opinionated alchemist

  Warning: this is just an early thought process of a technique I like to develop. Obviously you can use it (please at least give me credit) - but this is not yet a proven concept. You have been warned.  I think it was in the “DIAGEO World Class” competition in Dubai several years ago (well - it feels like a life before - it was for sure before the pandemic...). We attendees were warned, that Simon Difford, who ought to be a judge, expects of all participants to double strain their cocktails - and that he would definitely deduct points, if a bartender would not double strain! I find these stance bewildering. Especially of a person who further dilutes cocktails (Simon Difford’s  original recipes often includes water) - which not only never really caught on, but really is a very strange thing. Don’t get me wrong, when I am in a jury and a bartender would do something unusual, I would also raise my eyebrows, unless the bartender is doing it deliberately and is explainin...

If we are watching Master Chef, we expect, that everything they do is technically correct - and well researched. I still struggle with Chefs, doing cocktails (and people who believe, that chefs are able to do this well). The bar is like pastry - part of culinary arts, but indeed very different. If you are not specialized, you will fail. And no - for me will not be “a little bit of fun” - at all! So let’s look at it point by point: First of all using fresh pineapple is great ! However the puree is far too thick and makes the Piña Colada to a smoothie. And the additional fibers (while probably healthier) will make the drink to a full meal! It would be better to juice it - or to puree it and then strain it. Second: really? Masterchefs don’t know how to use a blender? If you anyway add rum and coconut - why waiting - it would be so much easier. Third: the rum. It is Master Chef - they could really used something more sophisticated than Bacardi Carta Blanca! And what is about measuring??? T...

It seems that the titles of my posts become more and more elaborate. But you have got to understand the background: I have posted a post - and a video, where I made ginger ale. I have to say, this ginger ale rocks - I still stand to my recipe. However there is a point, that we believe that in the past, everything was produced more “rustic” and more “naturally” - and I also assumed it.  Apparently the opposite is fact. Especially when it comes to sodas - the “ soda jerks ” in the 19th century and the early 20th century were mainly pharmacists, who didn’t used natural ingredients, but rather used chemistry, part was still big companies are using for their highly processed soda syrups - partly which is no more allowed, because it was either way dangerous and poisonous, highly addictive or both (the conspiracy that Coca Cola contained cocaine is not totally wrong). My friend Darcy O’Neil who thankfully isn’t only a good bartender, but also a soda historian and chemical research analyst...

When I got my chamber vacuum sealer, I was surprised, that it is not as straight forward as the household "sucking" vacuum sealers.   I know, that a lot of home-cocktail enthusiasts really don't have access to this technology - however a lot of bartenders read my blog, which work in professional environments - and most hotels (and a lot of restaurants and bars with kitchen) just have chamber vacuum sealers. Hence this blog post is dedicated to those.  I cannot give perfect instructions - because a lot of chamber vacuum sealers are a bit different - and also any different product you like to vacuum seal is different. But understanding the settings, will help you to come to a far better result! Functional principle This information is pretty available in the internet - but I repeat it to be a slight more complete guide. A suction vacuum sealer is sucking out the air from the bar. Obviously this has the disadvantage that liquids are also sucked out. Depending on your vacuum...

  The good news:  Alcohol-free spirits have arrived. The bad news: The average quality is still very questionable - and supply is not yet globally consistent. Living in the Middle-East since 2005 made me pretty resourceful. It is not that alcohol is banned in the UAE - but it is limited. That means, you might not get your Ancho Reyes - or other stuff.  Things became much better - until the pandemic stroke. It isn't as bad as 2005 - but it is also not great with the alcohol supply here. As distillate connoisseur this might be an issue. Except that you could do an  ∞- whisky or (at least in a bar) could experiment with finished whiskies (have done all of it), you have got to keep your eyes open, when there are a bit more interesting spirits coming ashore for a rather short time (e.g. special imports etc.).  But for cocktails - you could do a lot. I would even say, that the limitations I have been exposed to  made  me a far  better bar...

 I have just watched "How to Drink" - the rum episode. What though came to my mind is: we are learning and categorizing wrong.  The problem is, that we are looking at the greatest common denominator. But this might confuse us or is even misleading us. For example rum: yes - mostly it is taught, that rum is made of sugar cane or  a sugar cane product. But really - most rums are made from molasses. The few exceptions are Rhum Agricole (which you could argue is a category itself and not passé a rum) and few brands which are made from sugar cane juice. Please note, that cachaça is not  considered a rum! The "Brazilian rum" moniker doesn't come from the Brazilians (because there are real  rums made in Brazil), but from the 20th century US bureaucracy, which needed to categorize cachaça and "didn't wanted" to give it its own category. The rums (except of rhum agricole) are made from countries which are not typically producing rum and don't have speci...

Do you have also the feeling that last year passed light-speedy fast?  And to be honest,  there hasn't been a lot of room for trends to stick - except everything related to the pandemic (we are talking about take away, in different iterations, ghost kitchens and so on). I try not to go too much in this trends and stay with true beverage related trends (products and all) - if you are interested, let me know, if you like to see another article about trends, which are more venue related... So which trends can we predict for 2022? Alcohol-free spirits This is a big one. It seems to really penetrate the market. Even here in Dubai - even the major supermarkets start to carry those spirits. I do think though, that there is definitely a lot of area of improvement. Some products are good (e.g. gin) - some are simply not enjoyable (until now I could only try one "0º Whisky which was simply disgusting! Alcohol-free spirits are changing totally the paradigm for alcohol-free cocktails....

In the last year, there has been some change in my life. This isn't so unique - as the pandemic has been challenging for most of us. While the bar was closed and I have been on unpaid leave, I left "my" hotel and joined an independent restaurant (new opening) as GM.  Unfortunately this didn't worked out very well. Hence after half a year I left (close to be totally burnt out) and rejoined my "old hotel" - now not anymore as Bar Operations Manager, but as Beverage Manager. Besides of "hanging out" in the evening behind Noir (again - now even with more emphasis) - my duties are also updating the beverage lists of the other restaurants. The cocktail discussed is for the Levantine restaurant. Now the Levant is the area on and around Lebanon. This area is rich of culinary culture and traditions - but not so much of alcoholic drinks (and yes - Lebanon is a great wine producing country - and they also create arrack... and: especially Beirut is known for t...

  It is the season. There are more events (yeah - events with people, pandemic is kinda mitigated - yay…), hot drinks are requested. Before especially in events I have used “coffee urns” which kept warm with gel-stoves. It works quite well, they don’t need a lot of space, they are also keeping things warm. But: you cannot really control the heat (its real fire).  And beverages which are thicker (e.g. hot chocolate) start to burn. Also: if you are holding alcohol drinks warm, it will evaporate and overheat. What is the solution: Using a water-bath. A bain-marie is not exactly something new - only that the kitchen appliances usually take more “real-estate”, and the manual ones are not made for beverages (not deep enough - they are made only to hold food warm), and the electric ones are not only big - but they are also very expensive. Enter Sous Vide, or better said an immersion circulator. If you are only heating a couple of bottles of a beverage, a wine bucket is alread...

  It seems, that there is an elephant in the room, when it comes to the latest developments in the finance world: blockchain, crypto, NFT's - it is a bit like quantum mechanics in science: the only thing, what respective experts are agreeing upon is, that if you say, that you are understanding it - you probably don't understand it... Blockchain is a book with 7 seals - the basic idea is pretty straight forward, but the when it comes to the details, the function principles, we all got lost in space. But like in quantum mechanics: not understanding fully the principles won't held us back to use some of the features (think about transistors, lasers diodes etc. which are applications of quantum mechanic principles).  So let's enter blockchain. While blockchain overall is quite interesting, NFT's and smart contracts attracted quite my attention in the last couple of months. Let's put the whole techno jabber to the side and let's go back in mixology-history: Most ...

  Ok... provocative title - I know. Let's directly spoil the resolution: we can't have a good Apple Martini, because the original "Adam's Apple" (how it was originally called) is not a Martini cocktail - duh! There is a fantastic and very expansive article on Eater.com.  In this article Jeffrey Morgenthaler said, that it is not possible, to make a good version of this drink, because using fresh juice isn't just the same. True. But it is better. Let me explain. We can basically go two ways. One way is the way of being incredible sophisticated and also very pretentious. We can think of making a real  Martini out of it. We can make a vermouth from a nice slightly sour cider. And then we could use gin (yeah - we can also use vodka - but what is the point?). Some bitters. And maybe something like a low temperature poached apple ball (made with a melon baller).  The problem: It is almost not recognizable as a "Apple Martini". Yes it is cool and all. But o...

Scotch can be very divers. It can be smokey and decisive, it can be floral and almost fruity - it can be delicate and really heavy and oily. Long time ago, I have been on a whisky-convention and in a workshop, they guys at Glenmorangie gave us Glenmorangie "spirit" to try - totally unaged Glenmorangie. I expected to be harsh and undrinkable - but it was beautiful - extremely fruity (think Poire William) - if they would have sold it, I would have purchased it. In the same event, they have introduced the experimental release of Glenmorangie Artisan Cask (I purchased later the bottle). For a very young whisky it hasn't been cheap, but it was truly incredible. A testament, that Single Malt Whisky doesn't need a lot of cask influences (at least some delicate distillates like Glenmorangie). Glenmorangie has shown for sure a lot of innovation. They also populated barrel-finishing - which is used now from most of the industry, to introduce interesting variants. As LVMH purcha...

  Oh my... I feel, that I should convert into "Cocktail-Mythbusters". Apparently there is a "competition out there" for the coldest Martini cocktail. This is... dumb. There are bars, which are using super-chilled water, to dilute a mixture of freezer Martini premix or just gin or vodka. This is counterproductive (because of... science). Water doesn't become much colder than 0ºC. And super chilled it is max -5ºC - but doesn't really store the thermal capacity (because water has a freezing point and the "naturally coldest" temperature of 0ºC). All what you do is increasing the temperature of the drink. Oh - there are also different ways . Point is, that these are gimmicks. If you really need to, put a bottle of premixed martini (super-super dry, vermouth has less alcohol, means, it increases the freezing point of the water-ethanol solution) into a specialty freezer, which goes below -20ºC. But as Dave Arnold have pointed it out - a too cold cocktail ...

In my Whiskey Sour experiment (and also in the taste of my last Whiskey Sours in the bar), I haven't been fully convinced about the taste of the whiskey sours. I did everything right: used quality bourbon, used proper ice, shook long enough, used fresh lemon... yet the whiskey sour was slightly too lemony - it had enough alcohol, the right sweetness, the sourness - yet it was somewhat off. No - it was not somewhat off - let me rephrase it - I was not 100% satisfied with the results. It wasn't as good as the Whiskey Sour in front of my imaginary eye (or on my imaginary tastebuds). Not that I tried a Whiskey Sour in another bar which has been better... That sounds crazy to you? Welcome to my world... The problem is that: as soon as I will change the ratios, the cocktail will also loose its balance... and to be honest, I don't really think, that solely tinkering with the ratios, will bring me anywhere... I have been breaking down how to improve cocktails before on...

At times it is good - but at times it is also bad to be quite self-critical. See water-kefir - despite the people who promote this beverage and say, that it is delicious, I had pretty mixed results. When following the mantra of so many people online (using raw sugar or at least less refined sugars plus some dehydrated fruits, the drink taste IMHO just plain awful (as well as become more awful with fermenting longer). I found a workaround with Darcy O'Neal's "spring water minerals" - suddenly the tibicos culture is multiplying and very happy even with plain white sugar - and the ferment taste light and nice. However the second ferment is very unpredictable: The time of the fermentation (even in the fridge) changes dramatically the taste. It ranges from slightly funky (which is great) to awful and kinda off.  The fermented fruit also makes a huge difference: cantaloup melon tasted very natural like a natural melon gatorade, similar to kiwi. Watermelon tas...

I know, that a lot of people in the industry are rolling their eyes, if you are using the moniker mixology or mixologist. However I totally see, that a lot of modern cocktail creation and especially the ingredients manipulation goes far beyond the classic methodology of a bartender. I believe, one of the most clever new introduction in bartending in the last years has been the use of aquafaba as egg white substitute in the bar. What is aquafaba? Aquafaba is the cooking liquid of pulses - and in most cases it is based on chickpeas. What to do with aquafaba? Instead of using egg white in foams or as cocktail ingredient (as foaming agent and for a smoother mouth feeling), you can use aquafaba (1:1 ratio). What are the advantages of aquafaba? There is one significant advantage: aquafaba is vegetarian / vegan. More and more people are avoiding animal protein - hence it fits perfectly into these times Aquafaba is a byproduct - and if "your kitchen" is...