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.

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!

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.

For the last two years the scenic and dense athmosphere of Bar Convent has been mainly shaped by the architecture of the old Glashaus building at Arena Berlin. Our new event location, Postbahnhof am Ostbahnhof, requires greater efforts to make the major bar industry meeting excel visually. Therefore we have teamed up with a competent partner from Berlin.

This video has been making its rounds on Facebook over the last two days. A Japanese bartender mixes a Daiquiri cocktail with the original formula. The domain name trueoriginals.com appearing at the end of the video, is registered on the name of a certain Robert Wilson, a producer of air foil.

The spirits portfolio in the back shelf does clearly depict though, that this video must have been produced by the Bacardi company. 

Philip Duff defined the role of the international brand ambassador, as it is common today in the spirits industry. Philip is known worldwide as one of the most experienced bartenders of today's bar industry. He's been working as global brand ambassador for the Dutch liquor company Bols for nine years. Now he acts as the operator of the bar Door 74 in Amsterdam. With his company Liquid Solutions he does also consult spirit brands or train bartenders for international hotel chains. 

Link: www.liquidsolutions.org

This year's Bar Convent Berlin sees the first independent "Bar Shirt Awards". The most creative motiv will be awarded with the liquid trophy of 20 Gin Basil Smash cocktails.

What is the best thing about Bar Convent Berlin? It's what the visitors make of it! The Frankfurt bar scene and the Berne bars scene for example have organized group travellings to Berlin. Also there'll be guest bartenders working in cocktal bars everywhere in the city. And last but not least, there's now actually the first Bar Shirt Award at Bar Convent Berlin.

Both visitors and folks who can't visit Bar Convent are able to attend. The idea for the Bar Shirt Awards stems from the crew of bar Le Lion in Hamburg. The award jury is looking for the most creative t-shirt at Bar Convent Berlin. As you can see above the first companies start joining in.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that all this started with a pen, a paper and an idea. I just took this snapshot when searching for a cocktail book. The picture shows all the stuff that'll go on sale at the BCB shop in one week's time. Cocktail book reprints and rare spirits. It's just one small corner of our storage space that we started renting last year. Our office space was simply getting too small. And this is just a small corner of the storage. Strange how fast things grow over the years.

One of the godparents, if not the godfather of the New Dutch bar
scene, Ricardo Sporkslede, in an interview at Bar Convent Berlin 2008. Ricardo operates the company Fabulous Shaker Boys in Amsterdam.
Services are cocktail caterings, bartender training and consulting in the bar and
cocktail area.

Link: www.fabulousshakerboys.com