These are my personally selected of pieces of bar news and articles that I found noteworthy in the last month.
The Headlines in Bar News
- Tales of the Cocktail happened (13th to 19th of July). liquor.com has a nice little write-up on what stood out: Frozen drinks (Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence has a good chapter on this) and low-alcohol mixed drinks (The Art of the Shim by Dinah Sanders is a great book about that matter).
- With Tales also come the Spirited Awards, the Oscars of the bar world as some call it. Featured are the usual suspects such as Employees Only, Artesian, Beaufort Bar, Dandelyan, Dead Rabbit and Black Pearl, with very few surprises. The 10 nominations for each category are just as repetitive. Mixology magazine wrote a nice comment about this partisanship.
- Mixology also announced their own long list for their Mixology Bar Awards; and I’m very happy to announce that our marvelous bar of Hotel Rivington & Sons is on it!
Upcoming Competitions
- Rhum Clément is launching the Ti’Punch Competition: Seeing that the last year’s winner submitted quite a sophisticated drink, it might be worth checking it out and submitting your version of a ‘ti Punch until the 16th of August.
- If IBA-style competitions are your cup of coffee, the Swiss Bartender Union’s championship is up. This year, the category is sparkling drinks, and you got until the 16th of August to submit your recipe.
- They also organise a spontaneous mixing competition in Ticino on the 30th of August, for which you need to sign up for until the 20th of August.
- Campari Liquid Art until the 30th of August. Post a photo or video of your Negroni variation that involved a soda siphon on their facebook page.
- Bacardi Legacy until the 6th of September. Check out my article about the kick-off event in Switzerland.
- While you have time until October, this is possibly one of the most interesting competitions: Nikka Perfect Serve. Coincidentally, there’s a short interview on Spirit Business with Sakuma Takashi, master blender at Nikka.
Good articles
- Drinks International wrote on the problematic relationship of bartenders and vodka, and how vodka bashing is mostly a thing of the past.
- And Mixology wrote on the subject of shots. I found their presentation of boilermakers, that is, a shot of booze and a chaser, particularly nice.
As I’m doing a month without alcohol, July has been a bit more quiet than usual here. Still, the following two articles I’d like to point out in particular:
- The first guest authored article on this site, written by Luis Estrada about some kick-ass homemade Talisker bitters.
- Making the best out of the self-imposed sobriety, I took time to clarify the different kinds of tea, and explain how they differ in production.
