2013 Stages Program now open

The Drink Factory and The Bar with no Name at 69 Colebrooke Row are pleased to announce our 2013 Stages program is now open for applications.

The Stages program offers a unique opportunity to work along side the award winning team of 69 Colebrooke Row and the Drink Factory. You will experience the happenings of our research lab, as well as receiving the opportunity to work with specialist equipment involved in our bespoke ingredient production. This opportunity will provide a rare insight of the process of concept formation, development and implication of ideas.

Stages will be aiding the everyday running of the Drink Factory, as well as shadowing ongoing research and development, gaining an exclusive insight into this unique setting. The position will provide a rare opportunity to learn from leaders in the field of cocktail science, be involved in pioneering projects, and will help the development of a unique set of skills.

This year we are offering four day Stages, run on set dates outlined within the attached application form.  Applicants must complete the application form, provide two references, and be prepared to be called for interview.  A course admin fee of £10 may be applicable to successful applicants. Please note that unfortunately we are unable to provide accommodation for successful apprentices.

Positions will be open to all, though an interest in cocktails, food science, flavour and perfume are inherent.

Application Form

Completed forms and references should be returned via email to zoe@69colebrookerow.com. Please note that only successful applicants will be contacted.

The deadline for completed and returned forms is Monday 3^rd June 2013.   

The Flavour of the Week is Galangal

The flavour of the week is galangal. Galangal is a spice is popular in Asian cooking and surprisingly was well-known in European medieval cooking. It is also known as Siamese ginger or laos, since the plant is indigenous to Southeast Asia, and its rhizome (root) resembles ginger in appearance and in taste.

Different galangal specimens vary in their hotness and flavor. The spice is said to have a flowery taste, while others describe it as tasting like ginger with cardamom. However, some feel the taste of galangal is more like peppery cinnamon, while lesser galangal has a stronger, hotter, and more medicinal taste. The lesser galangal is sometimes confused with greater galangal. It comes from China, where it is used as a medicinal herb, but is grown in Indonesia and is regarded as a spice flavor for use in food.

Consuming galangal regularly can aid the digestion process, and reduce constipation and vomiting. It has been found effective as a remedy for ulcers and inflammation of the stomach. Galangal has been known to improve blood circulation, especially in the hands and feet, thereby improving oxygen supply and nutrient supply to these parts. It can also aid respiratory problems like congestion and helps regulate breathing rate. The galangal herb is used extensively throughout the East as a snuff for nasal infections. A mixture of galangal and lime juice is used as a tonic for cough and cold. Additionally, galangal powder is used against bad breath as a mouth freshener.
Galangal and other gingery spices are used in Asia and in the Middle East in cooking, perfumes, snuffs, and aphrodisiacs. The galangal spices have been used as flavors for condiments, including vinegar, beers, and wines in Russia, and they are used in Germany and elsewhere in teas. Try galangal in any cocktail where you would normally use ginger.

Edible Glassware For Cocktails

Loliware, a company based out of NYC, has come up with an all-natural, vegan line of flavoured, edible glassware. The line comes in cocktail-friendly flavours such as bitters, salty lime, sour lemon, sweet vanilla, and spicy pepper. They are currently only available in NYC, but look out for the glassware to be more widely available soon. Environmentally friendly since there is no waste, and with a texture described as "pleasantly chewy", these cocktail friendly cups would be the perfect vessel for your next house party. No washing-up and an excellent conversation starter!

loliware.com

Gaza Perfume named after Hamas Missile

 Submitted without comment.

A new perfume created in Gaza will bear the name of a missile designed by Jerusalem and Operation Pillar of Defense.

 A local cosmetics company, decided to name a new scent M-75, saying “the fragrance is pleasant and attractive, like the missiles of the Palestinian resistance.”

The perfume comes in masculine and feminine scents and costs twice the price of other perfumes as it uses ingredients “worthy of the victory in the Gaza Strip.”

Dave Arnold in Gotham Mag

The always interesting Dave Arnold talking cocktails with Gotham magazine. Nice recipe included for the home bar enthusiast as well. 
Dave Arnold's First Date

Real Actors Reading Yelp Reviews

Calling all service people! Ever had a bad Yelp review written about your establishment? Yeah, we thought so... Yelp reviews can be helpful, but they can also we written by absolute morons with too much time on their hands. Now someone had a brilliant idea and decided to use real actors to do dramatic readings of the "best" Yelp reviews. Don't click on the link unless you want to lose the next hour of your life watching them.
Real Actors Reading Yelp Reviews

A Sustainable Alternative to Ambergris?

Scientists have recently created a compound mimicking ambergris- that lovely perfume and drink ingredient that smells like sex in heaven, never mind it's made from regurgitated bits in the intestines of the sperm whale. Ambergris is wickedly expensive, costing up to hundreds of pounds an ounce. This is because whale hunting is now illegal, and the only ambergris that can be sold has to be found washed up on beaches. Now scientists say that using two enzymes extracted from clary sage they have managed to have bacteria recreate the molecule that is so prized in ambergris. I guess its no more or less gross to have it be vomited up by whale or made by bacteria, right?

Link to the ScienceDaily article is below. 

Synthetic Ambergris 

Marmite a Base Note in New Perfume

Celtic Fire, a new fragrance by Union Fragrance, is supposed to conjure up the Celtic spirit, down to cold salty ocean air, peat bogs, tea, toast- and Marmite. Yes, love it or hate it, Marmite has found its way out of your breakfast and onto your wrist. The company's website refers to it as a "startlingly original" perfume and we here at Drink Factory are inclined to agree. No word yet on whether the fragrance is as polarizing as the substance itself...

Celtic Fire

Tomorrow is Repeal Day!

This will certainly not come as news to our American readers, but just in case our UK community is confused as to why tomorrow is a good day to have a drink, Repeal Day is the day in 1933 that prohibition was overturned in the States. Silly Yanks, outlawing booze in the first place... If you want to read more about Repeal Day and all it means clink the link below. If you just want to skip that part and have a celebratory drink, that's ok, too.

http://www.repealday.org/

Flavour of the Week

The flavour of the week is violet. Violet is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae, with around 400–500 species distributed around the world. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, however some are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes. Violets are used in perfumery, alcohol, medicines and cuisine.

When newly opened, Viola flowers may be used to decorate salads and soufflés, while ice cream and similar desserts can be flavoured with essence of Viola flowers. The young leaves are edible raw or cooked as a somewhat bland leaf vegetable. There are many types of violets and their culinary uses vary from type to type. For example, the flowers and leaves of the cultivar 'Rebecca', one of the Violetta violets, have a distinct vanilla flavour with hints of wintergreen. The pungent perfume of other types add sweetness to desserts, fruit, and teas while the mild pea flavour of V. tricolor combines well with savoury foods, like grilled meats and steamed vegetables.

One popular method of preserving the flower is to candy them. Candied violet or crystallized violet is a flower preserved by a coating of egg white and crystallised sugar. Alternatively, hot syrup is poured over the fresh flower (or the flower is immersed in the syrup) and stirred until the sugar recrystallizes and has dried. Candied violets are still made commercially in Toulouse, France, where they are known as violettes de Toulouse. They are used as decorating or included in aromatic desserts.

The French are also known for their violet syrup, most commonly made from an extract of violets. In alcohol, violet essence flavours Crème Yvette, Crème de Violette, and Parfait d'Amour. It is also used in Parma Violet confectionery.

The flowers, leaves and roots of various species are used for medicinal purposes, being rich in vitamins A and C and antioxidants. The flowers are also used to make an herbal tea that is used in Chinese herbal medicine to relieve hay fever, sinus problems, eczema, and more. Most violas and many plants of the Violaceae plant family contain cyclotides. These compounds have a diverse range of biological activities when isolated from the plant, including uterotonic, anti-HIV, antimicrobial, and insecticidal activities.

Viola odorata is used as a source for scents in the perfume industry. Violet is an interesting scent because ionone is present in the flowers, which is a compound that turns off the ability for humans to smell the fragrance for moments at a time.

The scent of violet leaves is different from the scent of the flowers. The leaves give off an intense green aroma which resembles mowed grass combined with a hint of cucumber. The fresh scent of violet leaves is an integral component in many fragrance compositions, ranging from fresh floral to oriental spicy and fougere.

Violet liqueur was an integral part of classic cocktails such as the Aviation, though its use in modern bartending is much diminished.

Flavour of the Week

The flavour of the week is persimmon. Persimmons are the edible fruit of a number of species of ebony trees in the genus Diospyros., however not all species of ebony trees bear edible fruit. In color the ripe fruit of the cultivated strains range from light yellow-orange to dark red-orange depending on the species and variety. They similarly vary in size from 1.5 to 9 cm in diameter, and in shape the varieties may be spherical, acorn, or pumpkin-shaped. The ripe fruit have a high glucose content. The protein content is low, but such as it is, it has a balanced protein profile. Like the tomato, persimmons are not popularly considered to be berries, but in terms of botanical morphology the fruit is in fact a berry.

Persimmon fruit have been put to various medicinal and chemical uses. The astringency of dried persimmons help to prevent diarrhea and stop the bleeding associated with hemorrhoids. The fruit also helps to prevent cancer thanks to its high content of beta-carotene, sibutol and betulinic acid. A new study in Japan seems to have established that persimmons actually slow the aging process due to the presence of proanthocyanidin, a compound that resides in the fruit’s skin.

There are two types of persimmons: astringent and non-astringent.

As novice persimmon eaters often belatedly discover, the astringent persimmon has two personalities. When ripe, it possesses a rich, sweet, spicy flavor. The unripened fruit, however, tastes so bitter that biting into it causes the mouth to pucker. However as the fruit ripens and softens, the tannins become inert and the astringency disappears. You can wash a Fuyu persimmon and eat it like an apple, either whole or cut into slices or wedges. The thicker-skinned Hachiya can be messy to bite into, and is easier to handle if halved lengthwise and eaten from the skin with a spoon. Persimmons are excellent blended into margaritas or in an autumnal version of a bellini.

Harold McGee Does it Again!

 We here at Drink Factory love Harold McGee. First of all, he's brilliant. Secondly, you could not find a more lovely, humble man on the planet. So imagine our chagrin when we found ourselves a little, well, angry at the man. We now have to rethink the way sugar cooks and caramelises?? It would appear so... Thanks, Harold for once again shifting the paradigm. Read the article that will change the way you think about sugar FOREVER below.




http://www.curiouscook.com/

MurrayAid

Murray Stenson has been serving people for over three decades (36 years to be exact) from behind Seattle's most esteemed bars. Now, he has a heart ailment that prevents him from working in the profession to which he has given so much. This online fund, MurrayAid, has been established to raise money for his medical expenses.
Go to the MurrayAid Facebook Page for up-to-date information on progress, photos, and Murray anecdotes (everybody has at least one), and watch this page for a comprehensive list of upcoming events and ways to help our friend who has brought so much joy and laughter to so many people. Click on the link below to donate now and look out for a benefit to be organized at 69 Colebrooke Row later in the year.
http://murrayaid.org/

The Art of Scent at the Museum of Art and Design

If you are lucky enough to be in NYC anytime from  November 13, 2012 to February 24, 2013 do yourself a favor and go see this exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design.

"The Art of Scent 1889-2012 is the first major museum exhibition to recognize scent as a major medium of artistic creation and fifteen artists who work in this medium.

The exhibition focuses on twelve works made between 1889 and 2012, and will include Jicky, created by Aimé Guerlain in 1889; Ernest Beaux’s Chanel N° 5 from 1921; Jean-Claude Ellena’s Osmanthe Yunnan from 2006; and Daniela Andrier’s Untitled, created in 2010.

Each scent was selected by curator Chandler Burr to reveal the evolution of aesthetics in the medium or to illustrate major innovations in scent design. Among the innovations was the introduction of synthetic raw materials, which appeared in the late nineteenth century. Before then, the creation of scents was limited to only natural ingredients; synthetics transformed artisanal products into works of art."

The Art of Scent

The Absinthe Depot- Berlin

 

The last time we were in Berlin we stumbled upon a little shop with a lot of beautiful bottles in the window. Upon closer inspection we realized all the bottles were absinthe. Peering in, we saw tables with young hip looking people perched on stools, smoking, and drinking what appeared to be absinthe. Clearly, we went in the door.

Inside was a dizzying array of absinthes and wonderful German and Swiss eau-de-vies, many of which you simply can’t find outside of those countries. The staff is knowledgeable and more than willing to give you a taste of something if they have it open before you commit to buying.

I put a few questions to Hermann Plöckl, the proprietor of the Absinthe Depot. Next time you are in Berlin go and check it out. (Just make sure to behave yourself…)

1.How many absinthes do you carry?

"We have about 150 different Absinthes, most of them in different sizes."

2.How long has the shop been open?

"We have been open since the early 1990s, and have focused on absinthe since the late 1990s."

3.Do you get mostly locals or tourists coming in?

"The locals buy, the tourists take pictures. But they both come in."

4.What are a few of your favourite absinthes?

"Angelique, La P´tite, Butterfly"

5.Do you have any amusing story or anecdote about absinthe you like to share?

"Sorry, the behavior and the questions of some of the visitors might be considered as amusing, but in reality it’s more depressing."

So there you have it! Absinthe Depot is a lovely spot with a stunning range of absinthes. Just remember to behave yourself and don’t take pictures and you and Hermann will get along just fine…

Location:

Weinmeisterstraße 4  10178 Berlin, Germany 030 2816789

Website: http://www.erstesabsinthdepotberlin.de/