opinionated alchemist

Oh - yeah... since a long time I am ready to participate another Mixology Monday - I am so excited. This time - it is a quite easy going subject - Summer Break. This MxMo is hosted by  Joel DiPippa of the  Southern Ash  blog - thanks so much! As I am Beverage Manager in the real corporate life, I had also this time the idea to extend the fun, and ask the interested bartenders, if they would like to participate... two were excited as me - and you will find their thoughts and pictures below. First things first: the thoughts of Joel DiPippa: As we look past the frost in the air for the arrival of spring, I wanted to challenge you with the theme of Spring Break!..  The best part of Spring Break is that it means so many things to so many different people, so I have some high expectations this month.  Yes, tiki-heads, I am looking at you. I want all of you to dig deep, steeled by last month’s MxMO, and find your spring break drink! What sort of drinks d...

You might know, that I am not the best person for smoke and mirrors (no pun intended)... personally I like the simpler presentations.  However I also understand the psychology when it comes to drinks. And using smoke, is pretty much the easiest wow factor if you do have the equipment. From a flavor standpoint it can be also tempting, but often it is just unnecessary. If you are anyway mixing with Mezcal or Scotch (at least the smokier ones), smoking is just falsifying the aroma of the distillate.  On the other side, I made the experience, that peat (of malts) usually don't work very well with other regular cocktail ingredients like citrus juices... however some smokes do much better in this department. Equipment Polyscience Smoking Gun I bought myself (for the use in the hotel...) a Polyscience Smoking Gun. It is made out of plastic, and it is very obvious, that the plastic body is taken from a cheap volume produced consumer product (*cough* mini table va...