Philip Duff

I've judged an awful lot of cocktail contests, organised quite a few too, and the tenets I try to adhere to are: 1. Don't Agree To Judge Just Anything More or less, I no longer judge crap contests, where serious competitors do not get a fair crack of the whip. "Not getting a fair crack of the whip" includes (but is by no means limited to): there being no, or only vague or incomplete, rules, point-scoring advice and judges scoresheets published in advance, there being no possibility for Q&A with the head of jury beforehand, last-minute (especially on-the-day and/or contradictory) rule changes, judges who cannot make a decent cocktail themselves* and compulsory use of frankly stupid ingredients**. There is no harm at all in a great fun no-holds-barred cocktail contest for entrants who couldn't care less, but when the contest has at least the semblance of professionalism, it should reward the hard-working and diligent competitor. * Example in point: the esteemed Simon Difford. Simon would be the last person on earth to describe himself as a bartender, but he can make (by which I mean follow a recipe to make) great cocktails and is thus a good cocktail judge. In passing, his many cocktail inventions and contest victories have proven he's also very talented at creating cocktails. ** Just a few months ago I judged a contest (for the Dutch guild of the IBA) where each competitor was compelled to "draw", like a raffle, a compulsory ingredient from a pool of sponsors. These included such treats as Red Bull, pre-mixed blended fruit-juice drinks and the like. Not only is this a bad deal for the bartender who drew such misguided products for a mixology contest, it's a bad deal for Red Bull, etc. who presumably sponsored in good faith and hoped to get some popularity with the bartenders, instead of being the focus of their resentment. 2. Have A Scoremaster No individual judge should total his or her own scores, and I'll tell you why: this influences your judging. Each competitor should be judged on each category on your scoresheet, but if you start adding up the scores yourself, you'll start surprising yourself and almost inevitably influencing your subsequent judging. Example: bartender A, whom no-one has ever heard of, comes on and makes a drink that ticks all the boxes decently enough and scores especially well on, let's say, Showcasing Flavour. Bartender A has clearly read the rules and designed his drink to satisfy the scoring categories. Bartender B, a well-known contest-winning local here, comes on and makes a drink that is very fine but does not tick all the boxes as well as A's did. On adding up the scores, you are surprised to notice that A has actually scored a bit more than B. Not much, just a bit. Still, this does sit on you a little bit, and by the time Bartender C comes out... 3. Judges discuss scoring bands, not numbers. Again, in an attempt to eliminate "number-blindess" as discussed above, judges should by all means discuss their scores with one another, but only in terms of which "band" a competitor is in. Returning to the example above, let's say Showcasing Flavour carries a maximum of 100 points. The bands might be, with some very much off the top of my head examples: 0-19: Poor (Sex on the Beach) 20-39: Amateur (Gin & Tonic) 40-59: Average (Whiskey sour) 60-79: Above average (The Jasmine) 80-100: World class (The Old Fashioned) Judges would discuss if the competitor's drink falls into Average or Above Average or whatever, but not if they should give him or her a 70 or 60 or 80. If judges are disagreeing terribly about whether a drink is Average or Above Average, it raises the question of how well qualified they are to be on the judging panel. Of course, once agreed in which band a competitor falls, individual judges are free to put them near the top, near the bottom or in the middle of that band. 4. Toss Out Highs And Lows. Now, for this you need at least 5 judges, IMHO. Simply put, the scoremaster runs a spreadsheet that retains all the scores, but also shows you what happens when you eliminate the highest and lowest judges' score for each competitor. In my experience this also eliminates all possibility of favouritism, and when you compare the raw scores with the highs-and-lows-eliminated ones, there is very rarely any difference, usually of the third-and-fourth-place-change-places type.

The drink, also known as a Continental or (I like this name) Claret Snap (Chicago, 1883), is a simple addition of a red wine float - not necessarily, or even often , claret - to a reasonably sweet sour. In chronological order, it would have been made with brandy, genever, Calvados, rye or rum. I myself would choose cognac or French brandy and a nice crisp red, perhaps a Grenache, added, as David mention, dasher-style (or even with an atomiser, why not, for purposes of aeration?)

Strongly recommend the Rutte Paradyswyn genever (aged for an average of 8 years in Bordeaux hogsheads) and/or the Old Schiedam , which is a true old-school genever such as is rarely made these days: 100% malt wine, no neutral alcohol, mash bill 2 parts barley, 1 part rye, after fermentation stripped in a column still then distilled once more in a pot-still, aged in 220 liter Jack Daniels barrels with just 8ml per barrel of distillery-0made juniper distillate added (no other botanicals) and....exquisite. Both are available most likely at Le Cellier (Spuistraat 116) or Cave Rokin, Rokin 60. A good advocaat, such as Filliers, is also a must. Enjoy!

I'll weigh in on this on the side of freepouring, but will immediately point out I mean trained freepouring with the same spout (a SpillStop 285-50) on every bottle, spouts cleaned weekly and broken spouts replaced, each bartender tested with an ExactoPour or similar before each shift, and being required to hit a 90% score with both left and right hands. And once you've trained the staff on freepouring, they then need to be trained on mixology, because there is no point in knowing how to freepour accurately unless you can use that to make tasty drinks. If you have never been in a bar like this - and I mean EXACTLY as I described above, no aberrations, no yes-we-pourtest-once-in-a-while-with-a-jigger nonsense, and no bars that pour beautifully but don't understand basic mixology principles - then it is very likely you will weigh in on the side of the jigger, and rightly so. Most of the world's best bars' bartenders could not pass a pour test, and do use jiggers. The link seems undeniable. But the jigger is just a tool. The most important tool for speed and accuracy is between a bartender's ears, not in his hands. If I want a good cocktail, I'll take an intelligent, trained bartender with neither spouts nor jiggers against a doofus with both, any day. Any recipe, like a classic Daiquiri, where really exact measurements are needed, needs to be tested and adjusted before being served in any case, whether it's been jiggered or freepoured. The only advantage of trained-and-tested freepouring is speed, which can be quite the advantage. The largest problem is now cocktail bars - the profusion of bars where every single order is a cocktail, and usually quite a nice one too (Disclosure - I own such a bar myself). This runs up the ticket times A LOT. Speed becomes even more important. And the second is poor bar design. My own, God help me, has a glasswasher behind the bar, right under the cash register. Recent innovations like Calabrese sinks, dipper wells, glassware freezers (so glasses don't have to be pre-chilled), those nifty sprayer nozzles for rinsing shakers out, stainless-steel integrated peanut rails and the like, really do speed things up. And so, so very few bars have them. Coaching staff on speed and efficiency is contentious: most bartenders think they are fast. Objective feedback (drinks per hour, productivity statistics, etc) is the way to go, and gives them something to work for. In my own experience, most of the delays in ticket time come from non-drink-making activities: the bartender having to do barback duties that take him away from pure drinkmaking. Or simple things: let the waitstaff garnish the drinks while they're waiting.

It is indeed the Rutte Paradyswijn, and we put it to good use in this manner: The Mr. Antoni 2 shots Rutte Paradyswijn genever 0.75 shot freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 shot home-made honey-ginger syrup 0.25 shot Compass Box Peat Monster single-malt Scotch whisky Shake Paradyswijn, lemon and honey-ginger syrup with ice. Double-strain into ice-globe-filled shortdrink glass and float the Peat Monster Garnish with 3 pieces of speared candied ginger. and an eGullet exclusive: the text from our Winter 2009 menu, launching this Wednesday: "Mr. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek: late 1600s microbiology pioneer, executor of the estate of Johannes Vermeer, resident of Delft and sheet merchant (yes, really). How can it be that nobody named a drink after him until now? With a large nod to Mr. Ross." The Bols Genever is in every Gall & Gall, and my go-to consumer liquor store is Le Cellier on the Spuistraat in Amsterdam, who (I imagine) also have it. Full disclosure: the bishop/stained-glass quote is from that master of humour, PG Wodehouse..... Cheers, Philip. www.door74.nl

Nope, that's a genuine old bottle, old packaging (for Canada/US) and different liquid; the Bols Old Genever. Biggest differences would be a slightly lower alcohol percentage, and an awful lot less of the maltwine, which is what brings genever from great to sublime. And indeed, genever is usually drink in NL as a chilled shot or (more commonly) in cola or the like, but literally 97% of total genever sales in the Netherlands is young (jonge) genever. And while that's excellent stuff, it's old (oude) and aged genevers and Corenwijns that really rock. At door 74 we do a variation on the Penicillin with an ultra-aged Paradisewine genever and Peat Monster that'd make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window..... Cheers, Philip.

[utterly shameless plug alert!!!!] If there's a place where grown-up people enjoy classic drinks, this is probably it, so without further ado, the menu for my new bar, a little speakeasy in Amsterdam: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7629115/door-74-autumn-drinks-menu I'm blogging about the opening for Mixology (Germany), and it is to follow here: http://www.mixology.eu/en/blog/barbau-bar-...-74-amsterdam-i . Eventually I'll open the whole kimono: costs, screw-ups, recipe specs, the lot. I've loved genever for as many of the 13 years I've spent here in Holland, and we've added 4 genever drinks to a menu of 4 signatures and 8 seasonal themes (autumn theme s C. Baker Jr, the peripatetic womanising devil). The Mr. Antoni is my favourite, a riff on the Penicillin but made with Paradisewine genever (really, really, old, aged and expensive - and almost unobtainable), with homemade honey-ginger, lemon and a Peat Monster float. If any of the current selection has the potential to stay on the list 'come the winter menu around 15 Dec, it's that one. It's named, to continue the "penicillin" theme, after Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, who found time in between being a bedsheet tycoon in Delft (seriously!) to lay the basis for modern microbiology and the use of the microscope, and all this in the 1500s. Until now, unbelieveably, there was no cocktail named in his honour... Oh, and if you should happen to be in the Athens of the North, as Amsterdam is sometimes described (other times as "Sodom and Gomorrah with tulips and clogs"), do drop by - when the green light is on, Tuesday-Saturday, just ring the bell and join us behind the curtain....

I don't of any brands that aren't made in Holland, but there's no necessity for it to be made there. excellent chance of seeing advocaat or something like that in the Caribbean or South America due to colonies such as the Dutch and Portuguese ones. A popular Caribbean variation is Ponche de Kuba, which is a sort of rum advocaat, drunk straight by the laydeez or with rum by the men. I'd be fairly sure they make soemthing advocaat-y in Argentina and/or Brazil because of the Dutch trading links and the enormous adoption of Dutch liqueurs and genever there - Argentina is the second world market for genever outside the Benelux, plus they love sweet, creamy liqueurs like Dulce de Leche and so on. I wasn't aware there was a Bols US advocaat, but I'm sure it's not madly different from any other standard one. The variations might be sweetness (adjusted by the marketeers to fit local tastes) and legislative (advocaat sold in Germany can't be coloured with a particular colourant, hence it is a pale colour compared to the bright egg-yolk color of advocaat sold elsewhere). I myself love the advocaat of Filliers, a Belgian firm that make the malt wine for just about every major Dutch genever. It's tasty, strong and very well balanced. I also greatly enjoyed the Bols advocaat they make/made in South Africa. SA law states all liqueurs have to be a minimum of 25% ABV, AND it's based on wine distillate, not grain. Delicious! What is advocatenborrel? And while we're on the topic, does anybody here drink/know about advocaat? What are some good brands? What are brands to avoid? What is it's shelf-life? Is it even worth having around? I almost picked some up in Houston last weekend but decided against it. I've never really heard of it being used in cocktails aside from a notable exception of a recipe in Imbibe (the magazine) some time ago where it was used in place of egg in an interpretation of a flip. Wouldn't be the first time I bought a whole bottle of something just for one cocktail. -Andy ← ← Thanks for the info. How does the Bols Advocaat available in the US compare in the quality spectrum? Is there any imported brand that you would recommend instead (or is that in fact imported)? ←

Advocaat is excellent! And it enjoys a great popularity still in Holland, where it outsells gin and cognac, believe it or not. It is a different beast there: advocaat to a Dutch person in Holland is a just-barely-pourable, very thick drink you give to your granny with a spoon (to eat it - it's so solid drinking ain't gonna happen) at Christmas. The more liquid advocaat the rest of the world knows is almost unavailable in the Netherlands. In fact, advocaat is so unhip it became retro-fashionable among Scottish bartenders through the excellent messageboard barbore.com. This year I had the great pleasure to welcome a group of Scottish bartenders who had won a who-can-make-the-best-advocaat cocktail contest, self-organised and initially without even a prize (until Maxxium UK, which is based in Scotland, stepped in) to Amsterdam. Very simply: make a sour. 2 shots advocaat + 1 lemon + half a shot of rich sugar syrup = an instant cheesecake. Add muddled berries and the matching berry liqueur for a blackberry cheesecake, raspberry cheesecake, etc. As I recall, the winning Scottish drink used Mount Gay Extra Old, cinnamon, a dash of vanilla, and was superb. I've never seen a non-Dutch brand, but most of the big liqueur and / or genever houses (De Kuyper, Wenneker, Bols etc) also make an advocaat, although many don't export. The advocaats are shelf-stable, in my experience. It also makes awesome ice-cream when frozen with liquid nitrogen, should you have some around... What is advocatenborrel? And while we're on the topic, does anybody here drink/know about advocaat? What are some good brands? What are brands to avoid? What is it's shelf-life? Is it even worth having around? I almost picked some up in Houston last weekend but decided against it. I've never really heard of it being used in cocktails aside from a notable exception of a recipe in Imbibe (the magazine) some time ago where it was used in place of egg in an interpretation of a flip. Wouldn't be the first time I bought a whole bottle of something just for one cocktail. -Andy ←

Welcome Matt! In fact, "graanjenever" in terms of genever is a bit like "100% blue agave" in terms of tequila. To use the designation "graanjenever" on the label, the genever must be made from 100% grain, which means the malt wine as well as the neutral spirits. Malt wine is always made from grain anyway, but in cheaper brands the neutral spirits may be molasses, or sugarbeet-molasses based. For a cocktail, one of signature cocktail I developed for Bols Genever was the Sherry-Netherland. It demands an oude genever or a Corenwijn, though: a jonge like Ketel 1 won't stand up to the PX. The Sherry-Netherland. Glass: A small pre-chilled martini-cocktail glass. Ingredients: 1¼ shots of oude genever 1¼ shots of Pedro Ximenez sherry ¼ shot of orange curacao liqueur 2 dashes orange bitters Enough raisins to cover the bottom of the mixing glass. Technique: Muddle the raisins, add the other ingredients, shake with ice and double-strain into the glass. Garnish: Four speared raisins. An ode to the original Martinez, this cocktail is named for one of old New York’s most prestigious hotels and inspired by the Dutch “boerenjongens” (farmer boy) tradition of infusing genever with raisins and drinking it on special occasions. +1 on the Ketel One. I can't help you with the one starting with V - the closest I can think of is Wees. A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to be part of a small group of bartenders who had a personal tour of the Ketel One distillery from Bob Nolet. Top bloke, even travelled to Amsterdam afterwards to join us in a few drinks. He also taught me one of my favourite words - Kopstoot. It's what you call a jenever when consumed as a chaser to a lager, it literally translates to "Headbutt"! I've been playing round with the Ketel One Graanjenever tonight in the improved Holland cocktail, it makes a FINE drink. I found it was more to my taste if I got rid of the simple syrup completely and slightly increased the Maraschino (Luxardo in this case). I also used 2 dashes Peychaud bitters AND 2 dashes Angostura orange bitters, garnished with a lemon twist. The nose is floral and citrusy, initially the palette is wonderfully complex with definite floral notes, then out of nowhere a strong and long chocolatey finish. My new favourite drink I think! I've just been doing a little research into the nomenclature of jenever, it seems that Graanjenever is a category to itself. Effectively it's a subset of Jonge, but whereas Jonge is typically made with 85%+ grain, Graanjenever MUST be 100% grain. Oh, and this is my first post! From reading this forum it seems a remarkable combination of strong knowledge combined with good manners, which is virtually unheard of on internet forums these days! I hope my presence will help maintain this... Cheers, Cin Cin, Na zdrowie, Iechyd da and of course Proost! Matt (edit to correct a couple of typos) ←

The US importers of Bols Genever are the inestimable Cattanni Importsd, and as far as I knew unitl a couple of weeks back, they'd continue with importing Damrak. Bols Genever was the big story, isn't it excellent? There are no other things up Bols' sleeve I know of, BUT...if you really like genever you'll love the Corenwyn 6 and 10 year old editions, recently launched and only for the Dutch market. Aging genever is comparatively new, and Corenwyn is for me the finest expression of genever. It's also not outrageously expensive, usually up to 40% cheaper than single malt. In fact, I have some Corenwyn 10 calling me as I type th......................................

Thank you sir - I must have lurked here for a couple of years! Without divulging any sensitive info - I was global brand ambassador and consultant for Bols until just last week - I imagine you should be seeing it early Oct, because the launch events are in NY and SF at the very tail end of Sept. So get bugging those liquor stores. Although, as ever, the US is a mighty big place and if you're not on the trendsetting east coast or gin-slurping west coast it may not be so swift...hell, nip over here and buy a few bottles, kids don't need collge, they can use the Internet! The genever itself is lush and it's a single version. It's strong, bold, maltwine heavy and just lovely; a real 1820s style genever, in no way a Jonge and not a Corenwyn either.

If you want to taste an absolutely awesome genever, you shouldn't have to wait too long - Bols Genever was launched today in Amsterdam, and events will follow soon in New York, San Francisco and London (details www.bolsgenever.com ) It's a terrific, bold old-school genever that I helped develop when I was global brand ambassador at Bols, and it's just about the coolest project I've been involved with the last few years. It's a relief to be able to finally talk about it! There'll be US distribution, and lots more, and if you absolutely can't wait, drop by the Juniperlooza! myself, Simon Ford and guest Juniperloozan Angus Winchester will be doing at Sydney Bar Show in a couple of weeks - I may well have a bottle or two with me...