opinionated alchemist

Yes, we introduced the new menu a couple of weeks ago... and I kept a bit silent, as we still working on a better consistency. But hell - I am proud on this menu. From the layout [the drawings were made by the lovely Sima, which not only able to mix some spiffy drinks, but also have a very artistic side in her] - to the drinks selection, to the drinks presentation. Please let me know, what you think... or pass by in La Baie Lounge [if you happen to live in the UAE] and ask for me. Really looking forward to your comments! So please here - check out the link !

I questioned in a post before, if versawhip is the answer, for most espumas without egg-white. Egg white is the perfect ingredient, resulting a stable but still pliable foam, it is accessible to all of us… the only problem is the often cited "wet dog smell" which always happens, when egg white is oxidising. Well I read a bit about versawhip [before I spend a lot of money in getting it by mail order here to the ME. Apparently a lot of people complaining about a sharp metallic aroma. So it is also not great for delicate foams for cocktails. Today it stroke me - I looked for a foam recipe and seen xanthan gum. Well, this ingredient I am already using, as thickener and stabilizer. However it is strange: I never had the idea to use it without anything else. So I opted to use it in a mixture of cranberry concentrate, fresh apple juice and sugar - in a concentration of 2%. The foam was very good; pliable, perfectly stable and floating. It is a bit less airy [but I used o...

Folks, there are more drinks to come than those of the previous posts: Rush Drinks I Rush Drinks II Rush Drinks III So here we are: Greyhound Highball This is another highball [I definitely have to write a post about promoting highballs] - instead of grapefruit juice of an ordinary greyhound, we will use our house made grapefruit soda. And we will rim the drink with a little cinnamon sea salt - of course it will be based on gin [what a question...]. Popcorn Sour This will be a drink, which is rather more complex and ambitious. It is actually a whiskey [speak bourbon] sour; the whiskey is infused popcorn and vanilla and finally fat washed with butter. As a craft sour, it also utilizes fresh lemon, rich syrup and glair [yeah - this is how we call egg white]. The bourbon [I plan to use Elijah Craig, which is in my eyes one of the greatest classic bourbons and definitely the best value straight whiskey on the market] becomes super smooth, due to the infusion - but the...

Four more drinks, which I like to introduce to Rush: Bellini Sgroppino This drink is a fusion between a classic Bellini and a quite contemporary Sgroppino, which is a sparkling wine drink, featuring lemon sorbet. Here we substitute the lemon sorbet, with white peach sorbet, to create the bridge between sgroppino and bellini. Basil Smash There are only few drinks, which we keep as they are - the Basil Smash is one of them. Already recognised as modern classic- it was the brain child of Joerg Meyer, the owner of the fantastic bar Le Lion in Hamburg / Germany. It revives [as well as violates] the archaic category smashes with the changes of adding citrus juice and substitute mint with fresh basis. Not yet sure, if we will use Asian fragrant basil or the classic Italian rather sweet variety... Ultimate  Mojito Now this drink was tricky. I wanted to depart the usual path, to vary the classic Mojito with any muddled fruit, fruit puree, syrup or liqueur. And I also wanted to...

While I am waiting for the new season in Skylite, I didn't wanted to leave Rush with their old menu. It is kind of typical Middle East - trapped between the dark ages of mixology and the early cocktail revival [shortly after the millennium]. So I gave it some thoughts and some love and came up with a short list of cool cocktails. It is not yet revolutionary - I am still lacking most of the equipment I need, to really move things into the future - however the drinks are unique and cool - and probably not seen in Abu Dhabi or Dubai. In the next couple of weeks, we have to implement those; that means, get them approved, scheduling tastings, doing the costing, doing a new menu and so on and do forth. Here on my blog, I give you the unique opportunity to have a sneak peak; one drink at a time. Unfortunately I can't yet post pictures [they will follow, when we perfected the recipes] - but I am sure that you have enough imagination... So stay tuned...

The guys at www.cookingissues.com made also pretty amazing graphs!  The ice doesn’t matter and even the time of shaking doesn’t really matter [as long as you are shaking longer than 15-20 seconds - a problem of most bartenders...] What matters is the amount of water, which comes with the ice.  Maybe a good drainage in the ice well, makes more sense than a “double_expensive_super_ice_machine? Yes and no! The results are talking to me like that:  there is no [ice] excuse anymore, when you get shitty drinks in a bar!  A proper ice machine still shows you, which drinking venue is quality oriented!  And: the results are only related to the sole shaking. If you use shitty ice cubes in a drink on the rocks, the drink will dilute much faster in the glass. Now, thanks to Dave Arnold, we can slow down again a bit [after the ice carving out of a glacier from the moon] and apply our special skills to more customers. Well....

As I have posted yesterday the Agar-Agar Clarification post, I thought, that it would be also great, that I reinstate the post about Science behind shaking. Again Dave Arnold - again groundbreaking. Maybe these discoveries were even more groundbreaking as the clarification techniques. Hence enjoy, what you will find out here... I could say now: I’ve told you... Obviously I won’t do [ups - ahem I just did...]. Dave Arnold and the guys at www.cookingissues.com just did an epic voyage, discovering the mechanics behind shaking. Why don’t you read the short story below - and click the blue link for the whole post? For those of you without patience: the Short Story Cocktail shaking  is a violent activity.  If you shake for around 12-15 seconds (though shaking longer won’t hurt), and if  you aren’t too lethargic, neither the type of ice you use nor your shaking style will appreciably affect the temperature or dilution of your dri...

I still remember, that this beer liqueur was awesome. Quite bitter, but a lot of maltiness. Need to do this again! Just enjoy one very old blog post of mine... Friday, 14 September 2007 Irish Beer Liqueur Jamie Boudreau posted few days ago his quest to make a beer liqueur! Very good idea Jamie - so there is another challenge. Jamie did the whole thing with Belgium styled ale.  Hm, I am not from the it-has-to-be-fruity-fraction and my thoughts were more to benefit of the bitterness of the beer. And unfortunately there are not so many interesting beers around in Dubai - so I went into my store room and found: Irish Stout! We had few cans of Kilkenny, I thought of initially- but we already sold them all; so Guinness supposed to be fine for my experiment. I cooked it down (took the foam sentiments of), added first maple syrup and then a bit sugar. I tried and I felt that I am on the right way! But this spiciness supposed to be supported...

Yeah - another old post. We carbonated today the first time at the Yas Viceroy hotel Abu Dhabi some grapefruit soda as well as peach soda; means we didn't only used carbonated club water, but used an iSi container with a CO2 cartridge. Due to the increased CO2, the sodas became a bit more sour. Overall they were more than fantastic - really tasty. And housemade sodas become one part of my beverage strategy for the hotel. Following the old post: Let me tell you a secret: I am addicted to sugar and addicted to sweet sodas; first of all Coca Cola. Unfortunately Coca Cola is really inexpensive [and mineral water quite expensive] in Dubai, so it is very hard to break through this bad habit! Though there are very few sweet sodas, which taste great - good Tonic is great [especially if it has a good companion like gin], or Ginger Beer is great [but not so much as protagonist - ginger beer is another drink, which greatly benefits of a companion, which is now dar...

I haven't wrote much about my job lately. Let me now announce officially: I moved from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, to work in the really cool designed Yas Viceroy Hotel. Yeah - it is the hotel in Abu Dhabi built over the Formula 1 race course Marina Circuit. I am bar manager [which pretty much gets the best out of me] and I am looking forward to share with you new drinks, which we will create here. Stay already tuned - I am waiting for new equipment and new products - but we will do some mixology,  unparalleled in the region. Looking forward to write a lot about the journey, which just has begun.

There is always one big challenge in a bar, if somebody is ordering... iced tea. As it is here [in the Middle East] not a regular order, bars usually don't have chilled tea available. If some outlets have it, it is usually... nasty - in old Store 'n Pour containers it taste horrible - already spoiled - or at least soon to spoil. The solution - brewing fresh tea and chilling it down. Problem: the tea just gets watery - if you put ice into it - or it takes a long time [and time it will take anyway], if you are chilling it without direct contact with ice. The ultimate solution:  Rapid Infusion Pour ambient water into a iSi siphon [or any competitive brand - we won't do product placement here]. Add loose tea - maybe little bit lemon zest as well - or feel free to add herbs or anything else, if you would like to do specially flavored iced tea. Close the siphon and charge it with one N2O cartridge.  Swirl for around 45 seconds. Release gas upright [with ...