opinionated alchemist

My friend Felix, just sent me a link, with the very short note: "finally..." Here is the link . To be honest- I haven't tried any of these rums. While these products are definitely something to look forward to, I anticipated something different from Bacardi. And while the presentation of the rums is great, I think it would be nicer, to "premiumize" and/or update existing or historic bottle designs. Especially for the Neo - it seems to be more obvious to go for the original design of the "Carta Blanca" [only in a better quality]. Or to put it into the 8 anos bottle. And I would love to see the Facundo bottle coming back. I still have the original bottle [and it is almost full] - and it is just different... and beautiful! Another point - the line seems not really cohesive - especially when it comes to the design [well I didn't tried it, so I cannot say]. But most importantly are the prices. These products are plainly too e...

So we tried to do the barrel aged Mai Tai in an 1l barrel - and the taste was really good. The only problem was, that the leftovers, of "diverse angel shares" were... not worth the effort. What angel share you ask? Well, first the barrel was leaking out of the spigot. It was leaking slow and sticky - but anyway. Another serious reason for the angel share was the tasting [sorry!].  This cocktail really has to be seriously tasted. This is ok for a large barrel, but for one liter barrel, it is a real problem... Anyway - batch no.2 is on its way. I did some amendments: I was always curious, why "Trader Vic" called for a dollop of French g arnier o rgeat in his original Mai Tai recipe. Almond syrup and dollop doesn't really properly align in my sense. But then it stroke me: what is orgeat: a syrup made from almonds, sugar and often a hydrosol [usually orange flower water]and water... guess which ingredient has all ingredients except of the water? Yes - marz...

We talked about the current trends, which will be definitely see a widespread adaption in a lot of bars in the next months and years. But there is one "next thing" which will be definitely interesting, as it is unique. And this time, no Jeffrey Morgenthaler comes up with it before me. I am for the moment fascinated of fermentation. No - not necessary the alcoholic fermentation [via yeast]. But fermentations via more complex microbiological cultures. This is definitely nothing new. We are talking about sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented pickles - and we are talking about kombucha and kefir and well - the original ginger beer. Instead of relying on the mono-culture yeast [I know - there are thousand of different yeast varieties - but usually only one - or maximum very few are used in one brew], these ferments are relying on a symbiosis of yeast, probiotic bacterias [like lacto-bacterias], sometimes even fungus. And it is not a "accidental" process - but these microo...

So made the statement, that the ongoing creativity of the Bourbon industry could very much hurt themselves - especially their reputation for quality products. I still think this is true to the mark - however today it stroke me - what they could have done better and who is really threatened. As you can already see in the headliner, Canadian whisky might be even more threatened. Why? Well - because they are not as creative - but they also don't have such a highly respected product if compared to US straight whiskey. Canadian whisky was always the cheaper and lower quality option. Yes - there are Canadian whiskies, which are ok. But truly great are non. All starts in how, Canadian whisky is produced - bear with me... Canadian whisky contains also different grains - corn [as main grain], barley and rye. Different than in straight whiskey, Canadians are fermenting, distilling and aging their different grains separately [at least this is what liquor.com can add to the subject]....

Now we did the whole barrel aged Mai Tai thing: I thought it will be great to use Wray & Nephews white overproof and Cointreau and solid orgeat... And age everything in a barrel. So now we aged this mixture (with additional like zest) I'm a one liter oak barrel for ca. 8 weeks. The liquid which came out is dark amber and smells intoxicating- sporting a lot of funk of the Jamaica rum, however also have toffee aromas and... oak. The taste is even better, while it is quite sweet, the rather strong alcohol level balances perfectly the sweetness and there is a ton of complexity... The set back, you ask? It is, that it became almost too good, to mix with fresh lime juice and pour onto a lot of crushed ice. In fact, I would prefer this barrel-aged cocktail before other aged rums... E.g. the prohibitly expensive Havana Club Añejo 15 Años. Or even an Appleton Estate 21 years old... It actually needs only a few drops of waters... While this might be just the best cocktail base since the ...

So I had this discussion on LinkedIn; which boldly proclaims the end of exhibition flair. And there is one group member, who especially praises flair bartending as the one solution for everything... What I though realized is, that we are talking about a completely different bar. I am talking about "my" future bar - the craft bar. Which catches up with other clinary venues. Which is grown up and responsible. Artisan I would say. And he is talking about a bar, which accidentally evolved from the past - located in the US, styled after a neighborhood watery hole. His bar can be located in a posh hotel or in a corner of a road of a worker's neighborhood - but it is more characterized by the attitude: rash, loud, people drink to have fun, sexist and obvious. Which bar is the bar of the future? Well,  both bars will be possible to find for quite a long time from now on. But people become more refined, more responsible, more aware of consequences. My discussion partner mentions b...

My recent post, which proclaims the early death of exhibition flair just stirred up some dust (as expected). However the discussion on LinkedIn was much  ore thoughtful than I thought it would be, and I gained quite a lot of ideas, which will benefit the concept of "my style of bar". Unfortunately most commenters didn't really made the distinction between work flair and exhibition flair. While both styles are rather ideals - and can be seen as extremes, one great cocncept sparked my mind: Form follows function & function follows the form. It is a bit yin & yang. But it makes a lot of sense: exhibition flair is all about form. It abstracts the idea of barkeeping to a rather gaudy performance. See exhibition like a Vertu phone - an extravagant device, which does every single task worse than pretty much any other smart phone. This happens when the sole vision is superficial. You could take now an Android phone, which is open source and has a ton of functions and opti...