Cocktail Consultant

[The Cocktail Guru]

Hello all,

My name is Jonathan, and I am a NYC bartender and cocktail consultant. I just created my website - please do check it out:

www.thecocktailguru.com

lots of great bar/cocktail/spirits news, info, and recipes...

if anybody has any advice on the site, please let me know! Also any leads on work, please let me know!

Thanks so much everyone!

[Splificator]

Welcome, Jonathan!

Excellent drinks the other night at the Tales of the Cocktail event.

Good luck with your website.

--DW

[slkinsey]

Welcome Jonathan. I'm sure that many of our members who are not in the business would love to hear about what it means to be a cocktail consultant, what that business is like, etc.

[The Cocktail Guru]

Good idea to let everybody not in the business know what being a cocktail consultant is! As a cocktail consultant, I create, bartend, market and promote new and exciting cocktails for bars, restaurants, and spirit companies. I have an all around passion for mixing up drinks, and I enjoy putting that to good use! I started out as an all-around bartender and now, decided to take my skills one step further. I love bartending events, talking to professionals in the business, creating new recipes, and experimenting with ingredients. Some of my favorite moments are raiding the fridges of a restaurant's kitchen (depending on how tolerant the chefs are), and plucking out fresh, unusual ingredients and seeing how they'll match up with various spirits and juices.

Edited March 3, 2006 by The Cocktail Guru (log)

[Jake]

Sounds wonderful! Sometimes you really do get bored with the same old things. What are your favourite drinks, and what is your favourite spirit to work with?

[Chris Amirault]

Welcome! What are the working arrangements exactly? Do you meet on a per-hour basis, or do you serve as the consultant-on-retainer, or...?

[johnder]

I notice for your version of the manhattan you say to include "5 dashes pogash bitters"

What is your bitter recipe based upon?

John

[The Cocktail Guru]

Sounds wonderful!  Sometimes you really do get bored with the same old things.  What are your favourite drinks, and what is your favourite spirit to work with?

←

My favorite drink of all time to drink is a Margarita - the infamous margarita. When made properly, a heavenly cocktail. Proportions in making the margarita are very important. Not too tart, not too strong...I also love making mojitos. I worked at a bar named Town on 56th st. in manhattan where i really learned how to make an amazing mojito. Hope they still continue on with the tradition over there. As far as spirits, I feel Grand Marnier is a very versatile spirit, I use it in margaritas as well as mojitos, for example, just to add a little extra fresh orange flavor. I just finished working for 10 Cane Rum, also a really wonderful spirit from Trinidad made from pure cane juice. Also very versatile - wonderful on the rocks and just as amazing in a cocktail like a mojito or cuba libre. Favorite vodka - Belvedere -- The come-back vodka: Smirnoff

Gin: Tanqueray No. 10, Hendrick's (both infused with fresh ingredients)

[Jake]

Sounds wonderful!  Sometimes you really do get bored with the same old things.  What are your favourite drinks, and what is your favourite spirit to work with?

←

My favorite drink of all time to drink is a Margarita - the infamous margarita. When made properly, a heavenly cocktail. Proportions in making the margarita are very important. Not too tart, not too strong...I also love making mojitos. I worked at a bar named Town on 56th st. in manhattan where i really learned how to make an amazing mojito. Hope they still continue on with the tradition over there. As far as spirits, I feel Grand Marnier is a very versatile spirit, I use it in margaritas as well as mojitos, for example, just to add a little extra fresh orange flavor. I just finished working for 10 Cane Rum, also a really wonderful spirit from Trinidad made from pure cane juice. Also very versatile - wonderful on the rocks and just as amazing in a cocktail like a mojito or cuba libre. Favorite vodka - Belvedere -- The come-back vodka: Smirnoff

Gin: Tanqueray No. 10, Hendrick's (both infused with fresh ingredients)

←

Ahh, the Margarita. One of my favourites as well. Interesting made with key limes instead of regular too. I think I prefer Cointreau or Triple Sec for orange flavour in them to GM though, GM seems to sweet to me.

Tanqueray No. 10 - love it. Plan to have some as soon as I can get out of the office today.

Do you strictly work for one company/distillery at a time, or do you often have projects on the go?

[The Cocktail Guru]

Welcome! What are the working arrangements exactly? Do you meet on a per-hour basis, or do you serve as the consultant-on-retainer, or...?

←

Each project usually has different requirements, so I am very flexible as far as the working arrangements. I do work on a per-hour basis, on a weekly-basis, monthly, per-project basis...For example: I've created cocktails for restaurants cocktail menus, and trained the bartenders on proper bar techniques and cocktail-making (which are on a day-to-day basis. I've given product presentations at restaurants to train employees which have only lasted 1 hour. I've worked parties that lasted an entire night (and well into the morning) and mixed up cocktails at spirit companies' offices for brand groups. The last project I did I was hired to create cocktails for 10 Cane Rum and Monin Gourmet Flavorings, and I was given 2-3 weeks to create them. In the end, I came back to the brand group, gave a presentation in which I spoke about my experimentations, and I made them nearly 70 cocktails to taste. I was then given feedback, notes, they kept some of the cocktails and told me to re-work a few others. After 1 week of re-working a few recipes, I came back to them once again. So this process was really a month long. If you have any leads or ideas, please feel free to let me know and we can talk further. Thanks Chris!

[The Cocktail Guru]

Sounds wonderful!  Sometimes you really do get bored with the same old things.  What are your favourite drinks, and what is your favourite spirit to work with?

←

My favorite drink of all time to drink is a Margarita - the infamous margarita. When made properly, a heavenly cocktail. Proportions in making the margarita are very important. Not too tart, not too strong...I also love making mojitos. I worked at a bar named Town on 56th st. in manhattan where i really learned how to make an amazing mojito. Hope they still continue on with the tradition over there. As far as spirits, I feel Grand Marnier is a very versatile spirit, I use it in margaritas as well as mojitos, for example, just to add a little extra fresh orange flavor. I just finished working for 10 Cane Rum, also a really wonderful spirit from Trinidad made from pure cane juice. Also very versatile - wonderful on the rocks and just as amazing in a cocktail like a mojito or cuba libre. Favorite vodka - Belvedere -- The come-back vodka: Smirnoff

Gin: Tanqueray No. 10, Hendrick's (both infused with fresh ingredients)

←

Ahh, the Margarita. One of my favourites as well. Interesting made with key limes instead of regular too. I think I prefer Cointreau or Triple Sec for orange flavour in them to GM though, GM seems to sweet to me.

Tanqueray No. 10 - love it. Plan to have some as soon as I can get out of the office today.

Do you strictly work for one company/distillery at a time, or do you often have projects on the go?

←

I freelance, so I'm not tied down to any one specific spirits company or distillery. I will complete a project, and then move on to the next. I find time to concentrate on all of the projects that I have, even if I have more than one at the same time. My last project was just completed, so I'm currently searching for the next...Enjoy No. 10 - try it straight up as a martini with a twist. The twist is really amazing in a Tanq. No.10 martini!

[The Cocktail Guru]

Welcome, Jonathan!

Excellent drinks the other night at the Tales of the Cocktail event.

Good luck with your website.

--DW

←

Thanks DW! Always great to see you! Hopefully I can make it down to N.O. for the event in July. I must find a way to get myself down there...

[The Cocktail Guru]

I notice for your version of the manhattan you say to include "5 dashes pogash bitters"

What is your bitter recipe based upon?

John

←

It was created by my father - using Richard Hennessy Cognac as a base, mixed in with oranges zest, cloves, raisins, some orange bitters, etc....he wanted to create something fragrant, flavorful, and complex - something that would blend well into cocktails.

[freshherbs]

jonathan, do your clients ever mind that you might also work for one of their competitors?

[The Cocktail Guru]

jonathan, do your clients ever mind that you might also work for one of their competitors?

←

I'm not contracted to one or more companies. I freelance and I always mention my former employers in a good light. I take my experiences with various companies and use it towards whatever I'm doing next. It's never been a problem - then again, I've just started in the business...but if anything, I think clients appreciate my variety and experience - hopefully they do!

[KatieLoeb]

Welcome Jonathan! I do what you do in Philadelphia and Southern NJ so I totally understand how you work.

I'd be interested to hear how you get contracted to particular spirit brands. Do you work through a local sales rep who runs you up the ladder to the marketing folks, or what? Sounds like an interesting proposition. I'm working on a 10 Cane infusion right now in fact. I'll report back in the new recipes thread when I get it just right.

I always tell folks my job is my alibi for my hobby. Otherwise I'd just be a lush!

Let me know if your work ever brings you down this way. We can exchange war stories. Oh - and have a drink!

[Friend of the Farmer]

I'd be curious to hear from the cocktail consultants on how they deal with a potential (or even just perception of) conflict of interest when serving both suppliers and buyers. Do you feel compelled to use your producer's products in the cocktails you recommend to client bars? And alternately, do you hesistate from recommending products that compete with your supplier clients' spirits?

Note of disclosure here - I'm also a consultant myself (albeit sadly in a different field) and face similar pressures, so I'm interested in how you handle this with your customers.

[The Cocktail Guru]

I'd be curious to hear from the cocktail consultants on how they deal with a potential (or even just perception of) conflict of interest when serving both suppliers and buyers.  Do you feel compelled to use your producer's products in the cocktails you recommend to client bars?  And alternately, do you hesistate from recommending products that compete with your supplier clients' spirits?

Note of disclosure here - I'm also a consultant myself (albeit sadly in a different field) and face similar pressures, so I'm interested in how you handle this with your customers.

←

Well for me, I don't have that kind of pressure because I just started doing this and only have a handful of clients and haven't run into a conflict of interest or anything of that sort. I know that there are those contracted jobs out there in which one can only work for an importer's products, for example, and cannot work for any other spirit brand. I do tend to recommend the products that I've worked for, mainly because I know those products the best and feel confident that I can recommend them to others. I don't feel compelled to use the products in cocktails I make, but it's nice to because it shows them you are still thinking about the product, and maybe they'll hire you for more work!