Poorly veiled innuendo employed in the selling of whisky

Just joking, this is actually pretty hilarious. Nice bit of content marketing from Monkey Shoulder, backed up up with a highly covetable telescopic spoon.

Beefeater 24 Global Competition wrap video

Check out Jason Williams.

Winner

Old news now, but finally found a half decent shot of local lad done good, Jason Williams.

You can try the drink, Werewolves of London, that has won him global acclaim at The Rook here in Sydney.

He’s won a trip to Japan next year, to learn about tea, which gives the Beefeater 24 its unique flavour and a product mention in this post.

You’d think he’d look happier about it, maybe those rumours about Gin making you depressed are true.

 

By Hook or by Crook, get to the Rook.

There a plenty of good cocktail bars in Sydney these days, so you really have to work hard to do something different without affecting the quality of the product you’re putting up.

I’ll tell you one thing though, the team at the Rook are doing it right. Jason Williams and Cristiano Beretta have put together a list of cracking drinks with a playful streak.

Drink them in with your eyes below.

The Calligraphy Cocktail. Genever forward and served with a quill so you can personalise your drink. Yes, I drew a cock and balls on mine.

Fear and Loathing. Mezcal, Cherries, Bats, Fuck. Garnished with a page torn from the novel folded into a paper plane.

Sloe Ringing Bell. Sloe Gin, Diamond Rye Belvedere, sugar, salt. A vodka drink for people who don’t order vodka drinks.
Werewolves of London. A twist on the corpse reviver, and the phone message is classic. Fill a drink bottle with it when you leave.

There were others. They were excellent. I’ll add them when I remember what they were.

I may have gone home with a helium balloon tied to my shirt.

Go there and drink the whole list.

 

Now.

 

Sydney, you’re going to drink a lot of these this summer.

Some of you will know that Jason Williams, exAustralian Bartender of the Year and deliverer of some very fine chat, had taken a job working for the Keystone Group, working across the venues of the group, with a remit to improve the beverage offer.

Gazebo, perennial Pott’s Point wine garden and watering hole will be the first place that remit becomes visible on a cocktail list.

There are a number of interesting drinks on the list. The Shiraz Negroni is delicious, and the Love Potion brings a little table side theatre to the Sydney drinks market.

It’s the delicious beverage in the picture that I can see being drunk in large numbers as the weather warms up and competition for the outdoor seats heats up. It’s called the Spring Sherry Cobbler.

Cobblers are an older style of drink, mentioned in even the oldest surviving cocktail books. Jerry Thomas included seven in his book. On paper it’s a simple drink; wine, spirit or sherry mixed over ice with sugar and some fruit. Put in context its the definition of luxury, first made in a time when ice was not sallying forth from a hoshizaki ice machine but hauled in straw insulated railcars and ships from a frozen place to, well, not so.

The Spring Sherry Cobbler at Gazebo uses Pedro Ximinez sherry, the darling child of the food industry for its rich sultana and chocolate flavours. Well iced it delivers a remarkable freshness that will ease many a transition from work to afters. The PX coats your mouth to the finish.

Summertime goodness you won’t regret ordering. Yum.

Gazebo on Google Maps here.