Over the past two months you will have noticed Australian Bartender has started doing ‘Blind Tastings’ of products and wait for it… actually reviewing and rating brands! In April we looked at Australian craft beers and this issue we step it up and review both absinthe and rye spirits.
Products
Simon Ford has worked at the big spirit companies, is known for bringing Plymouth gin to bartenders worldwide, and worked for a long time as an ambassador for Pernod Ricard. He’s traded all that in now for his own spirits company, The 86 Company, and his very own eponymous gin, Ford’s Gin. Bartender sought to find out more about where the market’s been and where it’s going.
Hipster bartenders, gather round, cos this is a drinks book that is right up your alley. Get set to take over your local community garden or herb pot (as it is in Surry Hills) because this tome will take you on a journey through all the plants that are responsible for the booze in your sacred bottles. Think sake from rice, Scotch from, tequila from agave, rum from sugarcane, bourbon from corn.
In exciting news for tequila fans, Pernod Ricard is bringing their Olmeca Altos brand to Australian shores. Available from July 1, the high quality tequilas were created by Jesús Hernandez with two of the world’s best bartenders — André Masso and the late Henry Besant.
Definitely a book for the gin buff, rather than just a pleasure read and let’s face it, Gin has a juicy past, with lots of little gems to help spice up your bar banter. Gin has been a drink of kings infused with crushed pearls and a drink of the poor flavored with turpentine and sulfuric acid.
In those dark times, before the Old Fashioneds and Sazeracs and Fizzes, there was Punch. It’s the idea of the pub — an occasion in which people gather at a place in a shared (drinking) experience — where they gathered around the flowing bowl. Punch is for sharing en masse.
Over the last couple of months Island2Island have taken Stoli to mix, muddle and mash its way across the country, wrapping up a successful tour yesterday in Sydney at the Village, Potts Point. The tour involved masterclasses that saw select groups of bartenders in all the major cities discover the rich history behind Stoli and where it sits in the vodka category, all the while catching up with other bartenders — and causing a ruckus or two along the way.
Bartenders and industry folk alike gathered yesterday at Brasserie Ananas in the Rocks, Sydney to celebrate the launch of new French liqueur, Pavan.
Club Suntory put on an event that evoked a sun-drenched south-of-France glamour and included a variety of cocktails, with matching canapes provided by the Ananas kitchen.
What makes a great blended whisky? What’s the process involved, and is it a craft, art or science? We asked an expert – the knowledgeable Colin Scott from Chivas Regal – to find out more about blended whisky.
Mixxit Chronicles – winners of On Premise Training Program of the Year at last year’s Australian Bartender Bar Awards — is set to launch at the iconic 1806 next week 30th April & 1st May at 1pm, with a session titled “Scotch & Irish Whisky – un-Censored”! Led by Jason Crawley and Dylan Howarth, the lads are promising a fresh look compared with last year’s program, and best of all — it’s uncensored.
Campari’s National Brand Ambassador, Oliver Stuart, says that often the information that bartenders find most interesting during training sessions is the tidbits that come up in the course of presentations, often as an aside. And it’s this avenue he hopes their recently launched blog, The Cocktail Studio will go down. The blog has already had great feedback from bartenders, becoming the kind of place where bartenders can come and share ideas, recipes, stories — and these little gems of trivia.
Over the course of two nights in Sydney last week, two international luminaries from the Moet-Hennessy stable – Belvedere’s Claire Smith and Glenmorangie’s Dr Bill Lumsden — put on a show for Australian audiences.