When I was at the Moscow Barshow (September 2011) I had the opportunity to judge the cocktail competition that pitted the best bartenders in Russia against one another. Robert “Drinkboy” Hess was also one of the judges and afterwards, we had a discussion on the best way to rate cocktails in a competition. The discussion is ongoing and at some […]
Month: December 2011
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) Part I
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is all the rage these days. Actually, its more likely to cause opinionated rage, at least on the Internet. In the summer of 2006, I was going to discuss this topic but got distracted by all the boozy goodness. Then Scott, at Scott’s Rum Pages, brought up the point about HFCS in the Rum and […]
High Fructose Corn Syrup Pt. II
What is it about High Fructose Corn Syrup that makes it different from other sugars, like common table sugar? Obviously, the sugars come from two different plants corn and sugar cane/sugar beets. But the key factor and the one that causes the most discussion is that the sugars produced from corn are products of a multi-stage enzymatic process that breaks […]
Bartending Pet Peeve Number One
When you work behind a bar, there are many things that the customers / guest don’t get to see or don’t understand. Sometimes we don’t want you to see things, it is part of the magic, other times we would like to let you know about something. Here’s one of those things that everyone should know. When you come to […]
A Story About Whisky
The subject of whisky is one of those topics that can go on forever. There are magazines and websites dedicated to just one particular whisky region, there are zealots who defend their brand with the same heart one would defend a country. Then there are those who scream blasphemy at the thought of adding anything to a single malt scotch, […]
HFCS Research
When you publish a website, you often leave yourself open to public scrutiny, which often leads to “Fan Mail” as I like to call it. Most of the time I ignore it, but sometimes I feel compelled to reply. This is one of those occasions. Now, the topic is High Fructose Corn Syrup, again, but it has become a kind […]
Spirit Resources
Resources for evaluating the price of old unopened bottles of whisky, rum, cognac and other spirits.