opinionated alchemist

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 wrote this post in October 2012. And things have changed dramatically here in the ME. Fancy bars are rather losing business. Only few al fresco places and greasy spoon venues [pubs] are still successful or even gain more guests. Anyway - it is not only the business, which demands a change in the attitude of bars. Have fun to read this more than 4 years old post... Thursday in Dubai is like Saturday in Europe and the US. Everybody is going out! I am writing this, after the major business - it slowed down, after it was just more than busy, more than crowded - even more than crazy! Lets say it was insane! I don’t want to complaint. The revenue will be very good; we had not too many complaints; it was not too bad. However I just wanted to think loud, what is about bars which are so busy that they become “beyond” a bar!  The attitude of the guests, the loudness of the music, just the vibes are more like a nightclub than a bar. Again, I don’t want to complain beca...