When you work behind a bar one of the key things to do, to develop a loyal clientele, is remember peoples drinks. The surprising thing to me is not that my head has a database of hundreds of drinks and customers faces, but the fact that these people rarely ever change what they drink. Is it proper to go through life only drinking one brand of whisky? Is it ok to only drink a dry Grey Goose martini, up with a twist and never deviate? The other thing about brand loyalty is that it seems to apply to spirits and beer, but not wine. What is the psychological reason for this brand loyalty and if bartenders could break it, would it be good for the cocktail world.
Continue reading Observations on Brand Loyalty.
Rum is one of those spirits that has everything going for it. It can be complex like a fine whisky, fiery like a cheap bourbon or smooth like a vintage cognac. Really, rum can be smooth, even though it has a reputation for being the devils drink and the lower quality rums can be down right sinister. But if you find a well aged rum from a reputable distiller, then you have found something truly special. In my personal quest to find great spirits, I'm constantly sifting through lots of information to discern what is good. After perusing the latest Vintages releases I came across a reference to Appleton Estates Master Blenders Legacy rum, which is suppose to be an exceptional rum, well at least according to the marketing material. Let us put it to the test.
When someone says Caesar the first thing that might come to mind is a salad, or possibly and old dead Roman guy, but if you are in Canada you'll probably think cocktail. If you were to pick an official cocktail for Canada, the Caesar would be it. For some reason this cocktail is the most popular cocktail in Canada. It could be that it is a savory cocktail with nary a drop of sugar. It could be the multitude of garnishes that adorn this popular drink, some would even say it is a buffet atop the cocktail. It could be the spice, or the salt, or the overall combination. If you say it is just a Bloody Mary knockoff, you'd be short sighted. This may be a similar cocktail, but where the Bloody Mary is quiet and subdued, the Caesar is spicy and fun. Please note that it is not a Bloody Caesar, it is called a Caesar. The “bloody” part comes from a confusion with Miss Mary and doesn't belong in this cocktails title.
With the upcoming holiday season many companies are releasing new products to get on in the gift giving. This is one of my favorite times to visit the LCBO Vintages store in Toronto and check out all the holiday releases. Some of the highlights are the limited releases that are only available at the LCBO. You see, the LCBO is the world's largest buyer of spirit, so they have a lot of pull with companies who want to sell their products. A good example of this is the Compass Box Magic Cask Scotch Whisky, which is only being sold at the LCBO, no other place in the world will see this product. Also, Appleton is releasing their “Master Blenders' Legacy” rum, which is being released at the LCBO first, and then eventually the rest of the planet. You should be able to find lots of new and interesting products (wine, spirit and beer) at your local liquor store, but here's what I get to look at.
When you think of Greek spirits the first thing comes to mind is Ouzo, the anise flavour liqueur. If you've tried Greek wine (Retsina ) you might have liked it, or maybe not. Some of the wines use a pine resin to seal the barrels leaving a unique flavour that is what people remember about these wines. These wines are not quite like other vintages. After that the only other spirit that is well know is Metaxa. Some people say Metaxa is a brandy, but in reality it is more of a brandy based liqueur, since there are all sorts of things added to it, including wine and natural botanical substances. 
So it is another Mixology Monday and I have yet to miss one, so it’s time to put down my website design tools and open the bar for a quick drink. This months topic is bitters, the often misunderstood component in a cocktail. Many people have an apprehension to bitterness because they may have bad memories from childhood or are just pixie stick addicts. But the reality is that bitterness can be rather pleasant if done right. For example a good Manhattan requires the bitters to make the drink interesting. A Champagne Cocktail uses bitters to make a great aperitif. Bitters also have health properties, such as stimulating gastric juices to help digestion. So for this Mixology Monday, I took out five bitters (Angostura, Peychaud, Regans’, Underberg and Drinkboys bitters) and compared them. Here’s what I discovered. 
Well, as you can see The Art of Drink has been redesigned. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a few months now, and I finally got around to doing it this week, hence the lack of posts. The Art of Drink has grown faster, and bigger, than I really thought it would when I started. Basically, the old site was getting dated and not as flexible as I would have liked it to be. With this new design I’ll be able to add more content, including cocktail recipes, bartending events, factoids, etc in the near future. Most of the articles I write require research, so having areas on the main page to post facts, short stories or new recipes is helpful. At this point the website is in a functional “beta” state. I still need to patch a few things up, but all of the content is available and I’ll be posting new articles soon, hopefully tomorrow. If you have any comments or suggestions they are always appreciated and if you see a glaring flaw please let me know. 
Well it’s time again to see what new cocktail and spirit based weblogs are doing. There are a couple of new discoveries, a good weblog with video podcasts and a couple of blogs “on life support” from previous Blogsphere updates. It seems the pace of cocktail blogs is slowing since my last update, but things are still moving forward, and that’s a good thing. If you have a blog, that is bartender, cocktail or spirit oriented and would like to be included in the next round up, just let me know. You can do it via a comment or drop me an email. 
