As debuts go...

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A lot of new products hit the market every year; a most recent online edition of CLASS contained 22 reviews of new products and sometimes it feels like you can't turn around without encountering a new gin with some previously unused botanical, or a new single malt expression finished in a succession of different barrels. But if there's one category that hasn't seen explosive growth in recent years, it's aperitif liqueurs. Products are often rediscovered or introduced to new markets, but it's an area that's long been dominated by a handful of brands and that makes the decision to take on the likes of Campari and Aperol an interesting one for a first foray into spirit/liqueur production.

Alex Kammerling is well-known in the UK bar industry thanks to a long stint as Grey Goose's brand ambassador on these shores and his recently re-brandedKamm & Sons Ginseng Spirit represents his first attempt at entering the marketplace. Alex describes it as "a cross between gin, bitters and a liqueur", produced by distilling 45 botanicals (including four different varieties of ginseng root along with juniper berries, echinacea, gingko biloba and goji berry) in grain spirit and mixing that distillate with a herbal infusion containing manuka honey, wormwood and gentian. The light amber colour comes from annato seeds and with responsible service and consumption of alcohol being a thing these days, the liqueur comes in at 33% ABV.

Kamm & Sons is definitely reminiscent of a particular style of slightly sweeter amaro; it has some really interest herbal notes throughout shot through with a hit of citrus and while it is sweet, it's not cloying. There is definitely some bitterness on the palate - which as a general fan of amaro, I fully support - but it doesn't dominate: it can be deployed as a stealthy means of introducing the idea of bitterness as a desirable flavour to those who maybe might otherwise avoid it.

I've found some mileage in using it in place of Campari here and there - using the Negroni formula with Kamm & Sons, Sipsmith Gin, and Lillet Blanc is the basis for awesome - but also in using it as a base ingredient in café style cocktails (some vermouth or similar, a liqueur, something fizzy - lower on the ABV but still super tasty) and as a modifier in fun, refreshing sour style cocktails.

Beyond the rainbow

25ml lemon flavoured vodka (I used Ketel One Citroen)
25ml Kamm & Sons Ginseng Liqueur
10ml triple sec (Cointreau)
20ml lemon juice
1 bsp sugar syrup (2:1)

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into a chilled stemmed glass. Garnish with a twist of grapefruit zest.

I've met Alex a couple of times and he's always blown me away with his attention to detail as a bartender and as an ambassador, so it isn't surprising that he'd come up with something so versatile and inviting. He's on record as saying that one of his favourite aspects of tending bar was creating things and Kamm & Sons is one of his creations that he's proudest of. For me, it's always fun to play with new stuff, particularly if it's in an area that doesn't often see a lot of innovation so it's exciting to see a new independent producer taking on that kind of challenge.

Fare thee well, thou first and fairest

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Every year, Scots throughout the world set aside January 25th for celebrating the life and work of our national poet, Robert Burns. The man's influence extends far beyond the borders of this little corner of Northern Europe - where would the literary tradition be without "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men", or indeed his influence on the Romantic poets who were to come? - and into some interesting areas.

Now, this being nominally a blog about cocktails and all, would be the point at which I'd direct your attention to the Bobby Burns. It's one of the all-time great Scotch whisky drinks and is more than worthy of carrying the name.

But I'm not going to do that. One of the hallmarks of Burns' poetry is finding the profound, the wonderful in something that might seem otherwise unremarkable. In To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough(1785), one of his most famous works, Burns takes that initial calamity - for the mouse, at least - as the starting point for a train of thought that takes in man's attitude to the world he inhabits and whether all the bells and whistles of civilisation are ultimately worthwhile.

By all means, if you have access to some vermouth and Bénédictine, raise a Bobby Burns to commemorate Burns' 253rd birthday. Me, I'm going to leave off wearing any tartan or listening to bagpipes. I'm going to pour myself some Scotch and see where it takes me.

2011 in numbers

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So it turns out that December happens to coincide with the time at which everyone starts putting together their year-in-review or best-of-the-year lists. For me, and for this little site here, 2011 has been a mixed year - there's been some good (previously 1, 2, 3) and there's been some bad - but rather than throwing up some kind of greatest-hits-of-2011 post (let's be clear, I can't necessarily remember what I drank with breakfast never mind that drink I had one time in that random bar somewhere), I thought I'd take a look at some of the stats generated by the Old Town Alchemy Co. over the course of the year. A couple of notes before we get started:

  • These stats have been pulled from Google Analytics; I haven't done any kind of comparison with other analytics tracking services because I'm a) cheap, and b) lazy, so don't think of this as advocacy for that particular service.
  • I don't have any data between March 3rd and April 30th; my Wordpress install was hacked a couple of times and it took a while for me to notice that I'd screwed up incorporating the Analytics code while reinstalling WP.
  • Monkeying around with numbers can be a lot of fun, but I'm not writing this post to trumpet my (un)spectacular traffic figures. It's trivia, more than anything.

At the time of writing, oldtownalchemy.co.uk has received 4,499 visits from 2,284 unique visitors. Those unique visitors have come from 92 countries around the world (OK, 91 because I guess "(not set)" hasn't been recognised at the UN yet).

Top 10 Countries (by visits)

  1. USA - 2,269 visits (top city Portland - 1,048 visits)
  2. UK - 1,136 (London - 284)
  3. (not set) - 85 (n/a)
  4. Canada - 81 (Toronto - 15)
  5. Australia - 66 (Melbourne - 25)
  6. France - 65 (Paris - 20)
  7. Germany - 52 ((not set) - 8 )
  8. Russia - 50 (Moscow - 22)
  9. Brazil - 46 (Pelotas - 25)
  10. Netherlands - 41 (Amsterdam - 12)

Seeing the US and UK at the top of the list isn't unexpected, but the apparent popularity of the site in Portland is kinda surprising. The top five cities by visits goes Portland, Pittsburgh (306 visits), London, Edinburgh (242), Seattle (88); the only non-English speaking city in the top ten is Athens (28 visits) at #10.

Inception

Top 10 most popular posts (by pageview)

  1. Labwork 1: stumbling in alone (2010-10-01, 1,472 pageviews)
  2. Black Daisy (2011-07-04, 240 pageviews)
  3. Labwork 2: Two-Step Mojito & Ex Aqua (2011-02-17, 159 pageviews)
  4. MxMo LII: Forgotten Drinks (2010-11-22, 89 pageviews)
  5. Saint-Antoine (2011-07-14, 87 pageviews)
  6. Secret histories of cities and spirits (2011-04-29, 66 pageviews)
  7. Mirrorball (2011-05-09, 58 pageviews)
  8. Leftovers (2010-06-09, 54 pageviews)
  9. Road Trip: Balmenach Distillery & Caorunn Gin (2011-09-25, 53 pageviews)
  10. The secret of Cartagena (2010-07-21, 51 pageviews)

Once again, the occupier of the top spot isn't a huge surprise - the Inception (looks like a Martini, tastes like a Daiquiri) was featured on the BBFB Training Team website in a drink of the week video; outside of that I'm a little surprised to see the Black Daisy pop up at #2 and I suspect that the post at #3 would be higher if I'd ever got round to doing some photos for it.

If there's a caveat here, it's that I don't really do a lot of promotion - I'll fire a tweet off when a post goes live and pop a link up on the OTA Facebook page, but that's pretty much it. I used to post links up on Liqurious but not so much anymore - occasionally one of my posts gets linked which is totally amazing and thanks so much to anyone who has done that.

Post count: 16

And finally, the least impressive stat. The 2010 total was 35 (including 13 posts that were purely outbound links); in 2009 it was 99 (with 10 posts of outbound links). In my defence, 2009 was the whole new-recipe-every-week year and I've got more responsibility at work now than I did then.

Still, sixteen's way low.

2011, though, is looking bright. There are a couple of things from the past few months to catch up on, and there are a couple of things coming up in the early part of the year that are pretty relevant to what I do here.

To everyone who has left a comment, linked back here, or even just visited the site, thank you so much. To everyone, have a great new year.

The Matinee

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I've previously written about my participation in Bacardi's annual Legacy Cocktail Competition; despite qualifying for the regional finals twice, I never really managed any great success in it. Luckily for anyone who's interested in how things go beyond the initial stages, Metinee Kongsrivilai, head bartender at the Bon Vivant up here in Edinburgh, not only qualified for the UK final but made it into the final round as one of "three most promising" competitors. The other finalists are Quo Vadis' Zdenek Kastanek and Jody Monteith from bar consultancy the Liquorists.

The Matinee

50ml Bacardi Superior
2-4 kaffir lime leaves
12.5ml Martini Rosso
12.5ml lemon juice
12.5ml vanilla sugar syrup
12.5ml egg white

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into a chilled stemmed glass. Garnish with a kaffir lime leaf.

One of the difficult parts of a competition entry is the name and it's always interesting to hear how they come about. Metinee says that "the Matinee itself is based - not on my name, even though it start out as a joke, but on the basis that I wanted the drink to a form of entertainment you can enjoy, day or night. I also felt that it's a nice, short and memorable name and it suits the drink well."

A lot of the recipes I put together are for events or promotions and are designed to fulfil a particular brief. Once the event or promotion - or competition - is over, I don't tend to dwell on them. The difference between the Legacy competition and other competitions is that if you make that final round, you're going to be spending a year promoting that one drink. As Metinee puts it, "I don't even need to go Puerto Rico, I just want this drink to have a future."