less expensive to use 1 ml of natural aromas per liter of simple syrup, than buying one of the syrup brands. ...you know what goes into the syrup (let's be honest here - most syrups are anyway using the same aromas and often even artificial aromas for their own products). Especially impressive were an aroma made out of tobacco leaves, which was bright, intense - really mindblowing - and a "lactone" made out of oak, which had strong vanilla notes and a complex coconut character (without tasting like Malibu). These are not your run-of-the-mill syrups. This is all very new and very cool to me. But the question remains, is this the right direction fo...

I am a "rich syrup guy"... not a "simple syrup guy". This is, because it is better to be able to control dilution by yourself - not by he setup you have got. I had also a pretty straight forward method: adding 1 kg sugar into 1/2 liter of cold water and blend until dissolved (be carefully, not to blend too long with a high-performance blender, because it would heat up). The issue here: it takes some time - because sugar doesn't "like" to dissolve in cold liquid. A lot of bartenders are adding sugar into hot liquid. This isn't a good idea either: due to hydrolysis the sucrose is converting into fructose and glucose. This makes the sugar thicker and sweeter - but also makes the result less consistent (as you don't meticulously monitor all details (time, temperature, pH, etc.). Further the thickness of the glucose worsen the ability of the syrup to mix in cold liquid (speak a cocktail). Darcy, of artofdrink.com has a profound chemistry...

Darcy did a great job, in hosting this event and we had quite a lot of guests who could try the different G&T. Unfortunately I didn't made pictures... Cucumber & Coriander G&T with Strawberry Darcy: Strawberry & coriander share similar aroma compounds; coriander is further very common in gin. Darcy emulsified coriander essential oil in simple syrup, he was using for the drink. That we quite a slam-dunk - most guest liked it. It was very refreshing and very cool - we used Plymouth for it, which was definitely a great company with the drink. Cardamon & Mint G&T Darcy used the popularity of the Mojito, to "capture" guests - the cardamom syrup (again made with essential oils and emulsification) was giving it a more unique and Middle Eastern flair - basically there was only cardamom syrup, gin, mint, lemon and tonic water involved. Again very refreshing, with a distinctive oriental note. We used partly Plymouth and Bombay Sapphire for it a...

I am using Amarena cherry several years now. I thought they are the best compromise (even if they are a compromise at all) between taste, looks, quality. If only they were Amarena cherries with stem (they've got lower points in the style, due to this reason). Amarena cherries are beautiful almost black cherries in very sweet syrup, they still have a snap and they are quite natural [this is a bit confusing - because obviously they are heavily processed, they are cooked in a lot of sugar and half inverted - with quite natural I mean, that the producer don't help themselves with the box of food-additive wizary - all ingredients are "really" natural]. This is pretty much the opposite of the typical bright red Maraschino cherry, which is bleached, stabilized, dyed and flavored with artificial colors and flavors. It was not long after I've started to use this amazing product, that I wondered, how to use the dark sweet syrup, which is full of the Amarena flavor ...

Darcy O'Neil - over at artofdrink.com  created below youtube video - as well as did the whole quest you learn about. Truth has to be told - the "movie" is quite long and a bit tedious - however for geeks like me, it is amazing to see the quest of an amazing mixologist for creating an authentic product. For me it is one indication, that bartending is going through to a whole new level. Please don't forget to visit Darcy's blog and like the video - and preorder your Abbott's bitters replica, which might be just your chance in a lifetime to buy and use it.

There is a lot of marketing and anti-marketing out there, about products. Sometimes you just have to use your common sense [as well as your technical expertise] to confirm or bust these "myths". One outstanding personality in mixology is Darcy O'Neil who happens to be working in a lab. Not only, that he has the gear, to do one or the other great experiment - but he also has the knowledge. Today, I just found a super interesting article, I haven't read yet on his blog - and it is surprisingly opinionated... Please join me, to read the article about glycerol in vodka - which is already older, but I guess, if I just found the article, you might not even heard of it...   Does Grey Goose Contain Glycerine? And here is the link of the result post:   Glycerol in Vodka Results The Art of Drink , is one of my favorite blogs, and most reliable and objective resources of bar, spirit and mixology related content.