Again flying from New Zealand seems to take the longest time ever….. but after the best part of two days, I finally arrived to join the rest of the competitors from around the world.

Where's Riki?

I must admit to having expectations on what Trinidad and the competition would be like, on both fronts I was completely wrong. I thought Trinidad would be the same size maybe as Samoa or Fiji, it turns out the country is as beautiful as those but so much bigger and the competition a lot bigger and tougher than I had expected.

Bartenders from countries including England, South Africa, Russia, China and Argentina as well as a local from Trinidad, were all there to win the competition. It is hard not to mention all of the competitors as they were all in their own right AMAZING!! There were a few stand outs for me, Nastassia Martin (London) was so relaxed and professional behind the bar and made two stunning cocktails, Roxanne Reed (South Africa) who, because of the availability of Angostura rum in South Africa had never tried the rum before arriving at the competition. She managed to create a cocktail in a day and present in front of a panel of judges and her peers… true respect and admiration for that effort.

Lastly Ilya Bubashvili (Russia), a man who for the most part we spent most of our time trying to find…. the on-going calls of “where’s the Russian” rang loud for the first few days. However behind the bar he was amazing to watch, with some of the best techniques we had the privilege of seeing.

While I have mentioned just three of the competitors, I learned so much from everyone involved. This was truly a world class competition with world class bartenders, whom I feel very honoured to have competed with and now call friends.

Unfortunately their can only be one winner on the day and first prize went to the very humble David Delaney Jnr, who also took out first place in the free style cocktail.

That Briars fella pops up everywhere

From the competition to the epic carnival experience, wow you have to experience this to really pay homage to the event……. it is a must do!!!!

Angostura showed us all an amazing time and made us feel like part of the “Trini family”. I once got told by Dale DeGroff the “best bar in the world, is the place that makes you feel most comfortable”, well by the same respect Angostura and the people involved made us all feel that Trinidad was a home away from home. For the first time in competitions I saw bartenders truly upset about leaving this amazing place and our new family.

Thank you to all at Angostura, you are amazing but a little special thanks to Vitra Deonarine (aka MUM), Cherisse Subero (aka sexy lady, but you have to say it with an Indian accent) and lastly Alex Thomas (aka Trini terminator) you guys ROCK!!!!

I hope this competition will continue to get stronger and stronger over the coming years, it is an amazing experience to be part of.

This has certainly been the case in New Zealand, bartenders are now creating everything from bitters to liqueurs, with some large success and some well let’s just say…. are still being perfected.

So why, you may ask, is this is case?

In New Zealand’s case this has come mainly from the frustration of being at the bottom of the globe. It seems that we are almost forgotten about but with the internet and such people as Jacob Briars we are always reminded as to what is going on in other countries. Thus we are driven to derive new and exciting products or in fact replications of products already on the market that we cannot yet get.

Benedict Simpson, the man behind the success of the iconic Wellington cocktail bar Motel, has set about making rum. Not just any rum mind you but the Smoke and Oakum’s Gunpowder Rum. Yes, no misprint or spelling mistake, he actually makes the rum with the gunpowder as, for lack of a better word, a botanical.

Ben like, it seems, most bartenders around Wellington have a love and affinity with rum. So it makes sense that at some stage one of these bartenders would set about doing his own. The rum has been, by all account, well received with such people as Angus Winchester giving it praise.

What has also helped the product is being used in recent competitions and on cocktail menus around the country. In 2010 Calem Chadwick’s 42Below cocktail entry for the 42 Cocktail World Cup, used the rum in conjunction with the 42 Manuka honey.

Made as a blazer (what could possibly be better than setting alight rum mixed with gunpowder?) the drink was a truly great balance of the honey matched with the spices and aromatics of the rum. Also Matterhorn’s listing of a tribute to the naval grog cocktail using the rum, lime juice, mascavado sugar and boiling water is a well-balanced but intense cocktail.

The rum is made in the same manner as the naval rum from the 18^th Century it is a blend of American and Caribbean rums. With the addition of the gunpowder and some spices the rum is then aged and bottled, coming out at a not so subtle 49.8% abv you certainly know that you are drinking spirits.

But even with the high abv the rum is very well balanced and defiantly not too in your face or offensive to drink. Cleverly packaged in paper bags with the memorable labels and witty banter in the description, the rum is ready to be imbibed.

At the moment Ben is over in the UK after winning the Air New Zealand cocktail competition and at a guess is bootlegging his world famous New Zealand product. I personally hope he has immense success. If you would care to know more or even order the product, you can contact Ben either by stalking him on facebook or trying the Smoke and Oakum’s website.

For me the product is a must try for any bartender and very easy to sell across the bar…. Who wouldn’t like to try gunpowder rum?

We'll drink a drink a drink to Lily the pink.....

After again a cancelled/delayed flight (or as the friendly staff at BA say “it’s not cancelled, that flight will take off at some stage”) I arrived in London. A very quick taxi to Convent Garden, to take my place on the judging table for the 42Below CWC UK heats. Not the worst way to start your London trip now is it!

The competition was great and some fantastic drinks were made. The winner (Team West London) and second place (Team Scotland) were well deserved but I have to make a special praise to the guys from the Liverpool team, their punch was amazing and truly entertaining in the cocktail round (maybe a little scary but entertaining never the less). The standard again for the competition was high and I am definitely looking for to seeing what the guys produce in the finals in Queenstown.

After the competition I meet up with old friend and room-mate for the week Mr Jack Hubbard (the legend). Off quickly to his place to again drop off my bags and out to dinner at E&O, if you have not had the pleasure of dinning their as yet do make a point of doing so. The food is amazing!

London Luminaries

After dinner we went to Portobello Star to meet some of the local personalities and legends from around London. A few hours later we staggered back to Jacks to pass out. First night, complete!

The next day and very gingerly I toured around London, again to get my bearings and to find out where I would be working for the next three nights. It was Callooh Callay, to be a member of the 42Below pop up bar in the Jubjub Lounge. So there I was part of a team with the Professor Jacob Briars and Irish bar star and personality Alan Kavanagh (dressed in our special PINK Shirts).Our special blend of 42Below cocktails included the Corpse Reviver # Blue (only Mr Briars can claim that one) and the Manuka Swizzle. The first night seemed to attract all of the London legends and personalities, which was amazing to be honest. A very humbling experience when you get to serve your mentors!

It had been a while since I had been back to London (last there in 2007), what I have to mention is what I found to be the major difference this time – the support of the bartenders towards other bars and bartenders. It seems the culture of the community has changed for the better. Not that it was bad before, just great to see every one supporting each other. This for me is always a definite plus in our industry.

Highlight of the Visit

The definite highlight for me was my visit to Jack’s bar Montgomery Place. Fantastic bar, beautiful cocktails and Jack certainly carries though his passion for the craft exceptionally well.

Now unfortunately I did not get time to see many bars around due to working, however I did get to the RumFest (I think by all accounts the second day was far better) but then again you are surrounded by every rum made so it can’t be all that bad really.

Jacob managed to score me a ticket to the Bar awards which were entertaining to say the least, have to say great work Joey on Bartender of the Year and Bramble for Cocktail Bar of the Year.

All in all my experience of the UK was amazing, so may great bars and bartenders. Thanks to all of you had been amazing hosts and special thanks to Richard and Sean for the use of Jubjub (I hope we did your place justice). Hope to see you all soon and get myself too many bars around London.

While there, I caught up with old friend Simon Webster who asked if I would like to contribute to BarLifeUK and write an article on my experiences. I feel honoured and inspired to do so, and I hope not to bore the crap out of most of you in the northern part of the world.

Treacle

So after enduring many hours in the luxury of Air New Zealand economy class and the, I can only imagine, frequently delayed flights of BA, I finally arrived in Edinburgh. Magical place! But the adventures would have to wait as after 40 hours flying or in transit, I was fairly knackered.

The next day was touring around the heart of the city and seeing what deals I could get. Also to see what booze I could get my hands on, to bring back to New Zealand. That started my tour of the bars around Edinburgh, with a list given to me by friends and also some of the places over the years that I had heard of and also read about.

A place that you hear a lot about, even in New Zealand

First on the list was David’s old bar BRAMBLE. A place that you hear a lot about, even in New Zealand. Here I meet up with a guy called Jason Scott whom I can only imagine as being a house hold name though out the UK.

Bramble was great and certainly lived up to the reputation. Lovely expertly crafted and very well balanced. Now to be honest this would be a place that I would feel very comfortable working in and also drinking vast quantities of the cocktail list. Many thanks to Jason again, for being an amazing host and all around great bartender

Other bars that I managed to get to after tearing myself away from the bar stool at Bramble started with Treacle – this was an interesting place. To be honest it may be not a place that I would have wondered in to but I would have eaten my words as I had a great time.

The drinks where great and the people great to talk to, although to be honest that seemed to be a pattern around Scotland.

Now some disappointing bars, for me these were bars that I heard so much about and certainly bars that were recommended to me by other bars and bartenders alike Tiger Lilly and Bon Vivant. I am not sure why or what was happening with these places.

I certainly was highly recommended to these bars but they just where not that great on the nights I went there. Maybe that the great legend Joey was not at Tiger Lilly that night I am not sure. But knowing Joey and the standard he sets himself, it just was not up to that standard for me.

Aberdeen-ho

So after three nights of touring and drinking it was a quick train ride up to Aberdeen. Here after trying hard to navigate the roads of Aberdeen (I can only imagine the council decided on the town plans, after imbibing far too many Drams of the local Whisky), I made it to my hotel.

I had quick walk about the town to get my bearings, and onto the night life of Aberdeen with a list of establishments from a mate Adam Elmegirab. I headed out to the first place, MIM LOUNGE.

Now MIM LOUNGE, where do I start, much in the same regards as Treacle this was probably a place that I would not have gone in of my own accord. It seemed to be the same as many places that you find here and in Australia, where a lot of money is spent on the outfit of the establishment.

The downside of these places is that they generally use up all of their passion and all of their ideas on that and everything else in the place falls well sort. MIM LOUNGE however was a great exception to this. In fact I had such a great time there that I did not make it to any other bar! Bhakie and Louise were amazing hosts.

Truly great bars

In 2007 I competed in the 42 Below CWC. With this you have international speakers and judges. This year Dale de Groff happened to do a speech for us entitled “the best bar in the world”. Our mission was to guess the best bar in the world which none of us naïve bartenders managed too. Simply put Dales idea of the best bar in the world, was the “place that you feel most comfortable”.

Bramble bar a stand out for Riki

For me I had two of these bars already on my journey and I had not even made it London yet. But without hesitation BRAMBLE and MIM lounge (worlds apart in terms of offerings) are truly great bars.

The next day was spent touring Duff Town and Glenfiddich distillery before driving down to St Andrews to stay with family friends for a few days and try to detox although in Scotland that was never going to happen. A few days and a round of golf later and on I went to London to be a guest judge at the 42 Below CWC UK finals (more of this to come in my next blog).

Over all I have to say that Scotland was an amazing place to go as a bartender not just for the offering of the bars and the distilleries, but also the locals and the passion that the bartenders seem to have about the industry. Great job and I hope that I can get back soon and enjoy some more of the Scottish hospitality.