Bartender Journey - Cocktails. Spirits. Bartending Culture. Libations For Your Ears.

Joe McCanta, Grey Goose global ambassador joins us on the show.  This interview was recorded at Tales of the Cocktail 2019 -- we get a great understanding of Vodka. Bartender Journey has a special project in the works!  Please click here to sign up to be the first to know about it!  Yes, I'd like to be in the loop.  

We talk with Alberto Vollmer CEO of Santa Teresa 1796 Rum, made in Venezuela. Also a chat with Attaboy alum Zachary Pease at his new bar in Manhattan called My Friend Duke.

Listen in to the Toast to Tales, hear about the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s grant recipients for 2019 and hear about the Grey Goose Great Bar Race. Also, we talk to Jonathan Pogash about his edition of Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide.

We speak with Raymond Edwards, Chief Mixologist for House of Angostura during Bar Convent Brooklyn.

Don't let those darn Fruit Flies take over you bar!  Give them an inch and they will take a mile!  There is a lot you can do to prevent them from flourishing.  Here's some things you can do: No standing water, anywhere! All drains including floor - sanitizer Plug beer taps Clean and plug beer drip tray Rinse and store empty beer bottles Cover liquor bottles Wipe down bottles Clean soda gun Bar mats must be clean Keep garnishes covered and cold.  Wash fruit before cutting. Don’t be surprised if fruit flies feed on the residue remaining on damp mops, moist cleaning rags and sponges, or near buckets of wastewater. Bottom of trash cans? Last resort - traps

We speak with friend of the podcast & founder and president of the Orange County, CA chapter of the United States Bartender's Guild Amin Benny.

On this week's Episode No. 277, Brian chats with Chad Arnholt and Claire Sprouse of ​Tin Roof Drink Community about green practices for sustainability in the cocktail industry in honor of Earth Day, April 22nd. In 2016, Chad and Claire's efforts were recognized at Tales of the Cocktail with the first Sustainable Spirit Sward and hosted the first Sustainability Summit at Tales in 2017. For past outtakes on sustainability in the cocktail industry on the Bartender Journey Podcast,, listen to  Bartender Journey Episode No. 166  featuring a sample from a Sustainability Seminar from Tales 2015 with Mr. Lyan  (Ryan Chetiyawardana), who opened the first cocktail bar in 2013 to use nor perishables (i.e. no fruit, no ice), White Lyan in London and Bartender Journey Episode No. 219, You are Throwing Away Money!.

Hazel Alvardo handles the interviewing duties on this episode. She talks to Kurt Maitland who is Deputy Editor of the Whiskey Reviewer website and the curator of the Manhattan Whiskey Club. He just wrote a book called Drink - The Ultimate Cocktail Book.

On this week's episode, Brian chats with Keli Rivers of Sipsmith Gin in honor of National Gin & Tonic Day, which is April 9, 2019.  

I recently attended a huge wine show at the Javitz Center in Manhattan called VinExpo. There were 1000’s of wines to try, plus a few sprits – I had some wonderful whiskey from France called Half Moon. There were also classes and seminars. I attended a seminar sponsored by the Riedel company who makes beautiful glassware – mostly wine glasses. In fact we use Riedel wine glasses at the Private Club where I work. The purpose of this seminar was to show that the glass has a substantial influence on your experience drinking the wine. Of course these glasses look beautiful, so that’s a great start. They feel great when you pick them up and are perfectly balanced…we all know to hold a wine glass by the stem yes? In fact it was said in the seminar “if a glass has a stem, use it!” This is of course so that you do not warm up your wine or whatever beverage with your body heat. I caught up with Anne Koziara, who gave the seminar, on the exhibition floor after … we’ll talk to her in just a moment. Our sponsor this w

Bartender Journey Number 273 This time on the show we talk about the science of flavor with Derek Elefson. Derek shared some great resources with us: Flavor Wheels:   Bourbon https://modernthirst.com/2014/08/06/the-bourbon-tasting-wheel/#prettyPhoto/0/   Malt Whiskies http://malt-review.com/2015/09/10/whisky-flavour-wheels-and-colour-charts/   Gin http://www.ginfoundry.com/gin-news/gin-tasting-wheel/   Wine https://shop.winefolly.com/products/wine-flavors-chart AROMA-FLAVOR TOOLS FOR SENSORY TRAINING: http://www.aromaster.com/ https://www.cicerone.org/us-en/products/beer-flavor-map https://www.aroma-academy.co.uk/pages/wset https://www.flavoractiv.com/beverage/spirits/   FRUIT CHEMICALS Kennedy Fruit Chemicals!  An easy way to quickly educate people about chemicals in fruit.  I highly encourage you to post this image with the link. https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/ingredients-of-all-natural-cherries/ Our sponsor this week is CAKE POS. CAKE is the Point of Sale system that lets bar &am

This time on the show we talk with Mr. Philip Duff. He’s been on the show several times. I caught up with Philip after a great seminar he moderated about Irish Whiskey, sponsored by Knoppoge Castle Irish Whiskey -  a great Single Malt Irish Whiskey. Irish Whiskey has such a tumultuous history. There was the great rise and fall of Irish Whiskey and right now another great rise, or resurgence. We’ll get into some of it with Philip during the interview. CAKE is the Point of Sale system that lets bar & restaurant owners focus on the guest experience. Stop worrying about tracking every sale  - CAKE does that for you. You can automatically save information and review it later, from anywhere. That means maybe as the manager or owner can maybe actually take days off, which can be pretty rare in the restaurant business. No matter where you are, you can check in on daily reports and know they’ll be up to date. To get started with CAKE, check out trycake.com/bartender. For our podcast listeners, you can get $7

This week on the show we speak with Andrew Watson who is originally from Australia, but now lives and bartends in Sweden. He is competing in the Bacardi Legacy competition.   Andrew’s Bacardi Legacy Cocktail is called Cubist. Recipe: 45 ml Bacardi Silver | 20 ml dry vermouth | 2.5 ml (or a barspoon) Pastis | 25 ml Prosecco | 20 ml Honey water (1:1) | 25 ml Lemon juice Follow Andrew’s Bacardi Legacy journey: On Instagram On YouTube Our sponsor this week is CAKE POS & Management system from Sysco. To get started with CAKE, check out trycake.com/bartender. Bartender Journey listeners get $750 off the activation fee. That's a 75% discount. And with that discount, you get a user-friendly Point of Sale solution that includes cloud reporting and world-class 24/7 support.

Today on the show we talk with Dan Newcomb who is an expert on Liquor Licenses. Its tricky out there trying to navigate the liquor license process. Dan will share some insights with us on this complex issue. Dan's company is Liquor License Advisor. One of the distilleries I visited while in Ireland was Pearse Lyons distillery. Dr. Pearse Lyons had deep family roots in Dublin. There was an old church that had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned for many years. In fact Dr. Lyons’ grandfather is buried there. Dr. Lyons purchased the property and his wife restored it into a beautiful distillery. Unfortunately Dr. Lyons’ passed away in 2018, but the distillery is lives on.  We have some pictures on bartenderjourney.net If you are anywhere near San Antonio TX BarSmarts Advanced is coming to San Antonio, TX on April 2nd, 2019.  It’s a full day of education with the masters of the bar industry like Dale DeGroff, David Wondrich, Paul Pacul, Steve Olson, Doug Frost, and Andy Seymour. You need to do the online c

Tag along on a distillery tour of Tullamore D.E.W.’s state of the art facility. Opened in 2014 it is the first distillery to operate in Tullamore, Ireland since 1954. Tullamore D.E.W. Whisky Ambassador Kevin Pigott shows us around, shares lots of Irish Whisky knowledge, and even mixes us up some cocktails!

Travel Log from Dublin, Ireland.  Interview with Chris Hayes from Teeling Irish Whiskey.

Florence, Italy is an amazing, beautiful and historic city. Florence's Life Beyond Tourism inciative offers some interesting lessons.  Is it possible to be too ambitious with your cocktail program.  I visited a bar/bistro/restaurant that I thought was trying to do TOO much. I visited two vinyards in the Chianti Classico region: Casa Emma Fattoria Montecchio  

I had some great drinks in Paris! Favorite bars: Prescription Cocktail Club (Cocktail Bar) Dirty Dick (Tiki Bar) Candelaria (Speakeasy) Little Red Door (Speakeasy) The Highlander (Scottish Pub)

A brief wrap up of my adventures in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Plus a snippet of a bus tour around the city. What an amazing city. Full of friendly, hospitable people. A town with deep history and fascinating things to see. And lots of great whisky! Next stop on the Bartender Journey tour - Paris!

Happy New Year. I hope its full of great things for you. I’m starting 2019with an epic trip. I Bartend at a private club and we are closed after New Years Eve for almost 6 weeks. So I am taking my time off and going to Europe for over a month! I am bringing my audio gear and hope to push out some podcasts from the road. I will be visiting some distilleries, and lots of bars and restaurants, so the plan is to have you follow along on the trip a bit. The shows might not always be completely Bartending focused, but should be interesting. I leave today, Jan 3, 2019 for Edinburgh Scotland. Then I go to Paris for 4 nights, I’ll take a train to a small town called Chambery, then ski in the French Alps for a few days. I’ll go to Geneva Switzerland, then on to Florence and Rome and last stop Ireland. Follow me on IG at BartenderJourney for some pictures and hopefully you are subscribed to the podcast so you get the shows as they come out.