opinionated alchemist

I have been pretty dogmatic in the bar in the last 15 or so years.  Other than most bar people (who would consider themselves dogmatic), I haven't been just against new stuff. I have never tried to stop progress.  However I almost entirely moved away from flavored syrups. Or "cheap" liqueurs. Or even a lot of flavored spirits. Why? Because I don't believe, that "my bar" should be based on food additives (...).  Most others were less concerned. There are spirits use for sure natural (but isolated) aromas. Think about one of the darling-gins of many bartenders: Ripple. If you have a bit of a clue, what the food industry is doing, this gin shouts out: complex extracted aromas. But Ripple is not the only example (even though, it is in a "premium space" where most other similar products cannot be found). I am pretty sure, that the cucumber and rose extracts of Hendricks are also not house-crafted. And would it make a big difference, if the guys at Willi...

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...