Archive for February, 2010

BartenderOne partners with CIRCA Toronto – Canada’s Largest Night Club

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Canada's Most Recognized Bartender Training Partners with Canada's Largest Nightclub

Canada's Most Recognized Bartender Training Partners with Canada's Largest Nightclub

CiRCA Nightclub is a one-of-a-kind entertainment venue and nightclub in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District. Located inside the Festival Hall Entertainment Complex between Richmond and Adelaide on John, the four-story, 55,000 square foot state-of-the-art space is an arts, music, entertainment, fashion and now bartender training unlike anything else in the world.

BartenderOne’s founder is excited about the new partnership.  “We want to offer our students training in more diverse environments than any other school out there, and partnering with CIRCA is opening up a whole new world of opportunity to train in any environment from nightclub, to small bar, to lounge to Ballroom, CIRCA has everything a student needs to get real bar experience in multiple environments that other bartending schools just cant match,” says BartenderOne frontman Gavin MacMillan.

One of Seven Bars Now Available for BartenderOne Students

One of Seven Bars Now Available for BartenderOne Students

BartenderOne no has more training space than all other bartending schools in Canada COMBINED, yet another innovation that is keeping BartenderOne and it’s graduates ahead of the curve, and providing cutting edge training for a price that simply cant be matched by anyone.

Click here to register or see start dates at CIRCA nightclub!

The partnership with CIRCA marks BartenderOne’s 7th training location in Canada.  We’re celebrating with the Launch of the completely revised International Master Mixologist Bartending Certification, a “Finishing School” of sorts for students who have completed the MasterClass and bartenders currently working in the industry.  This program is truly focused on providing bartenders with the experience that they need by sampling brands without seeing the labels so they can make their own decisions about what to recommend to guests based on personal experience and not just marketing. sampling the top brands so bartenders are equipped with the experience to truly “Be BartenderOne.”

Circa Nightclub in full swing.  A training environment unlike any classroom based bartending school.

Circa Nightclub in full swing. A training environment unlike any classroom based bartending school.

The International Master Mixologist Bartending Certification breaks down into 10 classes as follows.

Class 1:  Vodka Tasting – Finishing School
Class 2:  Rum Tasting – Finishing School
Class 3:  Gin Tasting – Finishing School
Class 4:  Whiskey Tasting – Finishing School
Class 5:  Tequila Tasting – Finishing School
Class 6:  Mojito Madness – Signature Handcrafted Mojitos you can call your own.
Class 7:  Buena Barista – Specialty coffee Workshop
Class 8:  Citrus, Sweetners and Bitters.
Class 9:  Molecular Mixology- Spherification and Gelification,Foams, airs, cocktail etching, infusions.
Class 10: Final Testing – Writing and Designing a cocktail menu from scratch.

Mixology Monday – Absinthe

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

MxMo XLVI takes place Monday, February 22. Hosting this round is Sonja at Thinking of Drinking, and Sonja has chosen Absinthe as the theme. Certainly one of Toronto’s best MxMo’s to date, and a thoroughly enjoyable excuse to get together and have some tasty beverages. Some of us chose absinthe as a modifier, some as a base… some chose citrus and some cream, then we finished off with some fresh espresso and macadamia syrup to cap the night… Enjoy from the t-dot

Elan Marks presents

“Two in the Pink”

1.5 oz alize red passion
1.5 oz absinthe
1 oz ameretto
1 oz egg whites
2 oz cranberry juice,
squeeze one fresh lemon wedge …
in a tin with ice add all ingredients, shake the shit out of it, till its nice and frothy

strain and enjoy,

Scott McMaster (aka Evil) presents “The Purp”

Makes 2.

60ml Zoladkowa Gurzka Bitter Vodka
10ml Hills Absinth
2-7 inch rosemary branches (no stems). 3 barspoons of blueberry jam
Muddle vodka, jam and rosemary in boston glass. Add absinth and ice, shake, fine strain in to tall thin glass. Flute would work as well as pictured glass. Top with Absenth foam.

Rob Montgomery

Ghostface Killah Cocktail aka Pretty Toney Tipple

Inspired by San Francisco bartender Camper English’s adaption of the Absinthe Suissesse Cocktail, I added a few changes of my own. Remake of a remake so to speak. I hope you enjoy.

50ml Hills Absinthe
15ml Macadamia Nut Syrup
1 egg white
60ml heavy cream or half-and-half
dash orange blossom water
pinch of 6 spice powder(5 spice plus ginger)

Combine liquid ingredients in boston glass, Fill with ice and hard shake. Strain over crushed ice in oldfashioned glass or straight into a chilled coupe glass. Sprinkle with 6 spice powder.
Serves 1.

Wes Galloway

Not bad for a first run, but needs tinkering:
Pour la Premiere Fois

1.25oz Calvados De Boulard
.75oz Italian Vermouth
.5oz Pernod Absinthe
.25oz Pama Pomegranate Liqueur
2 dashes Peychaud Bitters
1 dash Angostura Bitters
*Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Nishan Chandra busts out the Snowbird

15mL Hills Absinthe
30mL Domaine de Canton
Juice of 2 Fresh Limes
20mL Orgeat
3 dashes Fee Bros Lemon Bitters
Shake all ingredients over ice, strain into 3 tall shooter or coupe glasses.
Add one dash of bitters to garnish.

Gavin MacMillan presented the GF Twizzler

45mL Juniper Green Organic Gin
30mL Cointreau
30mL Hills Absinthe
60mL Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
2 dashes Peychauds Bitters
Brulee the outside of the glasses with absinthe for aromatics, then shake and strain into bruleed glassware.

Sessions like these not only build community and grow passion for Mixology in Toronto, they provide an open forum for bartenders to be creative and test concepts and products that may never have collided in the same glass. This creative foundation is both fundamentally important and essential, and is a core belief that makes BartenderOne the leading Bartending Service Provider and Bartending School in Toronto.

How to Create a Citrus Twist

Friday, February 12th, 2010

There are a few different garnishes when making a classic gin or vodka Martini.  Originally the olive was added by Robert Agneau to mask the taste of pour American gin and dry vermouth.  Another acceptable garnish is the lemon twist.  This is how it’s done.

By using your channel knife, dig the tooth of the channel knife into the flesh of the citrus, either a lemon or a lime, and start to create a long citrus channel, or what will be a twist.  Some people compare it to the action of peeling a potato.

When you have completed one revolution of the lemon or lime, pinch it off with your index finger, and give the citrus string a good twist in a coil motion.  Once you have the twist, hold it over the cocktail, and pull at both ends of the twist.  This will release the essential oils over the cocktail, adding a hint of lemon flavour to the Martini.

Perhaps the most famous cocktail ever made with a lemon twist is the “Vesper”, aka the James Bond Martini.

Bond names his favourite Martini and procedure after the female double agent Vesper Lynd of Casino Royale.

The famous recipe calls for:

3 parts Gin

1 part Vodka

1/2 part dry vermouth

Shaken hard with a lemon twist.

This movie and Martini inspired movie goers and cocktail enthusiasts everywhere to to visit their favourite watering hole, sidle up to the bar and say, “I’ll have a Martini, shaken…not stirred!”

I feel it necessary to mention that classic gin or vodka Martinis are  to be stirred, not shaken as shaking will bruise the spirit, and allow ice shards to pass through the strainer into the cocktail.  Also, when cocktails are shaken, they become cloudy because of air that is added to the mix during agitation.  Classic Martinis are to be served chilled, and crystal clear.

BartenderOne is Canada’s fastest growing group of bartending schools, and has the most comprehensive list of classes, bartender programs and bar workshops available in the hospitality industry.

With four locations in Toronto alone, BartenderOne is the largest bartending school in Toronto.