Intelligent Bartender

MxMo (short for Mixology Mondays) is a global online meeting among bartenders who work towards making great cocktails around a specific theme (Hard Drinks, Punches, Vermouth Based Cocktails etc.)

Rob Montgomery and I have been keeping an eye on MxMo for the past 18 months, and have had many conversations about starting up one of our own to boost cocktail culture in Toronto.  We finally thought that it was time we stopped paying lipservice to making better cocktails and actually did something about it.

On Movember 30th, (yes Movember, check it here www.movember.com) a small group of bartenders from around our city gathered to work on some interpretations of “Holiday Cocktails.”  The timing seems relevant as we move into the busy holiday event season, who wouldnt want an excuse to have a great holiday cocktail?

First up was a welcome cocktail called the Honey Julep, a recipe of mine featured in the recent Drambuie re-launch recipe book.  The sweet and sour pink grapefruit juice complements the Drambuie really well and allows the freshness of the elderflower and mint to shine through.  This drink is perfect for summer, or a winter holiday getaway to a place that reminds you of summer.

Honey Julep

50ml Drambuie

15ml St Germaine Elderflower Liqueur

15ml Lemon Juice

30ml Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice

2 dashes of Angostura Orange Bitters

8-10 Mint leaves

Directions: Muddle mint leaves and bitters in a Boston Glass, add remaining ingredients and shake over cold fresh ice.  Double strain over crushed ice in a highball glass, and garnish with a mint sprig.

Next up was Ryan Powell with another Scotch based drink, his Maple Movember Manhattan.

Cocktail #2: Maple Movember Manhattan
2 oz Chivas Regal 12 Year Old
¼ oz ice wine maple syrup
¼ oz egg white
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Dry shake ingredients vigorously to properly froth the egg white then add ice and shake again.  Double strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and sprinkle nutmeg on top to garnish.
Optional: Brule a misted Aberlour 12 Year Old on top.

This cocktail was inspired from a Manhattan.  For me, winter holidays and scotch go hand in hand.  I replaced the sweet vermouth with the ice wine maple syrup because that’s I wanted something a little sweeter and the maple syrup pairs well with the apple notes in the Chivas.  The egg white was added to bring a creamy texture to the cocktail, which again is popular amongst holiday cocktails.  The Angostura bitters adds a fantastic holiday spice to the cocktail as well as the nutmeg sprinkle on top.  For a little more showmanship and to add a little more strength to the cocktail, you can mist Aberlour over the cocktail and gently brule it.  The sherry notes from the Aberlour adds a nice touch to the nutmeg, maple, apple and spice.

Next up was Alejandro Giraldo with a Spanish inspired Cazadores Saludable.

50ml Cazadores Tequila
20ml Pama Pomegranate liquor
60ml Pink grapefruit juice
20ml Lemon juice
15ml Agave nectar

Shake ingredients vigorously with ice then double strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a fresh mint leaf.

Rob Montgomery stepped up with his “Ho Ho Ho…. It’s Brown Butta YO!”

30ml fresh lemon fresh lemon juice
15ml Gomme Syrup
50ml Brown Butter “washed” Jack Daniels
Lemon twist(to garnish)
Combine liquid ingredients in Boston glass and fill with ice.
Stir well for 60 seconds.
Strain into chilled coupe glass. Spritz twist over the top, wipe around the rim and float skin side up.

Scott McMaster (aka Dr. Evil) took to the bar with Cocktail #4 An Evil Christmas

30ml Skinos
15ml jager
5ml lime juice
30ml White cran

Combine in boston over ice and shake
Garnish with frozen cranberry

The boys from Skinos were kind enough to drop off a couple of bottles of their product back in the summer, and Evil thought it would be a good opportunity to try using the pine flavour of the Mastica in a holiday cocktail.  It is the best cocktail we’ve had with Skinos which has an admittedly unusual flavour profile.  If anyone else has had success with Skinos, we’d sure like to hear about it, as I’m sure the boys from Skinos would as they make their foray into the cocktail world.

Finally. in the spirit of getting away for the holidays, we thought it would be nice to end with an Aviation Cocktail.  I really like the flavour of Creme de Violette, and Maraschino Liqueur is hard to hate at the best of times.  Although they can sometimes be hard to find, I’m sure if enough people ask for it, they’ll become more readily available… they’re certainly worth the effort.

Present at the innaugural Toronto MxMo were: Alejandro Giraldo, Ryan Powell, Rob Montgomery, Caitlin Mason, Gavin MacMillan, Jessica Klug, Scott McMaster.

Absent: Elan Marks, Nick Nemeth, Renata Clingen, Nishan Chandra

For more tips on setting up a great holiday bar Click here

and if you’re really serious about getting into bartending and want to train with some of the best bartenders in the business, click here to see the next training dates with BartenderOne

The next global Mixology Monday will be taking place on December 14th… same bat time, same bat channel.

Click here to see the next event on Facebook

Creating unusual cocktail combinations from scratch is the hot new trend for 2009!

The National Restaurant Association has identified the culinary cocktail as the number 1 trend for 2009. BartenderOne partnered with Bacardi Canada to show a short list of invitation only media VIP’s exactly how powerful the culinary cocktail could be at a recent event held at the Local on the Danforth Avenue in Toronto. The room was filled with the who’s who of Canadian Hospitality and journalists from almost every major lifestyle magazine in Canada. We even had television crews from CBC’s Living in Toronto and Global News.

The communal mis en place

Among the hit cocktails of the day were the Oscar themed was the Mumbai Millionaire, made with Bacardi Superior, saffron infused Lemonade, and topped with Ginger Beer, The Pineapple Express, a pineapple and Black Pepper Mojito, and the Benjamin Button Backwards Mojito a molecular mojito that reverts back to it’s original form over time. All Oscar themed cocktails were created exclusively for Bacardi by the bar chefs at BartenderOne.

Mumbai Millionaire

1 1/4 oz Bacardi Superior
2oz Saffron infused Lemonade
1oz Ginger Beer

Shake Bacardi Superior and Saffron infused lemonade over ice.
Serve over crushed ice in a lowball glass and top with Ginger Beer.

To make Saffron Lemonade, add 1/2tsp of saffron to 1 litre of Lemonade.

Benjamin Button Backwards Mojito

1 1/4 oz Bacardi Superior
4 Mojito Ice Cubes
Serve in a chilled Martini glass.
Garnish with a disciplined mint sprig.

To make Mojito ice cubes, add the juice from 12 room temperature limes, 4oz of spring water, to a saucepan on low.
Add 12 tbsp granulated sugar, and 30 mint leaves, stir for 5-6 minutes or until sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove from heat and strain liquid into ice cube trays and set in freezer.

Makes 2 ice cube trays, enough for 8 Benjamin Button Backwards Mojitos.

Pineapple Express

1 1/4 oz Bacardi Superior
6 small pineapple chunks
12 whole black peppercorns
8-10 mint leaves
Juice of half a lime
1 tsp of granulated sugar
1oz soda

Muddle 6 small chunks of pineapple and 12 whole black peppercorns in the bottom of a highball glass.
Add mint, lime juice, sugar and Bacardi Superior.
Muddle lightly a second time.
Add ice to fill, top with soda and churn with a spoon to distribute muddled ingredients.
Garnish with Pineapple fonds and a mint sprig.

Passion and Spice

It’s not such a huge leap when you are thinking about creating culinary cocktails especially with a spirit as versatile as Bacardi. Dont be afraid to try unusual combinations… you may be surprised with the results!

Next we’re off to Montreal on April 23rd to Suite 701 to treat the french media to a little Bespoke Experience of their own.

Until next time!

Cheers!

Bartenders are no longer bartenders, they are mixologists; and yesterday’s mixologists, the people who really took the craft seriously, need a way to differentiate themselves from the mainstream. Many of these mixologists followed in the footsteps of our culinary brethren, we have finally arrived at the latest buzzword and title for those who are truly committed to beverage excellence…Bar Chef.

In Toronto, Frankie Solarik believes in the concept so much, that he has opened a bar to pay tribute to the philosophy, and aptly named it “Bar Chef.” http://www.barcheftoronto.com Each cocktail is hand crafted from a massive variety of ingredients presented fashionably on the bar, bringing the guest into the experience as their cocktail is being created.
I dropped by on his second day of operation and had a cocktail made with style and passion that I haven’t seen in this city. While it takes a little longer to get a beverage like the Cold Smoked Manhattan that I ordered, the presentation is impeccable and the final cocktail is well worth the wait.

Cold Smoked Manhattan

It seems that a lot of people are getting their noses out of joint about the term molecular mixology, the press certainly seem to love it. Whatever you choose to call it, molecular mixology doesn’t have to be difficult, and really has to do with changing states. From a liquid to a solid, or liquid to a gas most commonly, but something as easy as a flamed orange zest, or an infused foam, by definition is molecular mixology. Whether you consider yourself a molecular mixologist, a bar chef, bartender, or simply someone who enjoys mixing at home, the recipes that you enjoy were at one point simply an experiment.The hallmarks of a good Bar Chef are their commitment to fresh, hand crafted ingredients and infusions, and consistent experimentation. Fresh ingredients make great cocktails. While pop guns and towers are certainly convenient, their cost effectiveness days are numbered. Post mix syrup, is made up of 80%-90% corn syrup, and with global demand for ethanol (a corn based alternative fuel) continues to rise at an unprecedented rate, the days of fountain soda are numbered. With cost effectiveness in question and real quality benefits to using fresh squeezed juices, the choice is really simple. If you need more convincing, find a local bar chef and compare your fluorescent green amaretto sour to their version made with fresh lime, simple syrup, bitters and egg white. There is no comparison.

The eternal question… what came first, the chicken or the egg… in cocktail terms, I’m reasonably certain that eggs were used in beverage applications long before chicken was ever thought of in a beverage sense. Molecular Gastronomy is certainly bleeding directly into the bar as establishments like Singapore’s Tippling Club continue to raise the bar on many levels. In cocktail terms the process of converting the physical state of a liquid drink into a solid, or a mist is often called molecular mixology. Whatever you choose to call it, cocktails served in an altered state can certainly have an element of cool to them, but before you go converting an entire menu to molecuar recipes, make sure that they’re executable at your level of business.
This is the first bar that I have seen that rivals Der Raum in Melbourne in both style and pure commitment to stretching the way we think about cocktails.

The Kitchen Truly meets the Bar

You be the judge. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

No need for a speedrail or back bar. You also dont have to worry about another bartender putting the bottle back in the wrong place!

Bars like Der Raum and Tippling Club get that people will pay for and tell their friends about experience, and this blog post proves it. When was the last time you read a story about Burger King or Dairy Queen that didn’t have something to do with salmonella… and here we are back again at the chicken…

When considering bartending as a career there are a few things that one should keep in mind.  It’s not all glitz and glamour, and although you can make gobs of cash doing it, the real money, as in most businesses goes to the ones who are truly committed to practising and perfecting the craft.

Are you a bartender?  Is bartending for you? Are you a member of the mixology camp or is flair your thing?

The reality is that there are few careers that give you the opportunity to network, make money and develop your own personal clientele with no upfront investment other than your knowledge of a well built cocktail.

Whether you chose to engage your guests with conversation, cutting edge cocktails or flair, creating a buzz is a surefire way to leverage viral marketing and have your guests coming back for more.  Here’s an example of a Melbourne bar called Der Raum, that entertains not only in cocktail theatre and molecular mixology but also by pure design ingenuity.