A Flash of Genius. And an idea for a Blog.
So, what to have after such an incredible
I was in a bad position (and I don’t mean just my posture). Not knowing enough about proper cocktails to work out the correct thing to order after a glorious Manhattan, not wanting to peruse the menu for fear of looking stupid (and also for fear of having drunk too much already to be able to read it) and not wanting to order an Old-Fashioned (which used to be my automatic first choice) as the bar was pretty busy and I’d feel a bit guilty (plus I’ve fallen a bit out of love with Old-Fashioneds just from having had so many bad ones), I decided that the only thing I did know was that Joel was a very good bartender. So I decided to leave it up to him.
He: “What would you like, mate?”
Me: (long, embarrassed pause) “Um, I dunno... (idiotically)...er, you know much more about this than me - could you make me something I’ve never heard of, y’know, with something weird in it?”
He: “ …Erm, okay, what do you like?”
Me: “Pretty much everything. How about something old, like something that used to be cool, y’know, ages ago, like in the Thirties or something”. [Easy, right? Yeah, bartenders love me. Honest.]
He: “OK, I can probably come up with something…. (thinks)…Do you like sherry?”.
It was at this point that I knew that this was going to be good. I also realised that asking people who know a lot more about something than you do is always a good idea.
Here’s what Joel came up with:
Coronation Cocktail No. 2
35 ml Fino or Manzanilla Sherry (Tio Pepe is fine, Manzanilla La Gitana is better)
15 ml Beefeater Gin
5ml Maraschino
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Method: Build and stir. Serve in a Martini glass. Garnish with a small strip of orange zest.
Obviously, it was brilliant. I was bowled over. And, as I sipped this fabulous thing, I got to thinking: why do people who know nothing about drinks just go into a bar and tell people what they think they want?! Dammit, it shouldn’t be allowed!!
If you’re drinking in a decent bar, the chances are that the person serving the drinks is going to know plenty more than you do about what you’re having – ask them what to have! Tell them a bit about what you like (no, actually, tell them what you don’t like, it’s better that way) and leave it up to them! Be surprised and delighted when you are served something you’ve never had before, and would never have ordered yourself - only to discover that you like it!
The long and short of it is this: it really ticks me off that there are hundreds of bartenders in London - in fact, all over the country - with their brains packed with drinks knowledge and cocktail know-how, and these talented and dedicated individuals are making effing Caipirinhas and Mojitos every night for arrogant braying idiots!
Yet there are hundreds of great spirits and liqueurs that nobody ever orders, and thousands of forgotten or unloved cocktail recipes that people never ask for – but the people who would enjoy making them and spreading their knowledge are muddling limes and slapping mint for fifty hours a week! For a pittance, in most cases!!
I say, give these people some credit! Let them share their passion for great drinks!! You might learn something!!!
This is what had happened to me. Faced with my own ignorance, I had realised that I knew enough to know that I knew nothing. I know a bit about spirits and I know a bit about liqueurs, but about cocktails, about the actual combining of these ingredients into something greater than the sum of their constituent parts, I am almost entirely ignorant. So I had placed myself (not literally) in the hands of a good bartender. Result: Inspiration. And an idea for a blog.
Admittedly, I was lucky. Mr Constantino is not a good bartender, Mr Constantino is a bloody great bartender. Great bartenders should be allowed to do what they do best, which is making great drinks. I felt I owed it to Joel to let him do it again.
Introduction
Hi There - Tim here,
First, an apology and a bit of background.
We've been planning on doing a blog for this page for a long time - nearly a year, in fact. But with the dust still settling at work from a huge relocation project and the general busy-ness of the business, we (specifically 'I') had neither the time nor the inspiration for it. So, if you're one of the people who arrived at this page before now only to be confronted with my profile and not a lot else - sorry. Hope it's worth the wait.
Anyway, the background.
4th September 2007. A small team from Speciality Drinks had been at the Boutique Bar Show in Shoreditch giving out samples of some excellent Rum, Armagnac and a few particularly fine Single Malt Whiskies. It was a quiet day because of a tube strike. Time was passing slowly. The bottles were already open. Naturally, there was a certain amount of quality control that we felt it was our duty to undergo.
Fast-forward to a couple of hours later and a small group of slightly-noisier-than-strictly-necessary drinks 'professionals' descended on Hawksmoor. As it turned out, this was a great move by us, and the events of the evening sparked an idea for the direction and focus of this blog.
For anyone who doesn't know it, Hawksmoor is located on Commercial Street, about a two-minute stagger from Brick Lane. If you're not a teetotal vegetarian / vegetarian teetotaller, you should definitely give it a shot as the drinks are out of this world. Apparently the steaks are also magnificent, but I can't comment on that as I didn't have one. Check out the reviews: here or here.
We were greeted by Nick Strangeway, a bona fide legend on the
Anyway, Nick had recently acquired a couple of 1960s bottles of the delicious Italian vermouth Antica Formula from Sukhinder (my boss). We felt it was only right that we tried out this precious nectar in a Manhattan.
Now, I've tasted this Antica neat before (and believe me, it is amazing) and for a while the bottle was in the fridge in our kitchen at work - but we're all a bit rubbish at cocktails here at the office (and there's never any ice) so no-one had dared to try making anything with it. No doubt any bartender worth his or her salt will be shouting angrily at the screen after I've made that confession, but to be honest, the stuff was pretty glorious by itself, so it didn't last very long anyway.
Anyway, I digress. The Manhattans were made by a chap called Lucas with Elijah Craig 12 year-old. I wasn't taking notes as I hadn't had my big idea yet - but it was divine. The aged Antica Formula has taken a pronounced savoury turn over the years and it offset the sweet notes of the bourbon brilliantly. The cocktail itself was extremely well-made: balanced perfectly and showing off the qualities of the ingredients without letting any one group of flavours dominate. Suffice to say it went down rather quickly.
The only problem we were faced with next was: 'How the hell do you follow that?'
The answer to that particular conundrum will appear in the next blog.
05/10/2007 16:30:00
Welcome to Tim's Diary
Hello, and welcome to my little section of the site. This bit is dedicated to bringing you my take on:
- News & comment on issues in the drinks industry.
- Frank opinions on the drinks I sample, both at home and in the line of duty.
- Reviews of any bars I find myself in and cocktails I try that may or may not be worth forking out your hard-earned for.
I’ll also be giving you my views and notes on any new stuff that crosses my desk, as well as tossing in the odd misty-eyed trip down memory lane discussing classic drams and my favourite spirits and liqueurs.
PLEASE NOTE: Although I freely admit that my job is to sell fine quality stuff on the site, this section is not just a sales puff for our products: I will attempt to be wholly objective in any formal tasting notes I do for this blog, and won’t shy away from criticising anything that doesn’t pass muster.
Obviously, then, a lot of the material here will be my personal opinions – so feel free to disagree. My views aren’t gospel and this certainly isn’t the Sermon on the Mount. If there’s anything on here that I haven’t explained properly and that you can clarify (or if I’ve made some glaring schoolboy error), please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to make amends in future blogs.
Life is too short to waste time and money on rubbish drinks, so I hope that I will be able to help some of you find something that you will love – and perhaps something here may one day save you from wasting cash on stuff you wouldn’t want to find in your glass at a party.