Bartender Journey - Cocktails. Spirits. Bartending Culture. Libations for your Ears.

Shake. Stir. Sip. with Author Kara Newman

• This week on the Bartender Journey Podcast we celebrate Repeal Day! As you may know, here in the States, Dec 5 1931 was the end of Prohibition. Bartenders across the US now celebrate this un-official holiday, on Dec 5!  It's a great day to be a Bartender or to be anyone who enjoys cocktails!
• It's the Bartender Journey Podcast number 193!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.
• I spent Repeal Day wondering around NYC – talking to interesting people and drinking great cocktails.  There was no shortage of events to attend!
• I started by talking with Kara Newman - an author and influencer in the cocktail scene. We met at Swift Hiberian Lounge in Lower Manhattan.
• Kara and I have run into each other a few times, but most recently when she was a was a judge at the Diplomatico Rum World Tournament where I was a contestant.
• Kara wrote Shake. Stir. Sip.: More than 50 Effortless Cocktails Made in Equal Parts
• Next week on Wednesday December 13, 2016 at 3pm Eastern time we are doing our online cocktail party! We are calling it BarCraft Live! And we are doing it in conjunction with listener to the show, and a podcaster himself, Stefan Giesbert. He does the German language Cocktail Podcast. We have a tasting menu of 5 cocktails that we are gong to be making and we’d love to have you join us live via video stream!
• To join us, go to net/events, fill out your first name and email address and we’ll send you the cocktail menu, the recipes and the details on how to join us.
• We did a little back and forth on the technology to use for the video stream. We did a test, and it turns out the best solution is Google Hangouts. There is a limitation on how many can join a Google Hangout, So please go to net/events to RSVP!
• The Cocktail of the Week is a classic equal parts cocktail - the Corpse Reviver #2 :
  Equal parts (3/4 oz each)
  Gin, Lillet Blanc, Orange Liqueur, Lemon. Dash of Absinthe
  Shake with ice. Double strain into a chilled Coupe glass.

Personal Branding for Bartenders

• How should you market yourself and build your “Personal Brand”?
• Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.
• Hazel Alverado, marketing guru, joins us on the show this week to talk about Personal Branding and Social Media for Bartenders.  Hazel has been helping out, working behind the scenes at Bartender Journey for awhile now. She’s coming out - getting behind the mic -- to talk about how to build up your Personal Brand and Social Media Presence!
• We have an online event is coming up Tuesday Dec 13 at 3pm NY time!  BarCraft Live!
• One of our listeners - Stefan Giesburt from Germany contacted us. He is a Bartender and also does a German Language cocktail podcast. Stefan likes to do cocktail tasting menus for his guests at his bar and for friends, so we came up with this idea to do an online live event.  We’ll provide you with the menu and recipes.  We will also send you a link so that you can join the live video stream.  And we hope you will make the cocktails along with us!
• Go to our Events page to get more info and sign up! Even if you can’t commit to joining us online on December, feel free to request the menu and recipes. You’ll be able to play back the podcast and join us later (on demand)!
• One of our Brand Partners for BarCraft Live is Catocin Creek.  They sent over some of their Roundstone Rye for us to use during the event and let’s put it to use for our Cocktail of the Week!
• Its the Scofflaw Cocktail – From Gary Regan’s great book The Joy of Mixology

The word Scofflaw apparently comes from a contest that was run in 1923 by a rich Prohibitionist, who offered $200 (which was a lot of money back then!) to whoever could come up with the best word to describe “a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor”.

• 2 oz Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye
• 1 oz Dry Vermouth
• ½ fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz grenadine (make your own!)
• 2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters #6

Shake with ice. Double Strain into a chilled Couple Glass. Express oils from a Lemon Twist into Cocktail. Discard Twist.

• Our Book of the Week: How to Win Friends and Influence People.  Seeing things from the other person’s point of view / how to change peoplel without causing offense or arousing resentment / making the other person feel like the idea was his or hers.

Thanksgiving & Autumn Cocktails

We are wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving this week on the show with two Rum Cocktails!

Its a short Bartender Journey this week as there are Thanksgiving activities and Thanksgiving Bartending to do!

For more info about our upcoming online event on December 13, 2016 please send a request for more information on our Contact Page.

Hospitality Industry Professionals: How Much Do Your Feet Hurt?!

• It's the Bartender Journey Podcast number 190!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.
• It’s a constant in the Hospitality Industry….we are on our feet for hours and hours. How can we make it better? I don’t know about you, but my feet hurt ALL the time!
• This week on the show we talk with an awesome lady – a doctor, a podiatrist, a holistic healer and she is going to help us with our foot pain!
• We will talk with Dr. Michele Summers Colon today on the podcast.
• First, a few important events coming up:
• San Antonio Cocktail Conference
  Fri Jan 6-Sun Jan 15
  http://sanantoniococktailconference.com/schedule/
• BarSmarts Advanced Atlanta - February 9, 2017 
• BarSmarts Advanced Milwaukee - March 29, 2017

Book of the Week:

Once again our BOTW comes to us from Hazel. You’ve heard me talk about the mysterious Hazel before on the show, well next week, we are going to get her on the show and talk about Personal Branding for Bartenders. She’s a Marketing Guru, and it promises to be a great discussion.

Here’s our Book of the Week from Hazel:

The Cocktail Chronicles: Navigating the Cocktail Renaissance with Jigger, Shaker & Glass by Paul Clarke
who started writing about the craft cocktail movement even before the term “craft cocktail” became commonplace and is a recipient of the Tales of Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Writer about Spirits and Cocktails.

The Cocktail Chronicles covers the beginning of the modern cocktail renaissance, offers classic recipes and their modern takes and also features a chapter called “Bottles, Tools, and Tips” that discusses stocking your liquor cabinet and the best tools.

Jim Meehan provides the foreword and each recipe is preceded by its history. The book is an accessible guide to both professional bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts featuring over 200 cocktail recipes written in a fun and engaging manner and is a great reference guide to have on hand.

Paul’s a good guy – we’ve got to get him on the show one of these days.

Featured in the book is the classic cocktail the Blood and Sand, and that will be our Cocktail of the Week.

The recipe for the Blood & Sand first appeared in print in Harry Craddock’s 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book.

This is an equal parts cocktail:

.75 oz

Single Malt Scotch Whisky

.75 oz

Sweet vermouth

.75 oz

Cherry Heering

.75 oz

Orange juice

Put all the ingredients in your shaker and fill with ice.

Shake, and double strain into a chilled coupe glass.

Garnish with an orange peel. Very nice cocktail indeed.

           

Dr. Michele Summers Colon is not only a Podiatrist, but A physician, surgeon, health coach, yoga teacher, anatomy instructor, author and overall health & wellness expert. We are very happy to have her on the show to talk about something that many Hospitality workers struggle with – foot pain!

Lots of useful information there. I hope it helped you out a bit…I know it did for me.

Toast of the Week:

Here’s to those who have seen us at our best,

And seen us at our worst,

And can’t tell the difference!

Cheers.

 

 

Bar Institute NYC and Diageo World Class

Bar Institute NYC

• We had the very exciting Bar Institute event here in NY this week.
• It's the Bartender Journey Podcast number 189!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes,  Android or Stitcher Radio.
• On Monday before Bar Institute, I attended Diageo World Class Labs. This is an awesome opportunity.
• Diageo World Class is one of the top 2 or 3 cocktail competitions in the world. Competitions like this can literally change your life.
• To enter the competition you have to be a USBG member, in the US anyway. But through World Class you can get a free 30 day USBG membership which allows you to get your application in. If you decide to keep your USBG membership after that, its only $125/year, which is a real bargain, but that’s a subject for another day.
• To enter the World Class competition you have to take at least one World Class Lab class, or you can do it online, but the live events are awesome (and free). They travel to different cities doing the class and I really encourage you to look into it. We had a great class about Taste. It was run by Andy Symore. We had samples of various cocktails to demonstrate the power of different variables like temperature, sweet, sour, bitter and salty.
• It was a blind tasting, so Andy didn’t tell us what we were drinking until after we tasted and talked about it. The first sample was a room temperature Martini and the second was the same exact Martini, but chilled. It was diluted with the same exact amount of water. We also had a Negroni with and without salt added and so on. It really demonstrated the power of altering just one ingredient and the importance of every single thing that goes into your cocktail. You may sometimes hear that your cocktail is only as strong as the weakest link, so its important that every ingredient is high quality.
• Then there was lunch, (free btw) and a second session, which I didn’t stay for because I wanted to get downtown for Bar Institute. Taking just one session is enough to qualify for World Class although you are welcome to stay for both
• So even if you don’t enter the competition, (and why not?) you could still take one of these classes. I think you’ll find it to be a great experience and very educational.
• Next stop was Bar Institute at Pier A, in Manhattan, right next to where the ferry leaves for the Statue of Liberty.
• We spoke with Kevin Vanegas during Bar Institute about Herradura Tequila and about their new cocktail competition.

The Book of the Week:

A Proper Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized Drinking World by Robert Simonson.

• Robert takes us through the craft cocktail revival over the past two decades through the personal stories of bars, bartenders,  patrons and visionaries. Filled with modern classic recipes and their origins, A Proper Drink invites you to learn how we got here and where the craft cocktail industry is headed.

 

Cocktail of the Week:

Bourbon Stone Sour
A Stone Sour is a Sour with the addition of Orange Juice-Freshly Squeezed preferred!

• 2 oz Bourbon
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• ¾ oz Lemon Juice
• ½ Simple Syrup
  Shake with ice. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass filled with fresh ice. Garish with a piece of Orange and a Cherry.

 

• There are lots of videos from Bar Institute on the Bartender Journey Facebook page. Thanks to Hazel for this!

 

Toast of the Week:

My friends are the best friends

Loyal, willing and able.
Now let’s get to drinking!
All glasses off the table!

Whiskey Club

This time on the Bartender Journey Podcast we talk with Kurt Maitland of the Manhattan Whiskey Club - a Members only community that gathers monthly for private tastings.  He also contributes to the Whiskey Reviewer and to The New Single Malt Whiskey Book.

It's the Bartender Journey Podcast number 188!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes,  Android or Stitcher Radio.

• Tickets are still available for Bar Institute NYC.
  
• If you will be attending, please let us know!
• Attend the Bar Institute Kickoff event:
  For bartenders and other industry people in the NYC area on Sunday, November 6th 2016, join us for a pregame Bar Institute industry kick off party in Hoboken at The Shepherd & The Knucklehead.
  Mix, mingle and share knowledge in a casual setting over complimentary punches and spirits.
  Welcome all bartenders, servers, bar managers and liquor reps! For more information email: 
  hazel@whiskeywithme.com
• We'll be "going live" on Facebook during Bar Institute, so please Like the Bartender Journey Facebook page for live video from the event in NYC!

Book of the Week:
The New Single Malt Whiskey Book
This book is focused mostly on Single Malt whiskeys NOT made in Scotland.  This is a really interesting category that is evolving quickly.
“Single Malt” whiskey is one that is produced from Malted Barley at a Single Distillery.   Many producers around the world have begun producing this style of Whiskey.  For instance Westward Single Barrel Oregon Straight Malt Whiskey which is a wonderful whiskey.  You can read Brian's tasting notes on Westward here.

Cocktail of the Week:
Old Pal
Since we are talking whiskey this week, we should do a whiskey cocktail.  If you listen to this show regularly you know that I love a Negroni and I love a well made Boulevardier.  Here’s another variation.  Its similar to a Boulevardier, but calls for Dry Vermouth rather that Sweet Vermouth.  Its also heavy on the whiskey, so 2 parts Rye Whiskey, (I used a very nice Rye from Maine called Gunpowder Rye), 1 part Campari and 1 part dry vermouth.  Stir it with ice and strain into a chilled coupe or Nick & Nora glass.  Its usually served up, unlike the Negroni which is generally served over ice, unless otherwise specified.

Old Pal Cocktail Recipe:

• 1.5 oz Rye Whiskey
• .75 oz Campari
• .75 oz Dry Vermouth
  Stir all ingredients with ice.
  Strain into a chilled Coupe glass or Nick & Nora glass.
• Express oils from a Lemon Twist into glass.  Drop Twist into glass.

Toast of the Week:
May you have warm words on a cold evening,
a full moon on a dark night,
and a smooth road all the way to your door.

Aquavit - the Traditional Spirit of Scandinavia

Aquavit is the native spirit of the Scandinavian countries and is making an impact on the cocktail scene around the world!

Its the Bartender Journey Podcast number 187!  Listen with the audio player on this page, on BartenderJourney.net or subscribe on iTunes,  Android or Stitcher Radio.

We speak with Martin Miller and Thomas Anderson from Copenhagen, publishers of the Cocktails of Copenhagen Blog.
Download Martian and Thomas' Aquavit eBook.

Book of the Week:
Sasha Petraske’s Regarding Cocktails

As you may know, recently Sasha sadly passed away, way too early.  He was a true innovator in the cocktail world.  He opened his bar Milk and Honey on  Eldridge St on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on New Years Eve 1999.  This was very early in the so called cocktail renaissance and he inspired an entire generation of Bartenders.

This is Shasha's only book, completed by his wife Georgette after his passing.

What's in your Bar Kit?  Let us know about your favorite Bar Tools or something unusual that you bring with you to work everyday and perhaps we will mention it on the show!  Use our Contact Page and let us know what is in your Kit!

Brian just bought a new knife for cutting garnishes, which makes prep time much more enjoyable!  Order your own sharp knife here!

A very small investment which helps you cut better garnishes!


Cocktail of the Week:
Erik The Red

• 1 1/4 oz Bourbon
• 3/4 oz Linie Aquavit
• 1 1/4 oz  Honey
• 1 1/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• 3 raspberries
• ½ tsp good quality raw liquorice powder

Mix the honey with sugar syrup 2:1 to make it pourable. Muddle the raspberries with the liquorice powder. Shake hard and serve on the rocks. Garnish with a liquorice pipe or a lemon peel on a skewer serving as a sail for Erik.

Toast of the Week:
The skål is a Scandinavian toast, practiced in its most formal version by the Swedes: The proposer of the toast engages the eye of the person being toasted, and "skoal" is said. A slight bow of the head, and a twinkle of the eye—and the aquavit is drained in one gulp.

Tiki! With Martin Cate owner of Smugglers Cove

Martin Cate owner of Smugglers Cove, which was awarded Best American Cocktail Bar at the Spirited Awards during Tales of the Cocktail 2016 is our guest this week on the Bartender Journey Podcast. 

Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.

Book of the Week:

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki by Martin and Rebecca Cate

This book contains lots of great Tiki cocktail recipes, tons of great knowledge.  There are sections about Understanding Rum, the History of Tiki and Tiki Cocktail Techniques

Cocktail of the Week:

Mai Tai

·      2 oz Aged Rum

·      ½ oz Orange Liqueur (I used Mandarine Napoleon)

·      ¾ oz Fresh Lime Juice

·      ¼ oz Orgeat Syrup (I used Small Hand Food brand)

·      ¼ oz Rich Demerara Syrup 

Shake all ingredients with crushed ice.  Pour all ingredients (including ice) into a Double Old Fashioned Glass.  Garnish with a half lime shell (ie: lime used to produce lime juice) and a sprig of mint.

There are many types of Rum.  The old classifications of Light, Amber, Dark and Overproof just don’t cut it anymore.  We now talk more specifically about the production methods and materials:

·      Raw materials that will be fermented - most commonly Molasses, but sometimes Pressed Sugar Cane Juice.

·      The Still it was produced in – Column or Pot Still

·      The Aging Process

Rum & Miami Bar: RePour

Bartender and Brand Ambassador for Afrohead Rum, Isaac Grillo joins us on the Bartender Journey Podcast Number 185.

Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.

Isaac tells us about his bar in Miami - RePour and about the great Afrohead Rum.

Book of the Week:
Short Course in Rum: A Guide to Tasting and Talking about Rum

Cocktail of the Week:
Froco
1.5 oz AfroHead Rum
3/4 oz lemon juice
2 pure cane brown sugar cubes
3 oz coconut water
Muddle sugar cubes with lemon juice in a shaker.  Add AfroHead Rum and coconut water.  Shake and strain all ingredients over fresh ice in a Collins glass.  Garnish with a lemon slice.  Top with shredded coconut.

The Whiskey Professor Bernie Lubbers & Martin Miller's 9 Moon Gin

Bernie Lubbers is the National Whiskey Brand Ambassador at Heaven Hill Distilleries.  He tells us exactly what it takes for a Whiskey (or other Spirit) to be labeled as "Bonded in Bond".  

Also we speak with Jacob Ehrenkrona and taste the delicious Martin Miller's 9 Moons Gin.

It's the Bartender Journey Podcast Number 184.  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.

For a spirit to be labeled "Bottled In Bond" it must be:

• Composed of the same type of spirits and produced from the same class of materials
• Produced in a single distilling season by one distiller at one distillery
• Stored for at least 4 years in wooden containers
• Reduced in proof with by the addition of only pure water to exactly 100 proof
• The label must bear the real name of the distillery and the plant number where it was produced and where it was bottled

Book of the week:

Bourbon Whiskey Our Native Spirit: Sour Mash and Sweet Adventures 2nd Edition by Bernie Lubbers

Cocktail of the Week:

Horses Neck

• 2 oz Bourbon
• 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters
• Ginger Ale
• Long “ribbon” of lemon peel

Directions

• Using a channel knife, peel a lemon in one long spiral. Twist around your finger or a barspoon to create a coil.
• Drop the lemon coil into a highball or Collins glass leaving the end hanging over the lip and fill with ice.
• Add bourbon and bitters. Top up with ginger ale.

(In a pinch, you can use a standard lemon wedge)

Toast of the Week:

May you…
Work like you don’t need the money,
love like you’ve never been hurt,
dance like no-one is watching,
screw like it’s being filmed,
and drink like a true Irishman.