By Oisin Davis
Community, connection and craic. That’s probably the best way I could possibly sum up Jameson Hosts, Global Bartender Summit, the Irish whiskey brand’s annual gathering of the biggest and brightest of the cocktail community from all around the world. Seventy-two intense hours in the Midleton Distillery that somehow packed in a global cocktail competition, deep dive master whiskey training and a whole day of seminars carefully curated by hospitality hero, Remy Savage.
He assembled a host of international speakers that sought to inspire the guests and ignite conversations that could be kept alight long after they returned home. The morning sessions included the consultant Sean Finter who spoke of the truly invaluable importance of mentorship. Next up was Jean Trinh from Colombia’s Alquimico, who shared how he’s nurtured his community into his bars and how they co-depend on each other. This was followed by Singapore’s legendary Indra and Guoyi Kantono of the Jigger and Pony group fame, their topic was all about how a bar’s culture and values should always permeate throughout every facet of business.
It was in the afternoon that the discourse took a more liquid turn.
The three last contributors all had cocktails to cover as their focus but each was tasked with examining either the past, the present or the future of cocktails.
Kicking things off by opening up the history books and vintage menus, was Kat McQueen (née Stanley-Whyte) who talked about cocktails from yesteryear. Remy then took charge of all that’s shaking in the current world of cocktails before he handed the baton on to the last speaker of the day, everyone’s favourite Indie Bartender, the Cocktailman himself – Danil Nevsky.
Now it just so happens that the future of cocktails is something I’m forever harping on about. It’s a subject matter that I’ve waxed lyrical on (loudly) at 4 am staff lock-ins and at many 4pm Friday pint sessions (also loudly) so I was certainly eager to hear what Dan had to say. To such an extent that after he delivered his session we had a one-on-one chat later to delve even further…
“I like to be an agent of chaos and I really don’t care about the past, even though I respect it. I get more excited by what young bartenders and what new ideas are coming than by someone’s success story from the 1950s. There are things going on right now that are future grasping, this is what I will be focusing on.” Such an opening statement from Dan was certainly an effective means to ensure he had everyone’s attention. The past he says was the era of the classics, the present is all about equipment but the future of cocktails is all about tech and how we utilize it.
To illustrate this initial point, Dan got straight into the murky world of artificial intelligence and detailed a recent AI search he conducted into the classic cocktail, “Everybody’s Irish” and is typically made with Irish whiskey, green Chartreuse and creme de menthe. The search revealed multiple versions that ranged from Ghostbuster green ectoplasm mouthwash to perfectly coiffured 5-star hotel representations. There was even an example that imagined how Remy Savage would mix one up – which by the way, came with a clear mint distillate as a creme de menthe substitute! Hardly the foolproof and failsafe technology we were promised it would always be. However, once used properly, Dan claims AI can be of great assistance,
If you want to correctly prompt AI, here’s how Dan suggests you do it: “Brief, context, details and task,” see begins. “You need to give AI a specific goal, what is the context of the situation? Then you need to offer constraints within the soundbox it needs to play by. You need to ask for a specific output formula – ie, how do you want to see the results presented?” Such instant support will continue to evolve and help the hospitality industry, especially Dan feels with the tedious lengthy tasks bar managers have to always contend with, “Bar managers are overworked. They constantly have to do admin, as well as service, trying to do everything, everywhere all at once. AI will be able to assist with troubleshooting especially with bars that aren’t part of big chains and don’t have access to expensive software. It is a tool that is only as good as its wielder. Be aware that you have to still be able to do these things manually to understand how they properly function in case the AI doesn’t work, so it can’t just replace you.”
Looking deeper into what the future holds for bars, we got onto the whole area of scanning technology where there would appear to be pros and cons. The kind of innovation Dan mentions here is already in place and he has seen it on his travels. It’s where a program operates through a camera in a bar and tracks what customers and staff are doing while feeding it back through real time messaging directly to management. The data instantly details how many customers visited the bar, how long they spent there, how long they each had to wait for drinks, etc. Dan mentioned a system that is in development around a colour coded scanning operation – when a customer walks in, they’re tagged as yellow. Then after they tell staff what cocktails they want, their order is tagged as orange for when it should be dispatched. It turns red when an order is running unacceptably too late. And as Dan explained, “Such technology can supply bar staff with eyes on the back of their heads when they might need them most. Conversely, it could be used against the staff in a negative capacity if a server was repeatedly “in the red” during service, their pay could be docked or their valuation isn’t as good. What we end up doing then is breaking down human beings into performance based algorithms whilst ignoring culture and nuance, often key areas in hospitality. Every new solution will always come with new issues. Everything that could be helpful could also form new levels of anxiety.”
Some cautionary words there for those who don’t want to see their bar used in an episode of Black Mirror. However, when the conversation came back to the future of cocktails, there was one area that Dan had nothing but positive energy for – the use of enzymes in cocktail prep.
If you’re not up to speed with these bio breakthroughs, don’t feel embarrassed – they’re relatively new. Essentially, enzymes can break down an ingredient’s starches into more natural, sweeter sugars. They can also liquify a fruit or vegetable without any cooking, which has all kinds of benefits for bartenders. Dan himself has already been immersing himself into this space as there is an enzyme producer not far from where he lives in Barcelona, “I have made different kinds of bean orgeats where I have converted the starch into sugars, creating natural sweeteners. Enzymes allow us to convert ingredients into other things. Bananas can be easily converted into banana sugars using pectinex.” Such journeys of discovery must ignite the imagination of every flavour fanatic out there, but as Dan points out, there are practical advantages to upping your enzyme game: “Financially it’s a lot better because you can easily increase yields. If you enzymatically treat ginger or celery for instance, you can break down the cell walls into liquid form, thus extracting a far higher yield.” Improved margins are certainly what every operator wants to see and invariably the enzyme producers will only refine their offerings down the road, embracing them now definitely makes sense.
This was a dialogue that Dan and I could have kept going for hours, but thankfully the Jameson Hosts had quite the party to throw that night so we had other matters to attend to, such as dancing very badly to a Daft Punk cover band. My biggest takeaway from his seminar and our catch-up afterwards, was that while the whiskies and other spirits we mix with may have largely stayed the same for many decades, how we use them in cocktails is always evolving.
Thanks to the Jameson Hosts team for facilitating such a discussion.
Who is Oisin Davis?
From bouncer to brand owner, Oisin Davis has held a variety of job titles in the hospitality and drinks industry. His 25 years of experience has stood him well though with his company Great Irish Beverages, an agency dedicated to promoting and publicising Irish made drinks. He’s travelled the world representing many of Ireland’s most loved drinks brands and back home in Dublin, he’s run nationwide drinks festivals, won awards for his spirits writing for Food & Wine and is a best selling author of his debut book, Irish Kitchen Cocktails.
