Click the image to visit the Gosling's Rum website

Gosling’s Black Seal Rum is no exception, nestled as they are on the tropical island of Bermuda.

And, they would like to bring you and three of your bar team over to drink some Dark ‘N Stormys as god intended: On a Bermudian beach.

What arduous task do you have to complete to be in with a chance of winning this trip, I hear you ask?

Simple: Throw a party in honour of National Bermuda Day (NBD) on any day during the week of 24^th May*.

The best NDB party will win the trip for four, plus £1000 spending money.

The parties will be judged on:

• Bermudan-ness
• Originality
• Team & Customer participation
• Fancy Dress
• Attendance of the party
• Sales of Goslings Black Seal rum
• Any Press coverage
• Social Media Coverage

All you have to do to qualify is hold a kick ass Bermuda party plus put a Dark n Stormy on your menu or specials board for the month of May and of course stock Goslings Black Seal Rum.

To get involved, simply fill in the form below. Only 50 bars will be allowed to enter, so make sure you book your spot now*

*Win a trip to Bermuda Terms and Conditions

Want to find out who is rocking the quickest times or where you stand in the global scheme of things? Look no further.

Oh and if you want some tunes to listen too whilst your checking this out then check out the one and only Nick van Tiel’s Offical Rematch Mixtape.

Name                                   City                     Overall Time (including penalties)
Bobby Hiddleston          London             1:29 (1:24 + 5 sec penalty)
Steve Schneider                      New York              1:36 (1:21 + 15 sec penalty) 
Marco Nunes                         Brisbane               1:43 (1:33 + 10 sec penalty)
Johan Ekelund                      London                 1:51 (1:51 + No penalty)
Andreas Walters                  Sydney                  2:00
Johan Ekelund                     New York             2:03 (1:53 + 10 sec penalty)
Blake Ward                           Brisbane               2:04 (1:54 + 10 sec penalty)
Luke Redington                   Sydney                   2:05 (1:55 + 10 sec penalty)
David Beatty                          Sydney                  2.07
Matthew Dakers                   London                 2:07 (2:02 + 10 sec penalty)
Simon Hough                       Perth                     2:08 (2:03 +5 sec penalty)
Diato                                      Sydney                   2:09 (1.59 + 10 sec penalty)
Sean Show                            Brisbane               2:13 (2:13 + No penalty)
Jamie Kimber                       London                 2:16
Yael Vengroff                       New York              2:16 (2:06 + 10 sec penalty)
Bex Almqvist                         London                 2:19 (2:19 + No penalty)
Scott Marshall                      New York             2:21 (1:52 + 30 sec penalty)
Reece Griffiths                      Sydney                  2:21 (2.11 + 10 sec penalty)
Lanii Say                                Perth                     2:22 (2:12 + 10 sec penalty)
Matt Roberts                         London                 2:26 (2:16 + 10 sec penalty)
Dustin Davies                       Brisbane               2:28 (2:13 + 15 sec penalty)
Camilo Vilamill                     Brisbane               2:31 (2:31 + No penalty)
Tom Bulmer                          Sydney                    2:33 (2.28 + 5 sec penalty)
Jake Blanch                          London                  2:38 (2:33 + 5 sec penalty)
Jono Carr                              Sydney                   2:45 (2.40 + 5 sec penalty)
Jim Wrigley                          New York              2:51 (2:26 + 25 sec penalty)
Dan Aitkin                            Brisbane               2:53 (2:33 + 20 sec penalty)
Caitlyn Selkirk                      Perth                     2:54 (No penalty)
Steven Prassad                     Brisbane               2:56 (2:26 + 30 sec penalty)
Tom Price                              Sydney                  2:59 (2.44 + 15 sec penalty)
Lee Potter Cavanagh            London                 2:59 (2:54 + 5 sec penalty)
Kristian                                  London                 2:59 (2:54 + 5 sec penalty)
Frank Cisneros                     New York              3:03 (2:43 + 20 sec penalty)
Sasha Petraske                      New York              3:05 (2:45 + 20 sec penalty)
Tim Homewood                    London                 3:08 (3:03 + 5 sec penalty)
Joe Sinagra                            Perth                     3:10 (3:00 + 10 sec penalty)
Adam Delgiudice                 New York              3:17 (3:12 + 5 sec penalty)
Frenchy                                  London                 3:18 (3:13 + 5 sec penalty)
Ben Tous                               Sydney                    3:19 (3.04 + 15 sec penalty)
Dave Eiszele                         Brisbane               3:20 (3:05 + 15 sec penalty)
Oren Tony                             Brisbane                3:22 (3:09 + 15 sec penalty)
Lloyd Smith                          Perth                      3:26 (3:11 + 15 sec penalty)
Jillian Vose                            New York             3:27 (3:17 +10 sec penalty)
Dev Johnson                         New York              3:28 (3:03 + 25 sec penalty)
Brendon Osmers                   Brisbane               3:31 (3:26 + 5 sec penalty)
Jane Danger                         New York               3:33 (3:03 + 30 sec penalty)
Mickael Allan                        Brisbane                3:39 (3:19 + 20 sec penalty)
Chris D                                    London                 3:41 (3:21 + 20 sec penalty)
Tom Scott                              Melbourne            3:41
Ivy Mix                                   New York              3:47 (3:37 + 10 sec penalty)
Lou Dare                                Melbourne           3:48 (3:38 + 10 sec penalty)
Kenny Lim                           Perth                       4:08 (No penalty)
Patrick Walsh                      Melbourne            4:16
Adam Neal                           New Zealand         4:21
Joel Persson                         Melbourne            4:30
Steve Crozier                       Melbourne            4:37
Tom Kearney                       Perth                      4:41 (4:36 + 5 sec penalty)
Al Sotak                                New York               4:42 (4:27 + 15 sec penalty)
Priscilla Leong                    Melbourne            4:51:5
Lucinda Sterling                 New York               4:55 (4:25 + 30 sec penalty)
Kenny Utting                       Melbourne            5:03 (4:58 + 5 sec penalty)
Bill Bewsher                        Perth                       5:48 (No penalty)
Jack Sotti                             New Zealand         5:50
Mitch Keane                        Perth                      6:23 (6:07 + 15 sec penalty)
Egor Petrov                         New Zealand        6:37
Apoena Saporetti              New Zealand         6:40
Stu Hudson                           London                 DNF
Tim Martin                          New Zealand         Disqualified took out bottle & martini glass
Kris McKenna                      Melbourne            Disqualified for glass in well
Cam Timmins                     New Zealand         DNF
John Lemayer                     New York              Disqualified for broken glass
Scott Griffin                         Brisbane               Disqualified for broken glass
Steve                                       London                 Disqualified, took out ice well
Dave Jolly                            Brisbane               Disqualified for broken glass and bottle
Jason Littrell                       New York              DNF
Alex Barros                           New Zealand        DNF
Des Yatigammana               London                 DNF
Tomas Totn                          London                  DNF
Rodrigo Alves                       New Zealand        DNF
Rafael Reyes                         New York              DNF
Jay Jay                                   Sydney                   Broken glass – Disqualified.

* The live bit does rely on the organisers of each heat getting the times over to us, with the world of Rematch this may have a slight layback fueled delay to it…

But it is so damned cool, we had to share it anyway.

BarLifeUK were lucky enough to get hold of a copy courtesy of Banks Rum when Jim was in the country to help launch Banks 7 Island Rum a few weeks ago.

If you haven’t been lucky enough to get your hands on a copy yet you have almost definitely heard (probably from a smug git who has a copy) what a beautiful looking book it is, well it is, but unlike Megan Fox there is a lot more beneath the obvious looks.

BarLifeUK has yet to be lucky enough to visit Jim’s home of PDT (standing for Please Don’t Tell) in New York but it’s a bar as famous for its entrance through a telephone box in Crif’s hot dog stand as for its drinks. As a result when I first opened The PDT Cocktail Book I was hoping for more than a list of lovely sounding drinks and I was not to be disappointed.

The book starts with obligatory Foreword, this time penned by David Wondrich, which whet the appetite for what lay in store as he compared it to the Savoy Cocktail Book ‘a book that perfectly encapsulates what we drink in bars today in a way that’s both timelessly elegant and concisely and efficiently contemporary.’ High praise indeed.

As sure as an Introduction follows a Foreword….. well the Introduction followed the Foreword! Jim quickly gives an overview of his career to date including some expert name and bar dropping (well who wouldn’t when you have worked at Pegu Club with the likes of Sam Ross and Phil Ward?).

It was the next section of the book that really stood out for me. All too often people are so caught up in the cocktails, or the garnish, or the ice, or the glassware, or the tattoo’s that they forget the most important part of any bar (with the obvious exception of the bartenders), the design. What use is a great cocktail list with a myriad of barrel infused drinks served in glassware from the Titanic using ice from the very ‘berg that sank it if the bar is so badly laid out it takes half an hour to make the damn thing.

Jim was involved with PDT right from the start in 2007 and was behind the design of the workstations themselves. From the original design onwards, ‘Good bar design is evolutionary’, he points out as he explains the reasons for the various elements of the bar. With the assistance of 4 diagrams (including one of the back of house area) you get a real insight into how and why PDT works.

Following a look at the glassware and equipment used in the bar Jim moves onto another often overlooked area in cocktail books, the essential mixers and garnishes for a cocktail bar. From the juices and garnishes to the specific type of Maple Syrup and House Orange Bitters the PDT mise en place is laid out.

One of Chris Gall's awesome illustrations

Now that, as a reader, you totally understand what PDT, as a venue, is all about it is time to move into the cocktails. There are the classics but alongside these are every single cocktail included on the menus at PDT since its launch in 2007. Each cocktail comes with not only the creator (or author as Jim puts it) and year, but also the season, a great addition to put the drink into perspective. The recipes also get a written description as well as preparation guidelines for any of the more obscure homemade ingredients such as the Buttered Popcorn Infused Rum.

This builds up into a superb collection of recipes with inspiration on every page. All of the recipes are listed with brand specific ingredients which has been cause for complaint with a few consumer based reviews. In actual fact BarLifeUK thinks it adds a great dimension to the recipes as you can exactly recreate how a drink is served in PDT. Sure there are some ingredients that aren’t ready available in the UK but that is part of the fun, you can put your own twist on a PDT classic.

It was at this point that it occurred to me that Jim was laying PDT bare. This is a book giving away what some would consider the ‘secrets’ of their bar. Not just any bar, this is PDT, this is a bar that has taken out more titles in the last few years than Stu Hudson has made Blazers in a competition (I did try to research how many and Google had a meltdown, take my word for it, it’s a lot).

In the introduction for the recipe element of the book Jim made clear that this was very much a conscious decision:
‘I’ve never once questioned my decision to share all of our production methods and sincerely hope that my colleagues all over the world will follow suit’

The book finishes with a mini masterclass from Jim on the various categories of products stocked in PDT along with a list of all the cocktail/spirit books he suggests you should have in your book shelf. This is a real opportunity to get your geek on and leaves you in no doubt that this book is written by someone with a huge knowledge and love of the industry.

The PDT Cocktail Book is an absolute must have in every bartenders collection, not only is it full of fantastic recipes and an amazing insight into the workings and successes of one the world’s top cocktail bars, it is the best looking book I have ever seen. The Illustrations by Chris Gall are superb and give the book a unique and edgy quality you just don’t usually see.

Now on it’s second print run copies are much easier to get hold of so if you want to get your hands on a copy, and trust me you do want to get your hands on a copy, then head to Amazon to get it alternatively the lovely folk at Spirit Cartel the distributors of Banks Rum in the UK have got a copy or two for you lucky BarLifers so to be in the draw simply e-mail simon@barlifeuk.com with the subject line ‘Please Do Tell me I won a book’.

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.

Do you ever feel you miss out on the brand sponsored overseas trips because you don’t do competitions or don’t work in one of the ‘fashionable’ London venues? If so this is the competition for you.

The best room I have ever been in

The Buffalo Trace Migration competition is beautiful in its simplicity, all you have to do is collect corks from each bottle of Buffalo Trace you sell. Each cork gives you a place in the monthly draw to win prizes such as iPads, Xboxes and Apple TV’s and then all your corks are thrown into the hat for the grand draw in July and your chance to get on the Kentucky Trip.

BarLifeUK were lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit the Buffalo Trace Distillery last year thanks to Hi-Spirits and it is an opportunity not to be passed up – read all about it here

We had the time of our lives but the 4 day trip you lot can be vying for is even more impressive as it includes:

• A behind the scenes tour of Buffalo Trace
• A tutored tasting by Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley
• VIP day at Keeneland races
• Special invitation to the ‘White Dog Day’ celebration as the still gets cranked up for the new distilling season
• Party at Kingston Mines Blues Bar in Chicago

If you sell Buffalo Trace in your bar then you have every chance of getting on this trip (and if you don’t then I’d give Hi-Spirits a call). Don’t worry if your venue isn’t high volume as all it takes to win is one cork, there are also lots of ways of earning extra corks (you get 10 extra just for signing up!).

Signing up takes 2 minutes so jump on the Buffalo Migration website and get involved. We are already very jealous.

The company that created The Yacht Club will be opening the doors to another large scale Pop-up bar in Exchange Square and are looking for a dedicated and hard-working team of individuals to also make this one of the most successful bars in Manchester this Summer.

There may be opportunities of work through until December when the bar converts in to a winter bar.

Please contact Operations Director, Jamie Jones if you are interested in joining this exciting new project – Jamie@heartsoulrockandroll.co.uk

Last month 30 bartenders gathered in Manchester for a rum blending session lead by James Triffo from Banks Rum and Mal Evans the Mojo head honcho. After an educational talk on the blending process everyone in the room was given a selection of rums from across the Caribbean and allowed to blend their own.

Since then the blends have been resting  up to allow the flavours to blend together, tomorrow (Tuesday 8th May)they will be unveiled to allow the amateur blenders the chance to try their creations.

James and Mal will be joined by Banks Master Blender Arnaud de Trabuc who has flown over specifically to try the blends. Who better to judge the results than the man behind Banks Rum and I am sure he’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results (especially mine!).

The tasting session will be taking place on Tuesday 8th May at 7pm at Mojo Bar Manchester (19 Back Bridge Street, M3 2PB). Banks are inviting all of those who attended the session to come down and try their blends and have a chat with Arnaud.

If you didn’t manage to make it to the session you are more than welcome to come along for some complimentary Banks cocktails and cheer on the rum blending greatness (they have also promised a few surprises along the way – perhaps Triffo will be doing his Elephant impression again).

We look forward to hearing how the blends all worked out.

For more details e-mail James at james@spiritcartel.com or give him a bell on 0779 1275 419.

Rum Renaissance is run by the dedicated Rob Burr and, is in its fourth successful year.

It is a week of sponsored rum parties, culminating in a rum fair and the all-important Tiki Off. For Rum fans, this is as good as it gets, and for sun fans, did I mention it was hosted in Miami?

Being both a rum and sun fan, I could hardly wait!

Set in North Beach Miami, Rum Renaissance attracts a host of aficionados, Rum lovers and fanatics.

Fanatics may seem quite a strong word but looking around on the first night  I witnessed  a sea of tiki shirts, a gallery of rum tattoos, and a couple of pirates.

Everyone here has certainly dedicated their lives to rum and some had travelled far to be here.  After I got over the initial scepticism of couples with matching tiki shirts (and the two pirates) I realised this was a pretty cool crowd who loved rum as much as I do. It was going to be a very special week!

The week began with a delicious BBQ and rum cocktails, hosted by Ron Zacapa. The next day was a visit to the Mai Kai, a world famous tiki mecca. A playground of totem poles, water falls, and coconuts, it was like something from the India Jones ride at Disney land. Not that I have been there- Alexx’s words.

Next evening we had the pleasure of a roof top party at the fancy Soho Beach house, hosted by Brugal, where it was the girls in Brugal Bikinis that made an impression. Then it was on to the Bacardi Penthouse, to celebrate Bacardi’s 150^th birthday. Here we were treated to some barrel aged El Presidentes, carbonated Bacardi cocktails and Mary Pickfords. Needless to say I was a big fan!

Day three was Diplotamicos turn to impress, with a pool side party in glamorous south beach. I have to say standing by the pool sipping on rum and watching the sun set was pretty special.

By Saturday we had all consumed a fair amount of rum, and now it was time for the all-important Rum Fair and the Tiki off!

The ‘Tiki off’ was a battle of egos between the UK’s finest Tiki bartender’s versus the US. Let’s be honest, this has always been a bit of an easy win for the UK, with half the US team being assembled on the day. But this year was to be different. The US team had matching Tiki shirts and fighting talk!

This year’s UK team consisted of the mild mannered Lyndon, Liars Club, the shy and retiring Alexx, Trailer, the gentlemanly Bart, Hula, the modest Georgie, Mahiki and the sensible Danny, from Aloha. I was the token lady from Bacardi there to sponsor, support, and wear a tiki shirt that Lyndon gave me!

Now I’m not sure if it was the fact that the UK team were half the size and half the age of most of the spectators at RR, but they were treated like rock stars, much to my dismay. But who am I to judge, they played their part and the yanks loved it.

Bacardi Rum has sponsored the UK team for four years running, and each year the boys have put on a show. This year was to be no different. Round one of the competition was ‘knowledge’ where the US took the lead. This made the UK team a little nervous. But not for long as they smashed every other round with a very strong and slightly embarrassing, lead before the final presentation.

The UK team put on an impressive final performance with a tiki themed Olympics! They created an impressive punch mixing Bacardi Superior, Gold, Black and Solera, in true tiki style. This won the gold and made the boys winners for the fourth year running.

The boys certainly did us proud and showed what we have to offer this side of the pond. I hear that the US team are already devising a plan for next year. I guess they need the practice.

The bar, currently open Wednesday to Saturday, prides itself on its inventive cocktail lists and use of infusions in drinks. Two areas which all staff need to have an interest in.

The manager role comes with a base salary of £24K a year but will also have an incentive scheme to increase this to in excess of £34K. The applicant will need to have previous experience as a bar manager as well as a strong cocktail background.

The bar/floor staff whilst not needing any experience in cocktail bars will need to prove an understanding of and passion in spirits and cocktails. There are both full and part time roles available.

To apply for the job please send your CV through to Kath at morrellbusinesscentre@gmail.com or call her on 0207 7294141.

Since March, when I first wrote about the Martinez cocktail on my website bitters&twisted I’ve had a lot of bartenders ask me which recipe is the best.

That’s a loaded question of course, because as with any drink it comes down to the unique ingredients used and the skill of the person making the drink as to how any particular recipe tastes. That being said with a drink that has seen so many incarnations over the past 128 years, yet is widely known by only one simple version, it seemed to me that it would be interesting to put the recipes head-to-head in an attempt to better understand the amazing Martinez cocktail.

The Martinez we know as today's standard

I hoped that by blind tasting all the unique recipes that I uncovered while researching the Martinez that a clear picture would form about how the drink evolved and how it may have been enjoyed in the past.

For those that haven’t read my original post I encourage you to do so before reading the rest of this article, but if you don’t have time, or are too lazy, below is a brief summary of the history of the Martinez as well as some thoughts about how it may have been enjoyed in the past.

History of the Martinez

It’s fair to say that no one knows for certain who invented the Martinez, or how he or she intended the drink to be served. What we can do however, is base its history on is the written recipes recorded in cocktail book through the years.

The most striking thing about the Martinez is that you can walk into most good bars and order one and be served a drink made to roughly a standard recipe. The Martinez is understood by most bartenders to be two parts sweet vermouth to one part gin, with a dash of bitters and a splash of maraschino liqueur. Yet looking back at the recipes from the past, many use dry vermouth instead of sweet, curacao often replaces the maraschino and orange bitters were often used in place of aromatic.

It is pure conjecture as to how we have arrived at a modern understanding of this drink that differs so distinctly from many of the past versions, but it occurs to me that the version we use today is strikingly similar (or identical) to the version released in the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas’, Bon Vivant’s Companion.

Many bartenders over the years have turned to this book as a starting point to understanding classic cocktails, so it makes sense to me that this may have influenced our current understanding of the drink.

The first recorded recipe that I have found is from 1884 from three years prior to the Jerry Thomas reference though, and in it O H Byron compares the drink to the Manhattan, only made with gin. His book goes on to give two recipes for the Manhattan, one using dry and one using sweet vermouth.

Is it possible that in its early history the Martinez was a drink that could be ordered either sweet or dry?

It seems a distinct possibility to me, especially when you consider the ingredients used in it, being Old Tom Gin (sweeter than our modern dry gins) with the addition of sweet liqueur. To balance the sweetness of those two ingredients surely dry vermouth might work well?

Blind Tasting

A selection of some of the version's tasted

So with these thoughts in mind I decided that a blind tasting would be the best way to try to understand the complexities of the history of this wonderful cocktail. I’ll admit that I was quietly hoping that one of the recipes with dry vermouth would prove popular, so to guarantee that I couldn’t influence the outcome I decided to ensure that even I didn’t know which drink was which during the tasting.

Richard Wynne, the owner of the fabulous Callooh Callay in Shoreditch, agreed to co-host the tasting event with me in his bar. I pre-made all the recipes in batches and put them in the fridge and then later Richard served them in a random order (obviously keeping track so that we could unravel it all later). Complicated I know, but the system seemed a fair way of ensuring that the session was completely unbiased.

All that was left was to assemble a group of tasters willing to sip their way through nine different versions of the Martinez and offer their thoughts on each one. I asked only one thing of this elite group of guinea pigs, and that was that they all suspend any pre conceived ideas of what a Martinez should taste like, and instead focus on the merits and balance of ingredients in each drink they tried.

I was lucky enough to secure the services of Sarah Mitchell and Adam Smithson, the founders of Juniper society and experts in the field of all things gin related, Emma Stokes, the infamous Gin Monkey, Adam Elmegirab who not only produces Boker’s, the bitters used in some of the recipes, but also helped with my original research into the history of the Martinez.

Joining them to ensure a balanced group of tasters was Sarah Christmas, the other half of my blog bitters&twisted, Simon Webster of BarLifeUK, and two willing consumers with a taste for gin cocktails, Christina and Sophie.

For the sake of those who don’t have all day to read about every individual recipe tasted and the thoughts of our tasting panel, I won’t review each one here. If you do want to read more however there is a full write up on bitters&twisted which you might find of interest.

Instead here I want to focus on the discussion that happened after all nine recipes were tasted and of course reveal which recipes came out on top and why.

Tasting Notes

The one thing that everybody agreed was that the tasting threw out a lot of surprises and that perhaps the Martinez isn’t just the straightforward sweet vermouth and gin concoction that we know so well today. There is a lot of diversity within the historical recipes and actually they were all unique and interesting drinks.

Having asked everyone to pick their top three from the tasting, I found it interesting that every single recipe got at least one vote. It was interesting to hear die hard ‘classic’ Martinez fans suddenly talking about the great balance in versions using dry vermouth, or saying that some of the sweet vermouth versions were too sweet and rich.

The general consensus was that the Martinez should perhaps, as per the first written recipe, be considered in a similar way to the Manhattan, with flexibility as to the style of vermouth used.

It was also agreed that this is especially important when considering which gin you are using for your Martinez. On the night we used Ransom Old Tom Gin, Hammer & Son Old English Gin, Beefeater, Plymouth and Beefeater 24 in the various recipes, and all of them struck a balance when used in the right recipe.

Another thing that I am keen to point out is that this tasting proved absolutely nothing conclusive in terms of finding the ultimate Martinez recipe. I guess that was never the point, but it’s safe to say that as with all cocktails if you change one of the ingredients, so for example used Martini extra dry instead of Noilly Prat, then the balance of the drink changes.

The point for me was to see if the Martinez should be looked at as a style of drink (much as the Martini or Manhattan is) instead of a definitive cocktail with only one unique recipe.

The tasting table aftermath

The results of the tasting certainly surprised most people in the room and led to much discussion about offering customers more than one option when the words ‘can I have a Martinez please’ are uttered across the bar. So without further waffling from me here are the top three picks from the night, all of which scored well with only three points separating them.

The Results

3rd place – the 1934 recipe from Patrick Duffy’s, Official Mixers Manual and also appearing in 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar in the same year – a recipe designed to serve six people, but scaled down here for those who want just one. 45ml dry vermouth, 45ml Plymouth Gin, 2 dashes orange bitters and a barspoon of curacao or maraschino (I chose maraschino).

The general consensus was that this was a light and refreshing version of the drink, and while not what most people would recognize as a Martinez was certainly well-balanced and enjoyable to drink. Some considered it to be closer to a (very) wet Martini, almost a missing link between the two drinks that places an emphasis on the vermouth and offers a nice touch of sweetness as well.

2nd place – the classic 1887 recipe from Jerry Thomas and what most people today would recognize as a Martinez. 60ml sweet vermouth, 30ml Old Tom (or in this case Old English) Gin, 2 dashes maraschino, 1 dash Boker’s bitters.

As you might expect this was considered by many to be a well-balanced cocktail, but several of the tasting panel mentioned that the gin was hidden and the vermouth was the star of the show. My personal favourite comment was that the drink was just a touch too sweet, a little too bitter with a bit too much maraschino and was just TOO CLASSIC. Talk about nailing it. Overall it was considered to be a great drink and everyone agreed that it has become a classic for a reason.

1st place – the surprise winner on the night was the dry vermouth recipe taken from O H Byron in 1884, and the first Martinez recipe to appear in a cocktail book as far as we know. The original recipe was for a small drink containing 30ml dry vermouth, 15ml Old Tom Gin (I used Ransom), 3-4 dashes of Angostura bitters and 3 dashes of gomme.

This was the only recipe that all of the tasters chose in their top three, and reading through the comments it was found to be rich, spicy with dark fruit notes. Most people commented on the long finish and the fact that this recipe left you wanting to take another sip. Almost everyone also mentioned that the balance in this drink was the best of the night and that this version tasted like a classic cocktail with simple ingredients combining to become more than the sum of their parts.

So there you have it, three very different recipes for the Martinez, all of which shone through in the blind tasting as being excellent drinks that are well worth trying.

It was unsurprising to find the classic version from Jerry Thomas coming through as one of the best, but I think that most people in the room on the night were surprised that a Martinez made with dry vermouth came out on top. It just goes to show that perhaps we shouldn’t assume we know how a classic should be served and should be open to new (or maybe old?) ideas.

In the case of the Martinez, I now look at it as a family of drinks that showcase vermouth balanced with gin and bitters, and I’m open to trying it either dry or sweet. A couple of months ago the idea of a dry Martinez would have had me rolling my eyes, but now it doesn’t seem quite so absurd.

We’re never likely to know how the first ever Martinez cocktail was made, but one thing is certain, the recipes throughout the ages have been diverse and interesting, and while I’m sure Jerry Thomas’ version will remain the standard, maybe a few of you will experiment with dry versions too. You never know, it just might catch on.

If you want to read more about all nine of the recipes we tried, then please check out the article here on bitters&twisted.

On the surface of it, the question of ‘what’s a Martinez’ seems pretty self-explanatory.

After all, you can walk into any good bar, order one and be pretty confident about what you’ll get in your glass.

The chances are you’ll get a lot of sweet vermouth, a little bit of gin, a splash of maraschino and a dash or two of bitters.

Occasionally there might be a bit more gin and a little less vermouth, or you might get Boker’s bitters or orange bitters; you might even get a splash of curacao instead of maraschino, but all in all you’re likely to receive a sweet vermouth and gin cocktail, with a splash of liqueur and a dose of bitters.

Over the years there has been much debate about the intertwined history of the Martinez and the Martini, with speculation about whether the Martinez might be the forefather of the Martini or, if in fact they were once the same drink, known by similar names that got confused over the years.

The truth is we’re never likely to know, but somewhere along the way the two drinks have diverged to become completely different cocktails.

It’s now accepted that the Martini is made with dry vermouth and the Martinez with sweet, the former has no liqueur added but the latter is usually enriched with a barspoon of maraschino, the Martini is heavy on gin, with vermouth playing a supporting role, whereas the Martinez is a vermouth-led cocktail. In other words they are only connected in as much as that they are in the broad family of gin and vermouth based drinks.

So when I recently made a drink using the same ingredients as a modern Martinez, but in vastly different proportions, and posted the recipe on Twitter, I was shocked to hear people calling it a Martinez.

After all, 3 parts gin to 1 part sweet vermouth makes a completely different cocktail, in fact it was closer in profile to a Gin and It. An online discussion quickly ensued about what people consider a Martinez to be, and what the original spec was; it soon became clear that this is a cocktail with a hazy past, and even a somewhat muddled present.

Inspired by my previous blog about the Corpse Reviver, I thought a similar tactic might be employed to unravel the past of this delicious, but misunderstood drink. I immediately posted some questions on Facebook and Twitter, and once again Adam Elmegirab and Craig Harper dived in to assist in putting together a timeline of recipes for the Martinez in the hopes of understanding how we have arrived at the modern version we know today.

Along the way our research expanded into the entire family of gin, vermouth and bitters based cocktails, but that’s a subject for another time. In fact Adam is already well on his way to amassing a broad history of this family of drinks.

Why so much confusion?

It seems clear from the modern viewpoint that the Martinez is two parts sweet vermouth to one part gin, with a splash of maraschino and a dash of bitters. In fact when I asked bartenders what their standard recipe is for this drink, all of them said two to one ratios in favour of sweet vermouth, and almost everyone said maraschino and either Boker’s or orange bitters.

So if there is a reasonably standard modern recipe, then why am I implying that there is some confusion as to the recipe for the Martinez? It comes down to two things: vermouth choice and ratios.

You see if you refer to cocktail books from the 1930s and 40s most of them actually call for dry vermouth instead of sweet, in fact the first time I made myself a Martinez I followed the recipe from the Savoy Cocktail Book, which calls for dry.

So to me this has always been a drink that can be served both ways, sweet and dry. That already leaves the drink open to interpretation depending on where you first read the recipe in the first place. In addition, I’ve seen recipes calling for equal parts gin and vermouth, so even the ratio can be called into question.

This got me wondering about when the recipe changed from sweet to dry, and then back again to sweet? The trouble I soon realised from chatting with Adam and Craig is that there are surprisingly few recipes for the Martinez in any early cocktail books. In fact as Craig pointed out you almost never see the Martinez and the Martini in the same book.

So is it possible they are the same drink? Was the name and the recipe muddled in the early years of its invention, leaving us with two cocktails where originally there was just one?

What’s in a name?

The first recipe I have been able to find for the Martinez is from 1884, with only a handful of further recipes over the following two decades. Likewise the Martini makes an appearance only a couple of years after the Martinez and has it’s own handful of recipes in the late 1800s.

To make it even more confusing there are other drinks from the same era such as the Martine, Marguerite that also combine gin, vermouth and bitters. So is this just a classic case of Chinese whispers, with a drink being created and named, and then being passed on from bar to bar and slowly changing?

There are of course stories about where the name came from; some claiming it for the town of Martinez in California, others saying it was made for a customer who used to travel to the town. Still others claim that the Martini actually came first and that the Martinez was just confusion over the name.

Then again there are stories of a judge from New York whose name was Martine, so some believe this to be an East coast creation and nothing whatsoever to do with the town in California. Truth be told we’re unlikely to ever know the origins of the name.

Many claim that the Martinez was created in the 1860s and that the Martini came into being in the 1870s, but this is still hard to prove, so for me it seems sensible to start with recipes that have been recorded in cocktail books.

But if all we have are a handful of recipes scattered through a few publications over the years, then what’s the truth about this drink? Has it always been the sweet vermouth based drink we know today? Well let’s see if we can make some sense of it simply by tracking it through the years.

The early days of the Martinez

As I mentioned earlier, the first recipe for the Martinez that I’ve found (and I’d love to hear from anyone who knows of an earlier one, or a version I’ve missed from the timeline below) is from O H Byron in 1884. Unfortunately all he has to say on the subject is this:

“ Same as Manhattan, only you substitute gin for whisky.”

Now this wouldn’t be a problem if he had been considerate enough to list only one recipe for the Manhattan. There were unfortunately two Manhattan recipes listed directly above the entry for the Martinez, one with sweet vermouth one with dry (for full recipes see the timeline further down the page).

So maybe, as with many vermouth and spirit cocktails the Martinez was originally a drink that could be ordered sweet or dry? The problem with this theory is that we never see the Martinez listed in books with the two styles offered as we do with the Martini and the Manhattan.

Often these drinks are offered, for example, as the Dry Martini or the Sweet Martini with distinct recipes. Nowhere have I found the same for the Martinez. Still it’s a thought…

The next recipe that we find in print is from the 1887 revised edition of Jerry Thomas’ Bon Vivants Companion, which was published two years after his death. The recipe calls for one part Old Tom Gin to two parts ‘vermouth’.

Now we know from records that most vermouth in the US at this time was Italian (sweet) vermouth, and it’s taken for granted that unless French vermouth is specified, then Italian should be used. So it seems likely that this recipe is the one responsible for our current understanding of the Martinez as being a sweet vermouth cocktail.

Over the years as cocktails have gone in and out of fashion, at every resurgence bartenders have tended to turn to Jerry Thomas as their first point of reference.

Next up we have the Martinez recipe listed in Stuart’s Fancy Drinks from 1896, but unfortunately it seems that he has plagiarised O H Byron, as his entry is identical to the 1884 entry in that book (word for word, down to the order of the drinks). So other than being a second time that we see both a sweet and dry version, it doesn’t actually help us to understand how this drink might originally have been served.

Fast forward almost a decade to 1905 and we find a recipe for the Martinez in the romantically named Consolidated Library of Modern Cooking and Household Recipes, volume 5 by Christine Terhune Herrick and M. Harland, which is instantly recognisable as the first written record of the Martinez as we know it today.

The recipe calls for two parts vermouth (sweet?) to one part gin with two dashes of maraschino and a dash of Boker’s Bitters. Gum syrup may be added if desired. The parting shot is to point out that this recipe is exactly the same as the one before, which as you might have guessed, is for the Manhattan.

Manhattan? Martinez?

What can be made of these early recipes? Well keeping in mind some good advice I received recently from Dave Wondrich when he said, “I always try to be careful to distinguish between “it happened once or twice” and “it’s in common use.” The latter is much more important for writing history; firsts are in my mind highly overrated. People will do any damn thing once or twice.” It’s hard to draw any firm conclusions from so few recipes.

But it’s certainly interesting to note that three out of the four mentions of this drink compare it directly to the Manhattan cocktail.

We know that the Manhattan was by this time a popular and widely consumed drink, and we often see it served with either dry or sweet vermouth (or on occasion calling for both), so with this in mind, it is at least possible that the Martinez may have been served either way. I’m not for one moment stating this as fact, but instead offer it as food for thought, especially when viewing the next era in the history of the Martinez.

The Prohibition era Martinez

There’s a significant gap in the timeline of the Martinez as far as I’ve been able to tell (but hopefully readers will find some recipes to fill in the gaps) between 1905 and 1922, when we see a recipe appear in Cocktails How To Mix Them by Robert.

In this early prohibition era recipe he calls for equal parts Old Tom Gin and French vermouth, combined with either curacao or maraschino and orange bitters. This is just the start of a trend towards a drier style of drink.

Robert also states that in England the Martinez generally contains Plymouth gin and French vermouth, with orange syrup and Angostura bitters; once again pointing at a dry style of drink.

In 1930 the Martinez pops up in the Savoy Cocktail Book with an almost identical recipe to the Martinez listed in Robert’s book, only not specifying Old Tom and simply listing gin instead. So yet again we have a dry style of Martinez appearing in print.

This is also true of the recipe in 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar, in 1924, where the recipe is for several servings.

Here we have three glasses of Plymouth gin and three of French vermouth combined with a dessertspoon of orange bitters and two dessertspoons of curacao or maraschino. In the same year Patrick Gavin Duffy included an identical recipe (again for six people) in his book the Official Mixer’s Manual.

In 1935’s Old Mr. Boston we find the first recipe specifying dry gin, as by this time Old Tom had fallen out of fashion and London Dry was the go-to style of gin for cocktails. Once again equal parts of dry gin and French vermouth are combined with orange bitters and curacao.

So it seems that in the 1920s and 30s dry vermouth was the standard ingredient for the Martinez, and the ratio had changed from being vermouth heavy to equal parts vermouth and gin. The drier style of drink is not surprising as this was very much the taste of that era, in fact this is the period where we start seeing the Martini grow more and more dry, so perhaps this is nothing more than the fashion of the era?

In fact the trend towards dry vermouth is still there in 1946 when Trader Vic includes a Martinez in his Bartender’s Guide, made of equal parts gin and French vermouth, with ½ a teaspoon each of orange bitters and curacao.

It’s interesting that in the ten recipes above only two specify sweet vermouth, two offer it both dry and sweet and the remaining six all call for dry vermouth. While this is still not such a weighty catalogue of evidence as to be able to state that the Martinez should rightly be made using dry vermouth, it is enough to say that it has been made that way in the past, possibly from the time it was first conceived of.

I also can’t help but notice that curacao was called for more often than maraschino, and while we’re usually only talking about a couple of dashes this is enough to change the profile of the drink.

To me this makes some sense when you think about the other ingredients involved; Old Tom Gin was sweeter than the modern style and more full bodied, liqueur is being added to this contributing yet more sweetness, so wouldn’t it make sense to use dry vermouth to balance the drink?

We’ll probably never know how the drink was intended to be, but it’s at least interesting to open ones mind to the possibility that the Martinez may once have been intended as a dry vermouth drink and not the sweet one we know today.

The modern Martinez

So how have we arrived at the modern Martinez? After all, when you look at the history above almost all of the drinks call for dry vermouth and not sweet, many are equal parts gin and vermouth, and a lot of them call for curacao and orange bitters. These differences from the modern understanding of the Martinez are significant enough to make them worth thinking about.

The key to me, as I mentioned earlier, is the importance placed on Jerry Thomas’ book, The Bon Vivant’s Companion, or How to Mix Drinks. The first edition in 1862 is also the first cocktail book in existence, and as such is often the starting place for bartenders to gain insight into the classic cocktails of the 1800s.

But although I agree it’s an important book, but it’s by no means infallible. The fact that the Martinez doesn’t appear in the first edition and wasn’t added until two years after Thomas’ death, means that we don’t even know the real source of this recipe.

Who was it that edited this book and added the Martinez? Where did he or she get their recipe? It seems to me unlikely that a drink that was in the process of establishing itself in the repertoire of bartenders of that era had a standard spec, so why does this interpretation carry so much weight?

I suspect it’s no coincidence that our modern version of the Martinez contains maraschino, and that this is one of the few recipes to call for it, and not at least give the option of curacao. In fact, looking at the recipe it is remarkably similar to the modern standard that so many bartenders take for granted.

I’m not saying that the industry is wrong, or that bartenders have their facts mixed up, but if you look through the recipes I’ve found so far, it seems that the jerry Thomas recipe has been held up as the correct one, without much thought being given to other recipes of the time.

So, is there any such thing as a Martinez?

What conclusion can be drawn from all of the above? We can see that in our current cocktail culture the Martinez is a well-known drink that is widely accepted as being made with sweet vermouth and gin (Old Tom), some maraschino and bitters.

It’s clear from looking at the timeline below that it has not always been made this way though and for at least some of its life was a dry vermouth and gin based drink.

Also worth thinking about is the fact that for a drink that is so well established in the repertoire of modern bartenders there are surprisingly few references to it in cocktail books over the years.

It seems likely to me that if it had not been included in two of the most important and well respected cocktails books of all time, this drink might very well have faded into oblivion, despite the fact that it is a damned tasty cocktail.

The fact that the two recipes are so very different can at least partly be put down to the availability of ingredients in different countries and different eras, and also to the fashion for sweeter drinks in the 1880s and dry drinks in the 1920s. None the less there is enough difference between recipes from across the decades that it calls into question what the Martinez really was.

In fact, given the intertwined history of the Martini, Martinez, Martine and even the Turf Club, it’s almost impossible to know if they were all the same drink, but known by different names or if they were designed to be different from the outset.

Seeing as we have arrived at a time and place where we do indeed have two individual drinks, it probably doesn’t matter what the original intention behind them was, they have grown apart, and now stand on their own merits as individual cocktails.

So here is a timeline of recipes, for a drink that may or may not ever have been intended to be different from the martini, and may or may not have originally been made with dry vermouth:

1884 – OH Byron – ‘same as Manhattan but with gin replacing whisky’

Martinez 1

• 1 pony French vermouth, ½ pony gin, 3 or 4 dashes Angostura bitters, 3 dashes gum syrup

Martinez 2

• 2 dashes curacao, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, ½ wineglass gin, ½ wineglass Italian vermouth

1887 – Jerry Thomas – revised edition 2 years after his death

Martinez – 1

• dash Boker’s bitters, 2 dashes maraschino, 1 pony Old Tom gin, 1 wineglass vermouth.

1896 – Stuart’s Fancy Drinks and how to mix them

• Identical recipe to OH Byron 1884 and once again compared to the Manhattan, served both dry and sweet

1905 – Consolidated Library of Modern Cooking and Household Recipes, volume 5

• Martinez – shake up well and strain into a large cocktail glass 1 dash of bitters, 2 dashes of maraschino, 1 pony of Old Tom gin, 1 wineglassful of vermouth, 2 small lumps of ice. Add a slice of lemon, and gum syrup if desired, as in last recipe (Manhattan)

1922 – Cocktails and How to Mix Them by Robert

• Martinez cocktail – 2 dashes orange bitters, 3 dashes curacao or maraschino, ¼ gill Old Tom Gin, ¼ gill French vermouth
• Martinez in England – 2 dashes orange syrup, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, ¼ gill Plymouth gin, ¼ gill French Vermouth

1930 – Savoy Cocktail Book

• Martinez cocktail (6 people) – Pour into the shaker 3 glasses of gin, 3 of French vermouth, add a dessertspoonful of orange bitters and 2 of curacao or maraschino. Shake and serve with a cherry and a piece of lemon rind

1934 – 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar

• Martinez – 3 glasses Plymouth gin, 3 glasses French Vermouth, 1 dessertspoonful orange bitters, 2 dessertspoonful curacao or maraschino, serve with a cherry and a lemon rind

1934 – Official Mixer’s Manual, Patrick Gavin Duffy

• Same recipe as 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar

1935 – Old Mr. Boston

• Martinez cocktail – ½ dry gin, ½ French vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters, 1 dash curacao

1946 – Trader Vic – Bartender’s Guide

• ¾ oz gin, ¾ oz French vermouth, ½ tsp orange bitters, ½ tsp curacao

So there we have it, 10 recipes for the Martinez spanning from 1884 to 1946, with the majority specifying dry vermouth.

The gin, we can accept, changes through the ages as Old Tom becomes less popular and gives way to London Dry and in some cases even Plymouth. Most of the recipes offer your choice of either maraschino or curacao, and many call for orange bitters too.

And so we have a modern drink that doesn’t sit perfectly against its forefathers, but does sit comfortably with the version included by an anonymous editor of Jerry Thomas’ work, who added his recipe two years after the professors’ death.

I love a good Martinez and will gladly accept the current version of this drink whenever someone wishes to stir one up for me. That being said I can’t wait to try all of the recipes above to see how they differ, but that’s a blog for another day.

I hope to get many of those who contributed their research to this blog together, so that we can try these recipes alongside each other to get a real feel for how the drink evolved. In the meantime I’ll make do with my own version of this drink… after all, as long as you combine roughly the right ingredients, you seem to be able to call anything a Martinez!

The Compromised Martinez

• 45ml Hammer & Son Old English Gin
• 45ml Noilly Ambre vermouth
• 1 Dash curaçao
• 1 Dash maraschino
• 1 Dash orange bitters
• 1 Dash Boker’s bitters

Stir or shake (after all both methods have been used over the years), then strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with your choice from the following: a cherry, a lemon twist, a slice of lemon, or all three, it’s entirely up to you!

Please if you have more information or recipes for the Martinez, we’d love to hear from you and add it into the timeline of this ever evolving cocktail.

Further reading – in reply to the question posed in the title of this article Adam Elmegirab has posted his thoughts and research regarding the intertwined nature of the Manhattan, Martinez and Martini here. an excellent read and definitely states the case for the camp who believe that the Martinez was a sweet vermouth drink from the outset!

also see this great chart based on the timeline above as created by Tristan Stephenson of Purl and Whistling Shop fame:

Taking place at the newly opened, gin palace inspired, pub The Blacksmith & The Toffeemaker the final saw bartenders from all over England and Scotland who had battled through their heats competing to take out the prize of a trip to Amsterdam and some spending cash.

What a very attractive bunch of people...

Each competitor had to make a Twisted Tradition cocktail which saw imaginations running wild with a host of infusions and syrups being utilised and a Simple Serve designed to be recreated easily in most bars.

In the end it was Robin Webb from 64th & Social in Clapham who took out the top spot with two fantastic drinks, one of which was served in Grandma Webb’s best bone china.

It was so close to call at the top and the quality of drinks so high that Sloane’s extended the prize pool to give not only second but also third place a spot on the trip.

Those honours went to Matteo Corsalini from the new 34 Restaurant in Mayfair and (continuing her stellar start to the competition year) Ash Bovey from Sahara Bar in Reading. They will be joining Rob and BarLifeUK on the trip to Amsterdam in June.

Whilst the bone china was a great serve vessel, it was eclipsed by one of the most original we have seen for a long time. Benji Purslow from Ziloufs in Islington rocked out two bath tubs from a dolls house to serve his fantastic Hans Birthday Bath in, pure ginius (sorry).

As mentioned the quality of the drinks was superb from all the competitors and the judges (Gary Sharpen from The Cocktail Lovers, Joel Harrison from Caskstrength and Joel Constantino the Brand Ambassador from Sloane’s along with BarLifeUK) would happily have ordered most of them again and again.

They’ll be news on, what is sure to be a quiet and relaxing trip to Amsterdam, in the coming weeks but in the meantime massive congratulations to everyone who entered and have a go at remaking the winning drinks below:

Winner – Robin Webb, 64th & Social

I'm still dreaming of those macaroons

Grandma Sloane’s Tea Time Tipple

• 50ml Sloane’s Gin (steeped in Vanilla Rose pouching (black tea) for 10 mins, no need to heat)
• 25ml Lemon juice
• 10ml Rose syrup
• 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
• Egg white
• Violet atomiser

Dry shake, shake with ice and fine strain into Grandma’s best bone china. Spray atomiser and serve with two vanilla macaroons.

Sloane Ranger

• 50ml Sloane’s Gin
• 25ml Lemon juice
• 20ml King’s Ginger
• 3 Dashes of rhubarb bitters
• 1 Barspoon of Ginger & Rhubarb jam

Shaken and fine strain over cubed ice.

Second place – Matteo Corsalini, Restaurant 34

Matteo showing how the long pour should be done

The Botany Cocktail

• 45ml Sloane’s Gin
• 15ml Martini Bianco
• 15ml Suze Gentian Liqueur
• 15ml Elderflower cordial
• 2 Drops of Dandelion & Burdock Bitters
• Fresh mint, lemon thyme and lemon verbena

Stir all ingredients with ice in a mixing glass for no more than 15 seconds and double strain into a frozen coupette. Garnish with a lemon balm leaf.

Twenty-First Century Cocktail

• 45ml Sloane’s Gin
• 20ml Americano Cocchi Aperitivo
• 15ml Bols Crème de Cacao White
• 15ml Lemon juice
• 2 Drops of Master of Malt Chocolate Bitters

Shake and double strain into a flute glass. Garnish with lemon twist and chocolate caviar on the side.

Third place – Ash Bovey, Sahara Bar

Ash and the nations smiliest shake

A Natural Curiosity

• 60ml Sloane’s Gin
• 15ml Home-made coriander seed/lemon rind syrup*
• 7.5ml Green Chartreuse
• 3 Dashes Bitter Truth Orange Bitters
• 3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
• 4-6 Mint leaves

Shake all ingredients like a ninja, fine strain into pre-chilled coupette garnish with a lemon zest.
*Coriander seed/lemon rind syrup method – make a 2:1 ration sugar syrup, whilst still warm add two barspoons of coriander seeds and the rind of one fresh lemon. Leave to steep for 3-4 days then remove.

Sir Hans Solo

• 60ml Sloane’s Gin
• 5ml Maraschino
• 15ml Lemon juice
• 30ml Fresh pressed apple juice

Shake all ingredients and pour into old-fashioned glass filled with cubed ice. Garnish with apple fan.

In ‘It’s a Strange World: Part One’, Nick Strangeway has some stern words for bartenders of today:

“Bartenders today are obsessed with the Japanese hard shake and cutting ice from big blocks, they force history down people’s throats and inflict their techniques on customers, putting foam on something for sake of it,” he says. “They don’t realise that if it takes 20 minutes to make, it’s a shit drink. And they never sit the opposite side of the bar, they won’t check the toilets.”

I have a huge amount of respect for Nick, but can’t completely agree with him here. It’s another case of referring to ‘the industry’ and ‘bartenders’ as things one encounters only within a 10 mile radius of central London.

There are a great many bars in the UK that balance creative drinks and expansive knowledge with showing guests a good time; good old fashioned bartending in other words – Take a trip to cities like Bristol, Reading, Oxford, Manchester and Leeds, or indeed London suburbs like Clapham, and it is the norm, rather than the exception.

While I totally agree with what he says when it comes to some of the pseudo-speakeasies that have cropped up in the Capital, I find myself feeling frustrated yet again on behalf of bartenders and bar owners outside of London.

To get a real view of the ‘state of the nation’, one has to get out and see it. That means travelling all over the country, visiting bars that aren’t always in the news, speaking to bartenders who don’t go on all the press junkets, and judging cocktail competitions regardless of their location or stature.

This article is not meant as a criticism of Nick, more so of the consistent lack of credit and coverage given to non-London bars when talking about the UK bar industry as a whole. His points are absolutely valid, but should only be applied to a tiny percentage of bars and bartenders in the UK.

London Cocktail Club are looking for a talented general manager to join their expanding empire and take the helm at their Covent Garden venue.

There is a great package on offer with lots of room for growth in the future for the right person.

For more information, please click here to email J.J. Goodman.