As 85 years old, still working and still searching for perfection

I have recently seen the documentary Jiro dreams of sushi.
It is one of the most poetic, beautiful and inspiring films I have ever watched and clearly see myself resembling the spirit of Jiro.

No I don't see me as grand master. But the older I grow, the more evident it becomes, that the zenit of the understanding and knowledge of mixology is not yet - maybe never reached. And yet I am trying.

I would love to see my offsprings entering the same trade and learning from me - but it is far too early to wish for.

But the movie is showing also one big miss in our bar industry: bartender are too early too creative. Mixing their own concoction, while neither understanding fully the ingredients, nor the complex interplay of aromas, they don't understand the legitimacy of mixology, nor they really value the main ingredient at all.
Thousand of mixology challenges are happening year after year, and not only that participants are "flying blind" - but often enough judges are equally lacking to understand priorities in bartending, authenticity/originality and style.

In comparison in the best sushi restaurants, young cooks are prepping, scrubbing, learning and improving their skills before they even prepare one simple piece of sushi to one guest - and even a seasoned chef will take years until he creates a new dish.

I really like this attitude and would. What about you?

Comments

How to use citric acid - and why you might not want to use it anyway!

To be honest, I shied away of this topic, because I think, people can misinterpret this - big time.

I don't want to be part of the problem - I want to be part of the solution! But when Chris, over at A Bar Above discussed this subject- I literally could not resist to join into "the discussion".

Here is the video:

I - however take a bit slower approach than Chris.
What is citric acid?
Chemical Compound
Citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks.
Wikipedia Formula: C6H8O7
Molar Mass: 192.124 g/mol
Melting Point: 153C
Density: 1.66 g/cm3
Boiling point: 175C
Soluble in: Water
Why is it controversial?
In my "mixology world" it is controversial, as citric acid is the stuff, which makes the nightmarish sour mix [preferably in powder form] sour. Yeah - citric acid is the main ingredient in one of the most controversial [and in the modern craft bartending wor…

The Best Alcohol-free Drink - Ipanema

Usually I call them [out of laziness] mocktails - but really I never liked this denomination.
As "mocktails" are usually long drinks, it is even twice wrong, to connect them to a cocktail [which is technically a short drink with alcohol].
Apart of this, I am not a big believer in mocktails. Sodas can be fantastic [home made grapefruit soda is fantastic, or homemade ginger ale, ginger beer or any other odd ingredient sodas]. Juices - fine. Lemonades - yes, refreshing and good. And iced teas - can be absolutely amazing. Hence you don't need sickly sweet syrupy juice mixtures.
But yes - there are few good ones.
Most of them a mimicking drinks with alcohol. You can make a pretty good alcohol-free Planters Punch, Hurricane or Mojito, if you are using Caribbean Syrup. Or you can use a juniper syrup for some alcohol-free gin drinks.
A drink which I got to know long time ago, very early in my career, is a bit a different beast [well - you cannot call an alcohol-free drink a bea…

The misconception of Old Tom Gin

These days I have thought a lot about gin. There are a lot of gins coming on the market and some people are already calling it the “new vodka”.

While I do understand this notion, it is (out of my humble perspective) not at all comparable.
Yes - gin has been really exploited in marketing (like vodka) - but it is really like any mainstream trend. Vodka has been always a bit different: while a lot of gins have significant differences (especially due to their different botanicals) - quality vodkas lack the big differences and their subtle differences are subdued within the different moods people are in - or what they have eaten for breakfast or lunch, or if they had one drink before or simply with the mixers, the vodka is consumed with.
Anyway - one big topic I have contemplated about is Old Tom Gin. In my eyes, this style has been largely misrepresented and misunderstood.
The otherwise informative article in Imbibe shows exactly the issue - people get mislead by marketing of liquor comp…

opinionated alchemist

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