opinionated alchemist

Today was my last day at the Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi and at Skylite. I am a biylt.melacholic... but it is the right time and the right.thing to leave... While I created the beverage menus and and did a lit of training, I focussed here more on the business aspect. Very successful indeed - however this is just not my passion about. I am leaving, because I have to do again crazy stuff behind the bar. Lets hope my new job will make this possible.

The rant is going on! This time: Gin. There are definitely quite a lot of great gins on the market. And if you ask me, these are mostly the ones, which are carried by more than 45% alcohol. As gin is literally in all mouths, the spirit industry continues to push more new gins out. But I am questioning the reason. Yes - a very specialized bar could taste every single gin cocktail with different gins and decide, which gin to use. However lets be honest, with business on one hand in mind and marketing on the other hand, most bar owners, managers and bartenders will settle either way on their pouring gin or on a gin, which finds quite some recognition under the customers. So the question remains - how many gins do you really need in a bar. If you see it pragmatic here the result: Standard [London Dry] gin - usually around 40%. This is your Gordon's, yes your "normal" 40% abv Bombay Sapphire, your Beefeater and maybe also your Plymouth. Yes I know, Plymouth is n...

There was the linkedin discussion , about popular trends which are overrated. And after a lot of thoughts I came to the point, that nowadays, pretty much is overrated. This is what I contributed to the discussion: Dominik M.J. Schachtsiek  •  I believe, that every single trend nowadays get to a point, which is definitely overrated! • Avant-garde mixology - became overrated [especially by the press] • Farm to table mixology - became overrated • As well as the very similar culinary mixology ["bar-chefs"] • Even historic drinks usually are overrated [Martinez and similar] • And yes - bartenders and bars are usually as well overrated. I think this is not necessary a phenomenon, which you can find in bars. Look at the overall culinary trends nowadays - watch foodnetwork. Everything gets exaggerated to the excess. As well as most other industries [look into the car company - Porsche is unveiling a 800+ hp supercar - and people are complaining, that it has less hp than the La...

Darcy O'Neil - over at artofdrink.com  created below youtube video - as well as did the whole quest you learn about. Truth has to be told - the "movie" is quite long and a bit tedious - however for geeks like me, it is amazing to see the quest of an amazing mixologist for creating an authentic product. For me it is one indication, that bartending is going through to a whole new level. Please don't forget to visit Darcy's blog and like the video - and preorder your Abbott's bitters replica, which might be just your chance in a lifetime to buy and use it.

Folks - if every post would be so easy as this one... Nice video of the guys of the youtube channel "JapanShochuOfficial" - and this is their  website . Enjoy!

The topic of todays post keeps on looming - so why not picking it up? Should a cocktail be delicious? This is a serious question. For a person, who tastes occasionally cocktails and don't have really a lot of insight, it might be obvious: "off course - a cocktail must be yummy." But for bar flies and drink connoisseurs, it becomes more vague. Lets have a look on the most popular, recognized and "decorated" cocktails: Martini Cocktail Manhattan Old Fashioned Classic Margarita Mojito Negroni / Americano Sidecar Classic Daiquiri Mint Julep Whiskey Sour Out of those 10 drinks, non is "dessert tasty"; and if you are not used "proper cocktails" at least four out of ten are "repulsive". The other 6 would be not so extreme - but also not delicious in a conventional sense. Don't get me wrong. I love all of these drinks and I really enjoy of ordering them, if prepared properly. But then there is even more emphas...

It is quite a while since the opinionated-alchemist joined a Mixology Monday - and this is really a pity.  mixologymonday.com . The reason is, that MxMo to a certain time, was not "shooting" consistent monthly - and then after nothing really happened there, I just forgot to check back on You could also give the blame to Apple, who stripped off its RSS reader from Safari [my preferred browser]. Anyway - I always liked MxMo's - and I am happy, that I checked back a couple of days ago to join again. Now, May 20th the new Mixology Monday [which is here only a day or so away] is the next party happening. And instead of missing another blogging event or cheating [using the scheduled posting feature of blogger] I am just posting now my contribution. Hope you are forgiving me all… Mark Holmes over at Cardiff Cocktail is hosting the 73rd MxMo. In his words, this time it is all about Witches Garden: As far back as we can look, the use of fresh herbs have been prev...