Cocktail lecturer gives key advice for bartenders in 2014
Steve Pearce, an expert flavour-maker, begins a ‘Chemistry of Cocktails’ lecture tour later this month, giving mixologists and flavourists the chance to learn about the chemical composition of cocktails.
Ahead of the tour, BigHospitality caught up with Pearce, who is also the co-founder and chief executive of Omega Ingredients, for a quick Q&A; to find out exactly what will make a good cocktail great this year.
The cocktail drinks category is in growth when many others are in decline. Why are cocktails so popular at the moment?
Cocktails have come into their own and gained greater public awareness as an alternative drink, particularly since programmes like Sex and the City popularised the idea of meeting friends for a cocktail.
Going out for a cocktail as a concept, as opposed to going for a few beers or glasses of wine, for example, has really entered into people’s consciousness and taken the imagination. It’s also a more sophisticated way of drinking alcohol.
What would you say about the quality of cocktail offers in the capital?
There’s much more imagination going on now and there’s a greater range of raw materials being used by the industry. During London Cocktail Week I worked at an event with some new mixologists who even created cocktails using a microwave plus some raw materials of interest.
I think that imagination shows through in the quality of, and the interest in, what’s being delivered.
Recent research found that the Mojito is the nation’s favourite cocktail, with other ‘classics’ filling the top 5. Do you think it’s important for a bar to perfect these classic variations before attempting new or bespoke cocktails?
I don’t think it’s strictly necessary. However, from a business point of view you should serve what is most popular with customers and produce a good version of it. If you master the classics it gives you the chance to experiment with them and add a new twist with your own dimension.
What makes a good cocktail great?
A good quality spirit, some sweetness, some bitterness and ideally maybe a savoury note too. You need something that is multidimensional and hits more than one flavour note. Hence the reason why a Bloody Mary is so popular, because it has a combination of sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami notes that hit every flavour note in the pallet.
Are there any basic mistakes you see bartenders making that you think can ruin a cocktail?
The over-use of ice is a big mistake to avoid. It leads to diluting the flavours plus can make a cocktail too cold to drink comfortably. It is interesting to note that the recently opened White Lyan cocktail bar in London - run by Ryan Chetiyawardana and Iain Griffiths - doesn’t use any ice in its cocktails.
Also, it’s critical that bartenders and mixologists make sure to rinse out everything properly after mixing each cocktail.
Lots of bars want to be more innovative with their cocktail lists. What advice would you give to a bartender that wants to do something a bit different with cocktails this year?
They need to think about the wide range of raw materials available and not just focus on alcoholic beverage and fruit-orientated ingredients for cocktails. Here at Omega Ingredients we supply ingredients such as florals like Rose and Jasmine essential oils and Saffron extract - all of which can add really interesting notes.
We also supply really innovative ingredients like colourless and flavourless cooling and heating agents added, to give interesting effects to the drinks. We’ve recently done some other work with customers with the smell of burnt rubber and the smell of carbon fibre in order to help them make a ‘Formula 1’ cocktail that smells like a Formula 1 car.
Ultimately, it’s really up to bartenders and mixologists to think outside the box, be innovative and experiment. The innovations and developments in cocktail ingredients mentioned above are something that they should adopt now as I think these unusual ingredients add another dimension and will be the next big thing in cocktails.
Pearce will kick off his 2014 ‘Chemistry of Cocktails’ lecture tour at the Annual Joint Lecture of The British Society of Flavourists and The British Society of Perfumers on 23 January, 2014, at The Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London.
