Honey American Whiskey is set to be big news over the summer with several brands pollenating the UK market however if popularity in the US market is anything to go by Jack Daniel’s is set to be queen bee.

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey is a mix of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 and an American Honey Liquor which are blended together to create a product which comes in at 35% ABV. Jack Daniel’s itself has always been a slightly sweet whiskey with maple syrup notes due to the charcoal filtering process so it is the natural brand to be combined with the honey flavours.

The liquid itself is a lot less overtly sweet than we anticipated with some fantastic spiced notes (especially cinnamon) on both the nose and pallet giving it a little sting in the tail. It also manages to avoid the pitfall of many honey based products on the market by not having any claggy mouth feel problems.

Whilst the suggested serves are as a chilled shot or mixed with Lemonade, Ginger or Coke we think it has an opportunity to be the base of some really interesting cocktails. With this in mind we took a bottle down to Callooh Callay, a hive of creativity, for the gang to play with.

Some really great drinks were created for us including one which combined the Tennessee Honey with Fernet Branca for a beautifully balanced cocktail.

Let’s face it, Jack Daniels and Honey combined is going to be a massively popular drink which is sure to see customers swarming to get their hands on a bottle. BarLifeUK also thinks that it will become popular with bartenders as an ingredient to add some honey sweetness to cocktails whilst keeping up the alcohol kick.

For more info have a chat with your friendly Bacardi Brow n Forman Brands rep or visit the Facebook page here.

Henrik’s latest adventure saw him aim to launch a gin with the taste and look of a product from 1783. That rather specific date wasn’t picked out of a hat, it was, instead, the date on a recipe picked out of the safe at the distillery where Geranium Gin is made. The distillery in question, Langley Distillery, also has the oldest pot still in the UK giving the product an extra bit of historic gravitas.

The first thing you notice about Old English Gin is the design looks like it could be straight out of the 18th century, having you believe it could have been discovered in a long lost spirits collection. The bottle, an old champagne bottle, is a nod to the fact that back in 1783 England was the largest importer of French Champagne and people visiting gin shops would bring their own empty bottles to fill up. It is, therefore, a fair assumption that a lot of gin was being drunk from old champagne bottles.

The gin itself is bound to lead to conversations and arguments about the authenticity of the product and the ability to effectively re-create a gin from 220 years ago. Henrik has however been very open about the process and idea behind his new launch ‘…my aim was to reach a tasting profile as how I would have made a Gin being a gin distiller at that time.’

He went on to explain:
‘English Gin would have been made from various recipes, and some would have been more or less sweetened depending on the quality of the spirit or simply just for being more palatable for taken neat and the producers would brand their Gin fancy names as Old Tom, Young Tom or Samson, or after the name of the distiller or the location as Booth’s, Gordon’s, Warrington and Beefeater. Today, many people think that English Gin before the London Dry Gin styles occurred in the 1890’s were named Old Tom, but this perception is not right according to my research’.

We are the caring, sharing type over at BarLifeUK so we decided to grab our bottle of Old English Gin and take it around a few bars to give people a chance to try it before the next batch hits the UK in May and to get some feedback. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with a lot of the botanicals used being picked up on such as the orris root, orange peel, liquorice, cassia and cinnamon.

Whilst it is certainly sweet and smooth enough to sip neat, imaginations were running wild and soon we were being treated to some great cocktails featuring Mint leaves, Kiwi, Blueberries, Cucumber, Passion Fruit Syrup and Beetroot (not all in the same drink I hasten to add!).

Below are our two favourites from the night:

Jose from Venn Street Records came up with this light, refreshing combination:
50ml Old English Gin
10ml lychee juice
15ml lemon juice
20ml sugar syrup
Chunk cucumber
Piece lemon grass
40ml apple juice
Muddle all ingredients except gin and apple juice. Add remaining ingredients, shake hard and fine strain into a martini glass.

Ivan over at Powder Keg Diplomacy gave us this beetroot and gin goody:
40ml Old English Gin
15ml lemon juice
10ml sugar syrup
Beetroot juice
Shake gin, lemon and sugar syrup. Pour into ice filled highball glass and top with beetroot juice.

We get the feeling that people will have a lot to say about Old English Gin (as can be seen in the comments on Dan Priseman’s excellent piece here) however once it has been tried people may find themselves too busy drinking it to do much talking.

There will be more news on the show in the coming days but in the meantime we thought we’d bring you the skinny on one of a few new products to join the Speciality Brands portfolio – Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum.

BarLifeUK first heard about this rum from the Hayman Distillers last year at Tales of the Cocktail when they were nominated in the Best New Spirit category at the Spirited Awards (with the same level of success as us as it turned out!). We then got to try it over at Bar Convent Berlin in October where it went one step further and won the Best New Spirit award.

One of the reasons for this quick rise to prominence is the surge in popularity of punches and the resultant need for traditional style of spirits from the late 19th and early 20th century. In David Wondrich’s excellent book PUNCH (a review here) Smith & Cross features in many of the cocktails for this very reason.

The rum itself is a mix of Wedderburn and Plummer pot still distillates aiming to recreate the flavourful and aromatic style that made Jamaica rum famous back in the day. It certainly isn’t afraid of packing a punch (sorry…) being bottled at 57% abv navy strength.

Whilst a lot of the talk around the brand is Punch focused (and we did have a try of a lovely concoction Skippy had put together at the show) we are more excited about the prospect of it in a Mai Tai. Several bars including The Liars Club in Manchester and London Cocktail Club, Shaftesbury Avenue are already using Smith & Cross combined with a lighter rum in their recipes and we can see that trend spreading pretty quickly.

If you would like to get your hands on a bottle or ten then speak to Speciality Drinks on 020 8838 9367 or visit their website

The redesign represents a series of subtle but significant tweaks to the existing packaging rather than an entirely new presentation. The new packaging has a deeper, stronger neck label to create greater brand visibility and uses fonts and imagery which evoke the 1920-30’s Baltic region.

An embossed ‘V’ has been added to the bottle and the screw cap has been replaced by a crown cap for increased secure product quality. There is also a four-bottle pack for the off trade.

Director of Baltic Beer Company, Paul Baxendale says: ‘‘The time was right to refresh the brand and we are delighted with the results – initial trade & consumer feedback has been extremely positive.  This follows on from the recent success at the World Beer Championships in Chicago, where Viru picked up a silver medal.”

Available in a number of top London venues, such as The Lanesborough and Browns Hotels, Viru is a 5% pilsner style beer brewed and bottled in Estonia.

Brewed using pure deep-well spring water, finest barley from across the Baltic region and aromatic Saaz hops, Viru is a clean, refreshing beer that delivers consistent maltiness and a light hoppy palate.

Viru is distributed in the UK by Inspirit Brands: Antoni@inspiritbrands.com 020 7739 1333

After growing Cruzcampo’s On-trade sales by 26% in 2010, The Morgenrot Group has signed an exclusivity agreement with Heineken to distribute, develop and grow the brand further in the UK.

The deal comes just in time to capitalise on a Summer that will (hopefully) encourage alfresco drinking, with holiday-makers returning from Spain and calling for the brand.

Graham Archibald, Morgenrot’s Senior National Account Manager comments:

“The interest for Cruzcampo from the On-trade has been phenomenal in the past 12 months and we are excited to be working closely with Heineken as we look to drive awareness, listings and sales in order to make it the principal Spanish lager in the UK.”

Cruzcampo has an ABV of 4.8% and is available in both draught and bottle format (330ml, 1000ml). The golden Spanish lager offers malty aromas on the nose, a clean, refreshingly crisp finish and is the perfect match for an array of Mediterranean dishes.

For further information on Cruzcampo or to stock, please contact The Morgenrot Group on (0845) 070 4310

Nice horns...

It says “no” to Mongolian Ape Blood floats and ground Unicorn horn garnish, instead it wants you to knock up great tasting, ‘can actually be served in a bar on a busy shift’ drinks, using Zubrowka and just about anything else.

In return, you may well score a trip to Poland, but first you need to show up at Glo Glos on Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, on February 15^th at 3pm.

There is no need to register for this competition, just get to the bar with your kit and a can-do attitude. The focus is on great tasting drinks that work in the real world and having some fun at the comp, so bear this in mind when putting your recipe together.

Bartenders outside of London will get their crack of the whip too. Heats are being held in 15 cities, but in order to keep the playing field level, and in keeping with the guerrilla theme, dates and locations will only be released a week or so in advance.

You can see pictures from the Brighton guerrilla comp on the Frisky Bison Facebook page.

Click to see a larger version of the flyer

Role Purpose

Love Drinks is a dynamic import and distribution company for premium spirit brands in the U.K based in Clapham, South London. Established since 2007, we are a small but growing team of 4 people.

This is a very exciting time of growth where the company volume and profit is growing exponentially and we are now looking for additional committed individuals with either extensive mixology bartending or account management experience. This is an amazing opportunity for the right individual to carve out a long term career in a very exciting and growing company.

Responsibilities

General Responsibilities

• Present & promote the love Drinks portfolio to premium London & South East on-trade accounts
• Managing ad growing an  extensive London account base (circa 500)
• Developing strong and loyal relationship with key purchasing managers across the On Trade.
• Organising and executing brand tastings and trainings
• Networking with key industry influencers
• Managing and expanding key relationships with on-trade wholesalers
• Keeping up to date with current market trends and identifying competitor sets.
• Organising and co-ordinating brand owner visits
• Managing seasonal and special event promotions
• Developing and executing bespoke activities
• Contributing to annual brand plans.
• Consumer talks and tastings.
• Supporting at trade and consumer shows.

Skills

• Excellent communication skills
• A natural ability to build relationships
• Confident and persuasive communication style
• Determined
• Motivated and driven
• Networking
• Seeing a task through to the end
• Being able to Close a sale
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office
• Understanding/interest of social networking a benefit

Salary & Role details

• Full time 40 hours p/w (occasional weekends)
• £22-£28K depending on skills and experience
• Home based with some travelling required.
• Travel expenses, phone & laptop
• Start date around March/April 2011

This is a huge opportunity for the right candidate to develop their own role within our business.

Please send covering letter with your CV to Kirsty@lovedrinks.co.uk

Bitter Digestive Vodka

Pronounced 'Zho-want-KO-va GORZH-ka'

Produced to the same recipe since 1950, this is a traditional Polish Vodka based on the practice of infusing alcohol with herbs and has been highly valued by consumers for many years and a market leader in Poland, its country of origin.

It has recently been introduced to world markets where it has won many awards, including a Gold Medal at Monde Selection, Brussels 2009.

Zoladkowa Gorzka Classic uses herbs, spices and dried fruits to impart a bitter-sweet flavour, making it an ideal base for cocktails, and is available in other flavours including honey and mint.

Clear Vodka

Introduced in 2007, Czysta gained a Gold Medal less than a year later at the 2009 Vodka Masters, and in Poland it is now the number one selling vodka, by both volume and value.

Other awards include International Taste & Quality Institute, The Drinks International Vodka Challenge, The Central Europe Wine and Spirits Challenge and Zloty Kielich Rynkow Alkoholowych as well as winning the consumer quality test in Test Smakowy Wodek Czystych in Poland.

Its smooth taste and neutral flavour are guaranteed by a six stage filtration and distillation process.

For more information, please contact importers BDD

Speyside distillery, The Glenrothes, has opened a competition that will see four winners spend a week at their distillery, learning all there is to learn about whisky production.

You can almost see the Angels...

The winners will spend time working at each stage of the whisky-making process: testing the purity of the water at the distillery’s two springs; milling the malt to achieve the golden proportions of husk, grits and flour; mashing to ensure maximum extraction of sugars in the wort; adding yeast to the washbacks and overseeing fermentation; slowly and carefully distilling new make spirit in our tall copper pot stills.

From there the Whisky Makers will be involved in making casks at the cooperage, laying down casks for maturation and rolling casks to the warehouse. The Whisky Makers will then nose single malt from maturing casks to assess whether the contents are of sufficiently exceptional quality and maturity.

Finally, they will have the opportunity to create their very own selection of The Glenrothes – a unique bottle with their own hand-written tasting notes on the label.

The Whisky Makers will stay in Rothes House, a private home belonging to the family that owns The Glenrothes. As with the distillery, Rothes House is not open to the public but is reserved for VIP visits. After making their own bottle of The Glenrothes, our whisky makers will spend their final day of the trip in Edinburgh, visiting The Scotch Whisky Experience and having dinner with Scotland’s pre-eminent whisky writer, Charles MacLean.

Enter the competition

To enter, simply supply your name and personal details and then answer in 50 words or fewer why you are the perfect candidate for the job.

The competition will run from 4^th October 2010 to 31^st January 2011 and can be entered at www.theglenrothes.com

BarLifeUK has been to Buffalo Rocks a few weeks ago and had a ball with great music and plenty of Buffalo Trace flowing so we recommend heading down to check it out.

The Heavy are making lots of waves in the music industry at the moment and have even recently appeared on the Letterman Show in the US. They will be supported by The Skinny Machines so a good night is in store.

The doors open at 7:30 and the entrance fee is just £8 (plus plenty of Buffalo Trace offers once inside).

For more information on Buffalo Rocks or Buffalo Trace contact Hi-Spirits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds3yl7YjVyM&feature=player_embedded#!

So then, imagine our excitement when we found out Bibendum Spirits were running a competition to win a year’s supply.

How do you roll?

Anyone of you who has visited Australia will know that Coopers in the bartenders’ beer of choice and also that the theatre of the ‘roll’ is as important as any Guinness pour.

You see Coopers is made using the Champagne Method with the second fermentation taking place in the bottle. This means the beer needs to be rolled or turned before drinking to incorporate the yeast.

With this is mind to win a year’s supply of Coopers, Bibendum are asking you to film your preferred method of rolling or turning, upload it to YouTube and send them the link. The best gets a year’s supply – easy!

For the full rules and more details on how to enter visit their dedicated website here all entries need to be in before midnight on the 22^nd December so get creative people.

We will be putting together a BarLifeUK attempt so keep an eye out for that but in the meantime here is a girl in a tiger outfit!

Found at http://www.pourfection.com/trainingteam, the website offers demonstration videos, course materials and exams, and will integrate with Facebook and Twitter for a more two-way experience.

Screenshot of the Training Team Website

The Training site also hopes to become a hub for bartenders, with weekly newsletters being sent to everyone who subscribes.

Alex Turner says: “The needs of bartenders are very different to the rest of the trade so it was important to us to launch something tailored to them but in a fun and engaging way.

We also wanted to give bartenders access to the Training Team outside of actual training days so advice can be obtained at the touch of a button.”

Visit http://www.pourfection.com/trainingteam for more information

The deal sees Marblehead tasked with developing key brands from Proximo’s premium portfolio in the UK, beginning this winter with The Kraken Black Spiced Rum, Maestro Dobel Tequila and Hangar One Vodka.  Launch information on these brands will be released over the coming weeks.

Marblehead was responsible for the development and distribution within the UK of  brands such as Absolut, Makers Mark and Wyborowa and is currently the UK agent for Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka and Lillet amongst others

“Proximo is an exciting, innovative and genuinely pioneering company, with some outstanding brands. We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with them in what will be their first European export market.” said Dave Steward, Business Development Director at Marblehead

“Marblehead’s track record speaks for itself” said Bryan Fox, Export Director at Proximo “Their depth of knowledge and company culture makes us confident that they are the right partner to take our brands into the UK”

Exclusively distributed in the UK by Hi-Spirits, Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey is proving to be a hit both as a shot, in a ‘bomb’ serve mixed with energy drink, and as a long drink with mixers such as ginger ale, cranberry juice, cola, and apple juice.

Fireball Cinnamon Whisky

Fireball is made with authentic corn whiskey, based on a recipe created by a Canadian distiller who infused a batch of whiskey with cinnamon and ‘wowed’ his customers. Unlike their more puritanical Scots counterparts, North America’s whiskey enthusiasts have a long and proud tradition of experimenting with flavoured varieties.

Jeremy Hill, chairman of Hi-Spirits, said: “Flavour innovation is a big driver of spirits sales in the UK bar trade.  Fireball is an ideal launch in the run-up to the peak Christmas season, as cinnamon is a great flavour for winter drinks.

“Into the New Year, we believe that offering a range of chilled, flavoured shots is one way for bars to grow spirits sales. Equally, Fireball is great as the basis of long, mixed drinks and cocktails, and we’re already working with customers to develop bespoke marketing support to promote the range of Fireball serves.”

One of the first bars to trial Fireball is Ama Gi in Kingston, Surrey. General manger Will Palmer said: “Fireball has become the preferred ‘bomb’ serve for our customers. We serve it with energy drink straight off the dispense gun, and customers really like the flavour and smoothness of Fireball.”

Iona Goldstein, manager of Backline Live in Guildford, said: “Fireball has proven to be very popular with staff as well as customers, because the flavour is so innovative. We’ve served it in a range of drinks – personally, I think it’s great mixed with lemonade.”

For stockists, please contact Hi-Spirits on 01932 252 100, info@hi-spirits.com, www.hi-spirits.com

A: Because they’ve heard it has poor circulation*

Ha ha. Oh boy. Not really, obviously… Just a little comedy segue into a piece about Southern Comfort’s new Halloween themed POS kits, which are available now from your Bacardi Brown-Forman rep, or by calling 01962 762450.

(*We hasten to add that this terrible, and inaccurate, joke is courtesy of BarLifeUK NOT Southern Comfort)

The POS kits include glow-in-the-dark posters, pitchers and banners, as well as some ‘trick or treat’ cards that can be found in the premium packs.

Giles Looker of Soul Shaker fame has also created a themed twist on the Southern Comfort Jam Cocktail, the recipe for which can be found below.

Call 01962 762450 to claim your kit

Voodoo Jam

Voodoo Jam Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 40 ml Southern Comfort
• 1 heaped teaspoon of premium strawberry jam
• 20 ml fresh lemon juice
• 30 ml fresh orange juice
• 30 ml light red wine (pinot noir)
• Dash of bitters
• Garnish- mint sprig/ orange slice/ strawberry

Method:

1. Remove the lid from the jam jar and fill with cubed ice
2. Add all ingredients
3. Securely replace the jam jar lid and give the jar a good shake
4. Add the garnish and serve your delicious creation