opinionated alchemist

 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...

I read a lot about American whiskeys these days. And this is a good thing [except, that nothing new and/or great seem to arrive in the Middle East]. For such long time, which spans from the end of the prohibition [respective from the start - depending how you see it] until the early 2000's, American whiskey was quite a shadow - a side remark in the whisk(e)y industry. But now - it is talk of the town [even if it is not this town]. And bourbon and rye have all the right to be en vogue. The flavors are bold - but also absolutely stunning. The prices are compared to other whisk(e)y really accessible. There were so many great brands and bottlings which resurfaced after the millennium or new distilleries, which gain traction. However these days, it seems, that the American distillers are loosing their way and it just seems, that they try too hard. It started with flavored whiskey- while I absolutely love the concept [and house-crafted bourbon infusions can be really amazing], t...

There is a lot of marketing and anti-marketing out there, about products. Sometimes you just have to use your common sense [as well as your technical expertise] to confirm or bust these "myths". One outstanding personality in mixology is Darcy O'Neil who happens to be working in a lab. Not only, that he has the gear, to do one or the other great experiment - but he also has the knowledge. Today, I just found a super interesting article, I haven't read yet on his blog - and it is surprisingly opinionated... Please join me, to read the article about glycerol in vodka - which is already older, but I guess, if I just found the article, you might not even heard of it...   Does Grey Goose Contain Glycerine? And here is the link of the result post:   Glycerol in Vodka Results The Art of Drink , is one of my favorite blogs, and most reliable and objective resources of bar, spirit and mixology related content.

The new tonique magazine is out now! Since I came to the UAE I was amazed by the quality of print media, produced locally. You can't find a lot of places, where small editions are done so perfectly. The tonique magazine is especially fitting my interests - it is all about bartending, beverages, mixology, spirits. While it is a bit... commercial, you can find there a lot of information, which you usually don't find on the brand websites. And the best: it is a free online magazine, you can access, from anywhere around the globe! Besides of the fact, that it is free, I love the fact, that you can comment on posts there - a feature, not seen often, though uses the full potential of the www and social media. So: be the guest of my dear friend John Gillespie, the editor of this fantastic piece and go over to http://www.toniquemagazine.com/ You might even find some "opinionated" comments there...

Time have changed. Apple decided to double-cross me - and other users. They pulled the plug from their webhosting. They forced us, to go over to other services, to host our webpages - I am not happy about it [and I guess, others neither]! After long back and forth, I decided to use blogger - because it is free to have your customized domain. Hopefully soon this page will be again available via www.opinionated-alchemist.com - in the meanwhile "dial" opinionated-alchemist.blogspot.com . The whole design has unfortunately changed. And all the previous posts are lost [not really, but it would take me months, to re-post them - so I have decided not to. I hope, that you value the content higher than the design. And I hope, that I can go on with the more or less regular posting as before [even if I don't really like the blogger interface]. And who knows - maybe it is even positive, to go over to a 100% web compliant and 100% searchable layout... however it was nice, a...