R ussell S anchez MONIN UAE MONIN Rocks @ HARD ROCK CAFE Dubai — with Rhiandro Gardiner and Louie Aquias at Hard Rock Cafe . I have seen this on my Facebook timeline. And well... I wanted to write about Monin since quite a long time, but haven't. However this message was a catalyst, to speak up. It is already a couple of months ago, that I routinely checked the ingredient list of a Monin bottle. ...and was shocked.... Point is, that I have always defended Monin against my US colleagues as decent brand. At least with the products they offered here in the Middle East and in Europe; they came from their factory in France. Most of the ingredients [except lets say in Blue Curacao syrup] were natural. Long time ago, somebody from Monin explained, that this is due to the quite strict regulations in France for syrup - there it is a family culture to drink syrup sweetened water/seltzer. And off course ...
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When I have seen this drink [and the plea to vote for it] on the Dubai Bartender Club facebook group, I directly answered quite opinionated. The recipe [at least in my universe] make little sense. Lots of sweet stuff, commercial stuff, with some artificial color and - who would have guessed - vodka. Not so good, I thought. But this made me look for the other drinks on the Monin promotion website drinksofthecentury.com . And what I have discovered is quite a shock for me. All drinks there are over sweet, over_fru-fru... and absurd! [Truth has to be told - all drinks except of an Amaretto-syrup flavored cappuccino - well done!] It seemed, that we are still deep in the 90's - and the cocktail-revolution never happened ["incidents" like that, let me believe in time-traveling - somebody knows Dale deGroff or did he had a deadly accident, before he became famous?]. Nobody seems to understand the product. Monin is scoring by even mentioning the brix degree on their bot...
First of all, you might be curious, why I put the word »treat« in quotations marks... Syrups are usually pretty shelf stable; despite of this fact, it is better, to keep most fruit syrups over longer time in the fridge; if syrups are homemade, you should always keep them in the fridge [except of your simple or rich syrup. However this is not, what I would like to discuss in this post. It is all about cooking... Bartenders - or shall I say mixologists, are usually very busy to find new »wild« cocktail creations - some more advanced minds, are searching for lost and forgotten »heirloom« recipes and do revive them. However the least bartenders are emphasizing on »produce«, other than fresh fruits and some good liquors. What about syrups? Now - I am not a big fan of a lot of different fruit syrups. But you need from time to time good quality syrups - and if a fruit is in season, why not using it? There are good products around. Gomme syrup of Monin is fantas...