The second viral of the "True Originals" series has been published on Youtube. It features a bartender in a club bar preparing a Pina Colada.

Following the success of the first Bacardi viral "The Samurai" among bartending professionals, Bacardi has now released the second part of the series. A bartender called "The Hummingbird" prepares a Pina Colada for the mystery customer, we know from the first video. The movements of the bartender and the method of preparation are pretty spectacular for such a mainstream drink. One would love to see this live at a neighbourhood bar. [more ...]

Italian bitters have become a standard in the world's leading bars. Some of the largest brands in this category have their origin in the region around Milan. It was there that Ausano Ramazzotti introduced in 1815 a gentle blend of roots, herbs and alcohol: the Amaro Ramazzotti. In 1848 Ausano started serving his creation in his own coffee bar near Milan's La Scala and Ramazzotti established itself within a few years as one of the most popular bitters brands in Italy.

The soft taste of Ramazzotti is based on a mixture of a total of 33 secret ingredients. Six of these are traceable even by the less experienced drinkers: orange peel , gentian, cinnamon, oregano, rhubarb and cinchona bark. One of the most successful export markets for the amaro with its distinctive red label is Germany. Reason for Ramazzotti to showcase the trends of a German metropolis to restaurateurs and bar-owners throughout the world.

To conclude our 6-part series on the Bacardi success story, our author showcases the diverse qualities of this historic rum - from Ron Refino Consumo Corriente to Reserva Limitada.

As Don Facundo Bacardi began experimenting with the character of his rum, he couldn't have foreseen that he was laying the foundations for generations of Bacardi rums, each with their own, inimitable character.

In 1862, having purchased the La Tropical distillery in Santiago de Cuba from John Nunes, his former employer, he created a distillate which was to revolutionize the taste of Cuban rum and which laid the groundwork for his later success. Employing a special wood charcoal filtering system which had been developed for the production of vodka by the chemist Johann Tobias Lowitz, Bacardi produced a light, pale, mature rum which was unusually soft and mild. This product, originally known as Ron Refino Consumo Corriente, later became well known as Bacardi Superior.

Bacardi continued working on and refining his vision. In 1873, Bacardi Extra Dry was created in memory of those who died in the Virginius Affair. This rum, used as the basis for classic cocktails such as the Cuba Libre, Daiquirí and Mojito, was to become the best-selling rum in the world. The next breakthrough came in 1889 with the switch from the traditional pot-still distillation method to using multi-column stills. This resulted in improved yields and more smoothness in the final distillate.

During Prohibition, Havana became an Mecca for countless Americans who'd had enough of quenching their thirst on Bathtub gin and illegally-distilled booze. After the end of the alcohol ban, the Bacardi cocktail returned to the United States and with it went the Mai Tai, Hurricane, Piña Colada and other Tiki classics which simply couldn't be made without the smooth, fresh Bacardi rum aroma.

Driven out of their Cuban homeland and burdened with the loss of the entire commercial facilities on the island, the Bacardi company had to adapt quickly in order to maintain its status as an internationally-recognized brand. The president of Bacardi, Pepin Bosch, opted for a strategy of fast expansion into new markets.

The first step into the new epoch was to safeguard the brand copyright in those countries to which Bacardi had been exported until the company's exodus from Cuba. The company instigated lawsuits in all the regions where rum from their Cuban distilleries was sold and thus ensured that only the Bacardi company, as the copyright owner, was permitted to sell rum bearing the Bacardi label. The most significant decision was the verdict in a British court in 1968, which led to the new Cuban state finally dropping its claims on the brand.

In the second step, Pepin Bosch invested in new distilleries and bottling plants. Within just a few years, the company expanded to open facilities in Brazil, the Bahamas, Canada, Martinique, Panama and Spain. "Fidel Castro stole 70 million dollars from us and we don't even feel it", said Bosch confidently in an interview at the time. Parallel to the establishment of the broadly-scattered international facilities, a quality-control centre was built in Nassau in order to ensure that Bacardi rum was produced to the same quality everywhere in the world.

Nice video with TGI Friday's bartenders from Prestwich with crazy and heavily edited flair tricks. Our subscriber Eric Bergmann, a flair bartender himself, commented on Facebook: "Some tricks are obvious fakes, but it's still very entertaining."

Don't do this at home!

The Bacardi familiy was in opposition to dictator Batista who seized power in Cuba by force in 1952. Like many other Cubans the Bacardis supported Fidel Castro as they assumed he would reinstall democracy. But his cooperation with the country's business community was just a smokescreen. In 1960 the Bacardis started leaving Cuba. 

In the first half of the 20th century the Bacardi company was intent on expanding on an international level. As well as Puerto Rico, Mexico was also a location that the company invested in by setting up a production facility there. In the beginning, the business developed very slowly there until the company started to understand the demands of the local market and then tuned the advertising and packaging of their rum to better suit these demands.

These decades were marked by social unrest in every corner of the globe. And Bacardi was not spared this unrest. In Cuba, the former military leader Batista came to power and formed an alliance with the Communist unions, which in turn vehemently attacked the Bacardi Company. These conflicts culminated in Batista, with the force of the police, finally taking over control of the distillery. Cuba's supreme court immediately annulled this act. But it was clear from this point on that the Bacardi brand would always be in opposition to the later dictator.

The Bacardi family became involved in Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain. At the end of the 19th century export to the United States grew and the American influence became significant and fruitful for the success of Bacardi cocktails. This part of our Bacardi series is introducing the most well-known Cuban classics based on Bacardi rum.

As we reportet in part two of this series, the Bacardi family was actively involved in the Cuban independence movement. For many years, Emilio Bacardi collected donations for the rebel army which active in the Cuban hinterland. He also served as one of its city-based contacts for secret communications. His son Emilito even became actively involved in combat by joining the rebels and fighting under the command of the popular rebel leader Antonio Maceo. The Spanish authorities were not oblivious to the Bacardis' sympathy for the cause of independence: This was to result in Emilio being imprisoned several times, while the rest of the family had to seek temporary exile in Jamaica.

Don Facundo Bacardi began to deal with the art of distillationin in collaboration with Jose Leon Boutellier. The new rum style he created proved to be a success with the customers of his brother's shop. The symbol of the bat and Don Facundo's signature helped raise the brand's recognition.

When Don Facundo began to develop an interest in rum in the middle of the 19th century, his timing could not have been better, as already described in part one of our series. The Spanish monarchy, which had prohibited the production of rum until 1796 on health and moral grounds, now actively promoted the production of hard liquor which would be able to "satisfy the taste of the court and the elite of the Spanish Empire", as stated in the official tender. 

At this time, the Cuban sugar cane plantations, which were flourishing due to the favourable climate, all possessed small distilleries in which they produced Aguardiente, a primitive form of rum, from molasses, a "waste product" of sugar processing. Aguardiente was the drink of the workers, and it was served directly from the barrel in taverns or so-called Pulperias, open-fronted stand-up bars. The reason for its poor quality was the fact that hardly any modern distillery know-how had been imported to Cuba, unlike the French and British islands in the Caribbean. An additional hindrance was that Cuban sugar cane has an extremely high sucrose content, which, in uncontrolled distillation conditions, can lead to rapid, unrestrained alcohol production and high temperatures. This in turn kills the yeasts prematurely, with correspondingly fatal consequences for the end product.

Bacardi Rum is a success story that has influenced an entire region and established a whole new category of spirits. Bacardi has become a symbol of summertime and lust for life all over the world. But paradoxically, nobody knows the full story. Here we're going to tell the Bacardi story over the course of six articles.

You know Bacardi? Are you sure? Then, dear reader, you'll surely know that the name 'Bacardi' is stressed on the final 'i'. As soon as one begins researching the history of this legendary brand of rum, there emerges such an abundance of little-known and startling facts that one series of articles hardly suffices to relate them all. Being thus limited to focussing on the essentials, we'll start by telling you about the roots of the family that, right up to the present day, runs the largest family-run spirit company in the world.

Ice balls have been a big hit with bartenders since "Japanese Bartending" became a trend in Western bars. Founder of Belfast's Connoisseur Club Steven Pattison is now selling ice ball makers in Europe.

To produce an ice ball, bartenders have been using silicon ice moulds or carving them off ice blocks (which is very time consuming). About two years ago a Japanese ice ball machine appeared on the market, that doesn't require any external energy source in producing a perfect rounded ice ball.

It hase been showcased at various bar shows, but didn't appear in the mainstream as it's quite expensive. Independent bar consultant Steven Pattison who is also co-founder of the Belfast Connoisseur Club has a penchant for high-quality bar tools. As he was fascinated by the ice ball machine he has now organized distribution set up production and distribution for a similar machine in Europe.

Update 1-4-2010: The original Japanese ice ball machine was first introduced by a company called "Taisin": http://www.taisin-ss.co.jp/html_docs/indexaa.html

The recently voiced suspicion that the Samurai video circulating among bartenders stems from Bacardi has been confirmed. The British agency "Think Espionage" has given us a preview of the next scheduled releases.

Action: A Japanese bartender starts mixing a Daiquiri without requesting a drinks order, as soon as a mysterious customer steps up to his counter. While a deep male voice explaines his hard shaking technique, images of a samurai reaching for his sword are displayed. At the end of the video, the unknown guest leaves a simple coin with the colours black and red on the counter.

The video described above was enthusiastically posted and reposted by bartenders on Facebook. It was originally released, as already suspected in this blog entry, by the Bacardi company. Design and action of the video stem from British marketing agency "Think Espionage". When a mail from Espionage employee Liana Stricker-Wilson arrived, in which she confirmed the origin, I was very sceptical.

Have campaigns like "Drink responsibly" etc. ever caught your imagination? Not mine. Now there's one smashy viral by Bacardi that is fun to watch and has a clear message. London bartender celebrity Salvatore Calabrese ("I was the first one to mix with raspberry!") who's presiding over the prestigious cocktail hub Fifty, tries to mix a cocktail, while driven around on a race track by former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher. The result of this collaboration is displayed on Salvatore's shirt. ;)

Don't drink and drive! Love it!

Via: www.jrgmyr.com

The Blog of the Hooters waitress

Germany's biggest tabloid Bild, a favourite of Jeff Jarvis and hated by German bloggers, did massive coverage on the recent opening of a Hooters bar and restaurant in Berlin. The American concept that aims at male consumers has only a total of five restaurants over here. That might explain the curiosity.

Back where it all started, in the United States, there's now a Hooters girl testing her writing skills. In her blog "The Hooters experience" she writes about how she comes to terms with co-workers, why dating customers is a tricky thing and who is the exploited party in the Hooters game. Not necessarily the staff as her most recent post states.

http://thehootersexperience.blogspot.com

Cuervo 1800 vs Patron

Clever marketing has made Patron Tequila a top selling brand in the US spirits business. Some even argue that Patron might be the first tequila brand that has managed to sell beyond the limits of its category. Like Absolut in the vodka world it has become a lifestyle brand, that is carried around by artists and transformed into songs. Jose Cuervo 1800, which is now "1800 Tequila", has launched two virals in which it attacks the successful "enemy".

Bar Convent Berlin 2009 from Jay Hepburn on Vimeo.

First impressions of Bar Convent Berlin 2009 have been published by Jay Hepburn at "Oh Gosh! TV". Those who did not make it to the Convent this year now have the opportunity to get an impression of what was going on. Jay will publish more sequences of Berlin bars and bartenders in the next few days.

Oh Gosh! TV is the video channel of English cocktail blogger Jay Hepburn:

http://ohgosh.tv

On the 6th of October 2009 the Mixology Bar Awards were presented in Berlin. Charles Schumann from Schumanns Bar in Munich was honored for his lifetime achievement. Bar "Le Lion" in Hamburg won "Bar of the Year 2009" while the new "Mixology City Award" went to the Hamburg bar scene.

Being nominated for a Mixology Bar Award has become the annual highlight for bartenders, bars and spirits brands from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This year the much coveted awards for outstanding performances in the bar industry were offered in six categories: Bar Team of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Mixologist of the Year, Bar of the Year, Spirit of the Year and Lifetime Achievement. A new addition was furthermore the "Mixology City Award" for the bartender city team with the best performance during the award ceremony.