It’s a bloody long way to get to Ireland and I don’t think they had a longer flight option with Virgin! So do yourself a favour and don’t almost kill yourself trying to fit in a full tour of Ireland and get back to Sydney in just a week. Crazy! With such limited time available I decided to focus my trip on pubs and all things whiskey related, unfortunately giving their iconic castles and fabled racetracks a miss.
Features
Features
Recently I took the Bartender team out to see Anthony Bourdain, former New York chef, come travel writer and TV presenter, who has developed a cult ‘foodie’ following over the last decade. His profile is huge and people love his no bullshit approach to food and to all things hospitality.
By all means this is not the complete ‘who’s who’ of cocktailing royalty, but it is a pretty good selection which showcases a few past – and still present – contemporary craftspeople. who are worthy of being celebrated.
This will not be the first column where I castigate drinks firms for pulling the wool over our eyes (or trying to) but it might be the first one where I point out whose fault it is – yours. A typically entertaining and well-researched piece by Wayne Curtis recently set me thinking. In it, Curtis explained how many of the brands that use ‘heritage’ as a large part of their appeal are actually selling porky pies. It’s been going on for a while and we’re not just talking St. Germain, Chambord and Bols, y’know. Benedictine was actually started by an 19th century millionaire who (even back then) saw that people loved old shit, so he spun a whole story about monks and 1510 etc. Ka-Ching!
Overlooking Moreton Bay with resort-style opulence and a hint of the Caribbean, is the newly completed Mon Komo Hotel. The Mon Komo Hotel is part of the greater Mon Komo development, which comprises residential living, short-stay accommodation and commercial tenancies, and the hotel completes the precinct by offering entertainment and dining options to both its residents and guests.
Like any industry that gleans a profit for the government the production practices of Ireland’s distillers greatly improved throughout the Victorian period. This was a time when science and technology was effecting mans’ life in numerous ways and the global distilling industry benefited from the inventions of tools like of the hydrometer and the saccharometer, both of which allowed for far greater control and accuracy when creating commercial volumes of spirit. Other methods of standardisation, empirical practice and structure also allowed the industry to develop into what we might recognise today.
I can’t remember the last time I heard mean-hearted gossip from a bartender. I’m starting to think that the men and women who hold forth from behind the stick are a breed unto themselves. Sure there are lots of big egos strutting their stuff behind bars, but that’s natural. Bartending is a look-at-me sort of a job, right?
Natural carbonated waters have long been known by man and long too has their effervescence been believed to hold curative powers. Transporting naturally sparkling water from volcanic springs to an eager consumer base however had its limitations and much more so before the advent of the combustion engine. It was the popular demand and potential economic boon that led scientists to investigate impregnating non-fermented beverages with bubbles.
From the outset the Almenning’s vision for the Eau de Vie brand was to be more about making a statement and less about ‘being a business’, according to Sanderson. “Eau-de-Vie was all about creating a venue where people walk away talking about the amazing drinking experiences they had rather than about the music, the crowd or the design.”
It’s no secret that at present the cider market is experiencing the giddy heights of popularity, but just how giddy? Well take a look at some of these numbers courtesy of the 2011 Nielsen Cider Report: national cider sales increased 34.7% in value terms and 23.2% in volume terms over in 12 months, this was set against an annual decrease of 0.5% that the liquor market is experiencing. The cider category on a whole is also growing rapidly, with some 45+ new cider brands emerging into the Australian market over the last 12-14 months.
A problem I’ve seen lately is that such brands are already anticipating being bought by big firms and have an only slightly daring take on things. They are like secretaries ordering Cosmopolitans instead of Fuzzy Navels and thinking themselves cutting-edge fashionistas. I recently evaluated a new whiskey brand for a potential client. It had an attractive, colourful, different appearance and layers upon layers of detail, but not one thing stood out.
The most valuable thing I learned while teaching was if you’re not getting the right answers, then you’re probably asking the wrong questions. So if you’re asking guests what wine they’d like to drink and the frustratingly reoccurring answer is still Savvy B – then it’s time you rephrased.
Sure customer choice will ultimately guide the decision but there’s no harm in showcasing something that educates and adds to their experience in your venue. Some research recently published in Wine Australia: Directions to 2025 highlighted a few good points that could be handy if you’re trying to work out what to sell in 2012 and how to sell it