Tatler can plausibly lay claim to a couple of Sydney firsts — it was perhaps the first Sydney small bar, and it enjoyed a reputation for being the most exclusive bar in Sydney with its clientele of regulars drawn from Sydney’s music, media and arts in-crowd.
At Australian Bartender it’s no secret that we love well-made high quality gear — whether it’s a seamlessly fitting cobbler shaker or a precisely machined Japanese bar spoon. So we were excited to visit Asahi Premium Beverage’s Laverton plant in Victoria where high tech is writ large, and where quality, precision engineering and sheer scale collide.
It’s hard work, but as they say, someone’s got to do it. After visiting bars across the country the panel of judges — including industry legend Phil Bayly and Bacardi’s international brand ambassador, David Cordoba — in the Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competiton have whittled down the field of 25 finalists to just five: the Five Most Promising.
Not ones for resting on their considerable laurels, the award-winning Eau de Vie is releasing their very own brand of small batch bottled cocktails. It’s something that has been on the cards for a while, according to owner Sven Almenning.
Over 350 people gathered at Sydney’s Hugos Lounge to witness the five state finalists of Suntory’s Cocktail Connoisseur competition shake, stir and mix it up against one another. At stake was bragging rights and a once in a lifetime trip to Japan with a cool $1000 cash in spending money.
Only a few years ago the number of mezcals out in this country was minimal, and either hard to find or hard to drink (that is to say, they were craptacular). Now though there’s a verifiable monsoon of mezcal sweeping our shores with the latest addition being these mezcals from Casamexico.
We wrap some of the latest in drinks news: Playboy getting into the vodka market, a couple of new spiced spirits, a name change for Independent Distillers and getting drunk without taking a drink.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Pub Guide has announced the winners in their 2014 edition. We recently highlighted just how good the Woolwich Pier Hotel’s renovations were (and how tasty the new food offering is), so its good to see those efforts being rewarded, with the hotel taking out the best pub award this year.
Campari Australia have welcomed premium English gin, Bulldog Gin, into their stable of brands. The agreement to distribute the super premium London dry style gin took effect on the 1st of November.
Not only has Hello Sailor been one of the more talked about Sydney bar openings of this year, it’s also lent its name to a verb (one that shouldn’t need much in the way of explanation). Indeed, thanks to Marco Faraone, Luke Redington and Mike Edkins it is now possible to go and get “sailor’d”.
There was a time when the mark of a cocktail bar was the line of fluro-coloured liqueur bottles sitting on the back bar. You can scoff, nowadays with your amari and small batch organic moonshine, but they’re there in old photos of the Bayswater Brasserie and in top bars around the country. It was a thing, man.
With all the talk about mezcals these days, could it be that tequila has become mainstream? Has the zeitgeist moved on? Has tequila sold out?
We gathered together a panel of five bartenders to plough through a tasting of six tequilas to find out.