I have found this video in the newsfeed on Facebook and wondered - is such products great for the bar? It sounds all great: more consistency, more flavor - cheaper cost. What not to like? This is not necessary only this product, which is rather fresh on the market - it is also well known brands like Funkin' Fruit Purees and even Boiron, which are in the focus here. As you might already sense now (and could take it out of the title) - I do have a different opinion about it. For me, these products don't help - and here is why: Making a product shelf-stable [after you open it], means that it consist conservative substances. A commercial product usually also uses less expensive sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup. Products like those, jeopardize the position of the bar as part of the culinary arts - usually great restaurants use great seasonal produce - no convenience products! Using this type of products will spoil operators and guests - if flavors are ...
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I really wanted to do some house-crafted limoncello today, for our Italian restaurant. And instead of zesting lemons, I had the idea of using whole fruits. Yes - usually zests working better - because there is far more surface. However my good friend, the sous-vide immersion circulator helped to cut the time in a fraction of traditional limoncello. The normal procedure of limoncello is: Zest [cleaned] lemons Add them into alcohol Traditionally high proof grain alcohol is used - however using vodka is just fine, if you are regarding the difference in ABV. Obviously in Italy high proof booze is used, as it is in production far cheaper than the refined product 'vodka'. Wait for several weeks [depending on the size of the zest pieces]. Strain and add sugar syrup [depending on the original occurring alcohol strength and the target strength]. Bottle and label. Now - I want to do this procedure as well - with two major differences: I want to use whole lemons - du...
Aging cocktails in oak is no more really cutting edge. A lot of bartender are doing it. But are you doing something meaningful with it? I have seen bartenders aging moonshine or corn whiskey - not really meaningful. Your Negroni? Not very novel... Well I received a sample oak bottles [and bought directly 2 more] of Ulric Nice - especially UAE and Dubai folks will know him [but he is also known by quite a lot of other popular bar people]. I used them now over a couple of months and I can attest, that they are really effective - far more effective than an oak barrel. In a bar, time is key - you don't want to age a several gallons of liquor for half a year or so... you want to have fast results - and the oak bottle is all about quick results. Our take at the Library Bar was a Last Word cocktail - hardly a very creative choice for an oak aged cocktail - but a delicious and sophisticated one nonetheless. We didn't kept it too long in the bottle and only aged the liqu...
I am usually not a big fan of mocktails! Really - come to a bar and drink some proper drinks - or just drink water, a soft drink or orange juice [please spare me, with something like watermelon juice or kiwi juice!]. However being a beverage manager of a resort, also included "creative" introductions of alcohol free drinks - and especially in family restaurants, you will sell a lot! So - as you can see on the picture, these are a quite evolutionary type of drink! Basically it is an instant soda pop. You muddle your fruit and/or herb [you can add also some syrups like elderflower or vanilla] - you fill the glass with ice and fill it up with a neutral soda pop base. This contains water, sugar, citric acid, carbon dioxide, a small pinch of salt and a small pinch of bicarbonate of soda. I actually realized, that adding a bit salt and bicarbonate really boost the flavors and make the "pop" sing! I am using Soda Plus, to carbonate the soda b...
As mentioned in my previous post, we are opening a restaurant with a Tiki beverage concept [please don't check for grammar mistakes or alike - I really try to keep you in the loop - though haven't got the usual time, to write up a perfect piece]. Due to the fact, that it was revealed not so long time ago, that the concept is changed to Tiki and the a rather busy holiday season, I could not prepare the infusions for Falernum, Allspice Dram and alike. However I am pretty good in putting 'a' and 'b' together... There is a version in the internets, which features to blend the ingredients for an allspice dram. Neat and interesting. Further Dave Arnold's rapid cavitation infusion would be also a way to go. Now the first concept usually works quite well. However the liquid is a bit cloudy - it is quite difficult to strain the blended pieces of botanical as well. And also the second concept works - however through rapid cavitations, aromas usually are far...
Ok - folks, as always an apology! It have been quiet around here. Yes - my work-life balance actually totally broke down. Festive season - a wine trip to Italy [well - this was at least a bit of life - nice trip though and nice wines... let me know, if you want to learn more about it]. Anyway - I am back... that means, not completely - I am just standing before a rather big challenge - another opening of a restaurant with a challenging beverage concept: tiki cocktails. If you have been more than once, you might have had the notion, that I am more like a classic cocktail kind of guy. Yes - I love to do something new - but always on rather simple cocktails with few ingredients. Tiki is not necessary right in my alley. However my style formed working almost 2 decades in the beverage business. And yes - I did my fair share of tiki. I will definitely post some picture of the tiki madness. However today, I am dedicating my time and this space for one particular ingredient: banan...
A decade or so ago, I was jealous about bartenders in the US and a bit less to them in the UK. Germany wasn't in this time well served with new products for the bar. Then I came to Dubai - and learned, that it wasn't that bad in Germany. Even today, there are a lot of limitations, when it comes to availabilities of products in the UAE. But on the other hands, I have learned a lot: limitations are fueling your imagination and creativity and if I would have stayed in Germany, I don't think, that I would have become the same bar-person, I am today... There are a lot of ingredients in the kitchen, we usually oversee. One of them I would like to play around today: fennel. Fennel seeds to be exact. Sure, you could mess around with the fennel bulb - juice it [after that you might want to agar-agar clarify it...] - but spices are so much easier to work with - and sometimes the result is even better. This is what google has to say about it: ...