opinionated alchemist

I have never really made a secret out of it: I think that complicated cocktails, with loads of ingredients are simply unnecessary... even foolish at times. I do believe in classic (and new classic) drinks - made on the highest level possible. A lot of bartenders though don't really understand fully the concept - there is a lot of perception and much less real knowledge (and taste) in the bartending world. Take for example the humble horseneck. If you would ask a group of bartender to make a premium version of it, most would use a great bourbon, Angostura bitters & a commercial ginger ale and call it a day. There I do agree with those who say, that using premium spirits is a waste in mixed drinks. There are others which would use the premium spirit, would though use a premium mixer, Angostura (or fancier bitters), and also feel confident to have done good work. But here is the thing: often "premium" mixers are more or less the same as commercial mixers. Yes...

Yippee... today I received some pieces of my gear: Mr. FizzGiz sent the gear from the US to Abu Dhabi - trust me, these were tough >6 weeks and I had problems to keep patient. Finally we have the gear - and fortunately I have ordered also a hand-pressurizer, so we can already start, without waiting for the installation of the CO2 cylinder. The very low tech solution FizzGiz is beating the much more sophisticated systems of iSi: the soda siphon or adapted espuma siphon [they took the Twist&Sparkle from the market, as there was the risk of exploding glass bottles] or Soda Stream hands down. It is so simple and cheap [if you don't have to pay for the air freight], that it is questionable, why people are bothering to invest into a more expensive system. When you get new gear, you wanna use it, right? My colleague from our South East Asian restaurant Noodlebox sat with me a couple of days ago, and we discussed, that it would be a great idea, to use home made sodas - lem...

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...