This month Australian Bartender takes the Blind Tasting on the road, and we rallied the panel — including Enrique’s School for Bullfighting’s James Connolly, Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth’s David Nguyen-Luu and Tim Wastell, Five Bar’s Andy McIntyre, Bobeche’s Joe Sinagra, Luxe Bar’s Simon Hough and from our host bar, Varnish on King, Tim Sponberg — for a tasting of aged rum.
Featured
Featured Content
Long time Brooklyn resident, booze historian and author of the oft-quoted Imbibe! and Punch: the Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl, Dave Wondrich, has teamed up with New York Distilling Company to produce this distinctive new gin, the Chief Gowanus New-Netherlander gin.
Just in time for the upswing in summery cocktails, Midori has unveiled a new look bottle along with a slight reduction in its sugar content.
The new bottle is a result of extensive research with consumers and has a premium modern look with a frosted finish and a sleeker bottle shape.
Could gin be the quintessential cocktailing spirit? And which gin drinks should you have in your repertoire? We asked some of Australia’s best bartenders what they thought.
We recently brought you the news that mezcal looks set to be the hit of the summer with the opening of Mr Moustache on Hall Street in Bondi, and at the weekend they opened their doors to the public. Australian Bartender popped by to take a look at what owners Regina Bueno Ros and Bildo Saravia have put together.
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.