opinionated alchemist

Not so long time ago, I had a loose get together with some drink industry friends. As the conversation went along, I dropped, that I actually like Old Monk rum [to the great shock of the others]. For my uninitiated friends in the US and Europe: Old Monk 7 years old is a dark rum from India - and it is dirt cheap here in the Middle East [not to speak of India - where it can be procured for a fraction of it]. It is also No.3 selling rum world wide [but only, because the Indians are drinking it like water ;-) ]. If normal "imported" [yeah - everything is imported] rum will be around AED 80 [which is around $20] Old Monk cost you a cool AED 20 [$5.50]. And you know what - in my opinion it beats the more expensive Caribbean cousins hands down. But lets face it - it is not as good as Gosling [which is here even more expensive, though], but against Myers, Captain Morgan or Coruba it is not only keeping up - it displaces the competition! It has very strong dark roast aroma...

It might sound strange, however ginger is one of the flavors, which is working fantastically in mixed drinks. Especially with aged spirits, it really shines. But even white spirits you can combine with ginger - hence it might be one of the most versatile flavors in the bar. There are different beverages carrying the aroma ginger - ginger liqueur, ginger syrup, fresh ginger which you could muddle, but the most common ones are ginger ale and ginger beer. But what are the differences between those two? One can be sure, that ginger beer was the first concocted ginger beverage. An interesting note is the traditional preparation. The strained liquid [you may call it juice], from fresh grated ginger, was combined with water, citrus juice and simple syrup and was fermented. However originally no yeast, but ginger beer plant was used. This ginger beer plant [usually abbreviated to gbp] is a composite organism - a in symbiosis living microorganisms- bacteria and yeast [lactobacillus...