Ardent Spirits e-letter

Editorial

First of all we would like to apologize to Orange V (http://www.orangev.com), a great orange-flavored vodka that helped sponsor the December charity event, held by Team Continuum in New York, helping raise money to buy toys for kids in hospital over the holidays. We inadvertently left them out of our last editorial. Sorry guys.

We have all sorts of goodies for you in this issue, starting out with news of this year's Cocktails in the Country program, a "for professionals only" workshop that will be starting up in March. Then we have news of a sister web site that we're putting together right now, another item that should prove to be of interest to those of you in the hospitality industry.

Wanna win a Regans' Orange Bitters No. 6 T-shirt? Look at our competition in the "Drink Before the Block" article.

This month we also take a look at the classes available at a certain school for women in California in a piece listed under fEmpowerment. These guys really know what they're doing.

And whatever you do, don't miss our new "Quickies in the Walk-In" feature. Some very important news in this piece.

Cheers,

Mardee & Gary

In This Issue:

• Cocktails in the Country: For Professionals Only
  
• Bar Code
  
• A Drink Before the Block (Competition)
  
• fEmpowerment
  
• Quickies in the Walk-In

Cocktails in the Country: For Professionals Only

We've set the dates for this year's classes, so if you work in the hospitality industry in the U.S.A., you might want to think about booking your spot in an upcoming workshop.

This year's classes are going to be a blast. We get our own private bar all to ourselves for two days, and we'll all work together to hone our craft. This means bartender philosophy as well as Mixology . . .

Classes are scheduled for March, April, July, and August, and we already have students booked from as far away as Washington State, as well as bartenders from Manhattan and New Jersey.

Interested? Write to gary@ardentspirits.com

See more here: http://ardentspirits.com/Classes/

Bar Code

If you were paying attention to the last issue of Ardent Spirits, you might remember that we promised to launch a new newsletter, "Ardent Spirits: For Professionals Only," this month. Well, it ain't gonna happen. However . . .

We're in the middle of working on a sister web site, though. This one aimed specifically at "bartenders, and for people not lucky enough to work behind the stick, but want the skinny on bars, cocktails, and bar life anyway."

There will be information on our sister site that you won't find anywhere else on the web. At least not all in one place. Promise.

What does all this have to do with "Bar Code?" We're not sure, really, but we sort of liked it . . .

Watch this space for more details.

A Drink Before the Block

You'll probably remember our good friend, David Wondrich. He's the author of Esquire Drinks: An Opinionated & Irreverent Guide to Drinking With 250 Drink Recipes, and Killer Cocktails: An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking. He's also the guy who shows up every time there are free drinks to be had . . .

But David does come in useful sometimes, and in a recent missive from him to various and sundry misfits at The Museum of the American Cocktail (MOTAC), he happened to mention a certain Lord Lovat, noting that this guy drank "Burnt Brandy and Stoughton Bitters" as he waited to be beheaded for high treason in 1747.

Lovat, the Scottish Jacobite chief of Clan Fraser, has been described as 'the most devious man in Scotland,' and he was apparently the last guy to lose his head on Tower Hill in London, but we're straying from the subject at hand . . .

Phil Greene, one of the Founder members of MOTAC, replied to the assembled mass asking what each of us would order if we were in the same position at Lovat. Now it's your turn:

Write and tell us what you would order if you could have one last drink before your head was removed from your body. And tell us why.

Best answer gets a Regans' Orange Bitters No. 6 T-shirt. Okay?

(The pic here depicts Stanislav Vadrna, bartender from the UFO bar in Slovakia, modeling one of the T-shirts.)

fEmpowerment

We received an e-mail recently from a certain Sandy Shepard who wanted to know how to go about ordering a Martini with "enough" vermouth in it. Sandy is obviously a woman after our own heart--she appreciates the fact that vermouth should be at least identifiable in the cocktail.

We advised her to ask the bartender for a specific ratio of gin or vodka to vermouth. This way the bartender knows that he/she is dealing with someone who knows what she's talking about, and Sandy will be well on her way to gaining their respect. A very important factor if you want to be a good customer.

Then we found out a little more about Sandy Shepard, and it turned out that she runs a "Finishing School and Training Academy" for women. Very interesting, we thought. And it gets better . . .

Here's a little of what you'll see on Sandy's web site (http://www.doubleoh.com):

"At the fEmpowerment Finishing School and Training Academy (fEFSTA), we use the Bond Grrl as our paradigm to help you explore and uncover your authentic self. Our mission is to build a better world, one Bond Grrl at a time."

And part of the curriculum is a class on Mixology:

"Shaken, Not Stirred: This class demystifies cocktails, helping you explore new libations that might better match your inner Bond grrl than "a glass of Chardonnay, please." Learn about Manhattans, sidecars, gimlets, negronis, mojitos, and of course the martini! Leave with recipe cards detailing all drinks covered, & cocktail party tips and tidbits to bring the class home to your James! (Must be 21 to attend.)"

Sandy commented: "The thing that we found was the women [in the classes] really didn't know anything about cocktails, and one of the things about being fEmpowered is to know what you like -- and to get what you want easily and "mysteriously." There's nothing like ordering a Negroni . . . to get people curious."

We couldn't agree more, Sandy. (Oh, the number of times we've ordered a Negroni only to be told that "we don't stock that brand . . . ) Good on yer, grrl! Keep up the good work.

Quickies in the Walk-In

We knew this headline would get your attention . . .

We're using this space to bring you very brief notes about very important new items, along with links to help you find out more.

Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR) is about to open in New York

Created by our good friends Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost, Steven Olson, F. Paul Pacult, and David Wondrich, BAR is the worlds only training institute that will offer comprehensive certification courses in general and advanced studies of distilled spirits and Mixology. For more information please visit: http://www.BeverageAlcoholResource.com

Soused in Australia

Kevin "Cocktail Kev" Clark from Melbourne, Australia, is producing podcasts that he calls "Soused" (Society for the Orderly Uptake of Spiritously Enhanced Drinks ) at a local cocktail bar. They're pretty entertaining, too! So if you want to know what those Antipodean cocktailians are up to, click here and follow instructions: http://soused.thepodcastnetwork.com