Bar Institute NYC We had the very exciting Bar Institute event here in NY this week. It's the Bartender Journey Podcast number 189! Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio. On Monday before Bar Institute, I attended Diageo World Class Labs. This is an awesome opportunity. Diageo World Class is one of the top 2 or 3 cocktail competitions in the world. Competitions like this can literally change your life. To enter the competition you have to be a USBG member, in the US anyway. But through World Class you can get a free 30 day USBG membership which allows you to get your application in. If you decide to keep your USBG membership after that, its only $125/year, which is a real bargain, but that’s a subject for another day. To enter the World Class competition you have to take at least one World Class Lab class, or you can do it online, but the live events are awesome (and free). They travel to different cities doing the class and I really encourage you to look into it. We had a great class about Taste. It was run by Andy Symore. We had samples of various cocktails to demonstrate the power of different variables like temperature, sweet, sour, bitter and salty. It was a blind tasting, so Andy didn’t tell us what we were drinking until after we tasted and talked about it. The first sample was a room temperature Martini and the second was the same exact Martini, but chilled. It was diluted with the same exact amount of water. We also had a Negroni with and without salt added and so on. It really demonstrated the power of altering just one ingredient and the importance of every single thing that goes into your cocktail. You may sometimes hear that your cocktail is only as strong as the weakest link, so its important that every ingredient is high quality. Then there was lunch, (free btw) and a second session, which I didn’t stay for because I wanted to get downtown for Bar Institute. Taking just one session is enough to qualify for World Class although you are welcome to stay for both So even if you don’t enter the competition, (and why not?) you could still take one of these classes. I think you’ll find it to be a great experience and very educational. Next stop was Bar Institute at Pier A, in Manhattan, right next to where the ferry leaves for the Statue of Liberty. We spoke with Kevin Vanegas during Bar Institute about Herradura Tequila and about their new cocktail competition. The Book of the Week: A Proper Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized Drinking World by Robert Simonson. Robert takes us through the craft cocktail revival over the past two decades through the personal stories of bars, bartenders, patrons and visionaries. Filled with modern classic recipes and their origins, A Proper Drink invites you to learn how we got here and where the craft cocktail industry is headed. Cocktail of the Week: Bourbon Stone Sour A Stone Sour is a Sour with the addition of Orange Juice-Freshly Squeezed preferred! 2 oz Bourbon 1 oz Orange Juice ¾ oz Lemon Juice ½ Simple Syrup Shake with ice. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass filled with fresh ice. Garish with a piece of Orange and a Cherry. There are lots of videos from Bar Institute on the Bartender Journey Facebook page. Thanks to Hazel for this! Toast of the Week: My friends are the best friends  Loyal, willing and able. Now let’s get to drinking! All glasses off the table!

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