The iPad edition of our December issue is now live in the App Store. In this month’s issue:
Read this before you open a bar – Phil Bayly talks about the pitfalls you need to avoid to set up a successful bar…
Products
Since its launch in the US in 1995, the Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-style wheat ale has grown in popularity (these days you’ll be sure to find the flavoursome beer on tap in pretty much every airport bar across the country) and served to help ignite the interest in non-mainstream styles of beer there. Now, as part of CCA’s efforts to get back into beer in a big way, Blue Moon can be found across Australia.
This distinctive rum from the Philippines is one you’ll remember and is now available through icon Beverages
Come January 2, 2014, while most bartenders are still likely recovering from NYE hangovers, Bacardi Lion will take on the distribution of Magners cider and launch its sister brand, Gaymers onto the Aussie market.
The Cricketers Arms Lager has been one of the favourites round the Bartender offices for its easy drinking appeal. Well they’ve added two new players to the team: the Indian Pale Ale and the Mid On.
Mezcal Amores is Mexico’s third biggest selling mezcal, and is now being brought into Australia by Mextrade. It is 100 per cent organic and wholly handcrafted in Oaxaca from the espadin agave.
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.
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.
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.
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.