Flair Newspaper 12.

I got it all left behind a little bit recently. Flair being one of my greatest passions of all of the dimensions of Bartending, takes the industry to a higher ground. There are some new things that have been going on in the past several months. What's new? Let's go by default.
New kids on the block, a great news for the Flair community is a rise of a new video channel named Just Flair TV.

 A great new concept that promotes flair bartending, competitions, projects and bar industry in general.
A nicely organized, sort of underground, non-commercial Bartender TV. Based in Krakow, Poland and created and ran by a fellow bartender, Mr. Adam Branczyk and his crew. They have been all around, and surely planing much more. For now, they are doing a great covers of the flair competitions, some nice promo videos and cool walk trough and word on the streets sort of Bar talk concepts. Enjoy in their craftsmanship and hit a like on their Youtube channel. Keep up the good work Guys.

Nevertheless, there are other things in the flair industry that are worth mentioning of. First thing's first, there was a Roadhouse World finals 2013 just a few weeks ago. Love the coverage, love the camera angles and the production. Showmanship, great spirits, superflairbartenders and great crowd. Roadhouse lives up to his long earned name.

Final lineup with the points:
754Tomek MalekFlair Factory/Red Bull
712Alexander ShtifanovMOS Flair
749Luca ValentineExquisite Bar Solutions
762Marek PoslusznyFlair Factory/ Red Bull
738Rodo DelpechFlair Fearless
675Adam BranCzykIndependent
660Roman ZapataAustria Bartending School
643vaclav AbrahamIndependent
606Vitalii KoplinIndependent
606Sylvain GlatignyMojito Lab
578Deniss TriffanovsIndependent
577Marcin CebulaGo big or go home.com
531Maxim PolozyukovIndependent
522GingeNorthen Flair
504Miyuki KamiguruIndependent
487Bruno VanzanBrunoVanzan.com
470SikkyIndependent
457 Hugo Osorio Independent
455 Agnieszka Bochniak EBS
439 Dinu Razvan Smirnoff
438 Alibek Jaibegenov Independent
437 Tony Mallin Ronnie Scotts
432 Exquisite Bar Solutions Ionut Ivanov
434 EBS Sima
406 Independent Shinichi Yoshihara

Must see, very interesting promo video of theirs. Check out other videos on the channel and see all the other facts about the Roadhouse World Flair, it's origins, history and competitors @ http://www.roadhouse.co.uk/

Bar talks. Women Bartenders

As same as the balance of the ingredients in a mixed drink, or an original dish prepared by the great chef, there should be balance behind the bar within the male-female ratio. I have met many great female bartenders, but the ratio is not in their favor. Cruise ships, in my opinion have a good ratio of those, more than a hotels and bars that are land based. Why is it so?

I believe that many of us that worked there will know the answer. But, that is not my point. Let's take in regard any organisation, company, establishment in the bar industry. I personally love seeing a female bartender, reminding myself constantly that I should not tip her more than a guy that served me a great drink as well and did a good job behind the bar. Regardless of the charm that radiates and smile that she gave me. 

There is something else I have wanted to mention to that in my opinion is very important matter in bar business. And that is that healthy male-female ratio in the collective that can produce a good vibe, a healthier working environment on a longer period of time. Being a bartender, bar manager and eventually bar owner this question popped up as one of interesting ones to deal with when organizing interesting and long lasting bar concept. Taking all the standard bar matters in consider I see this question as one of the important ones to sort out and it had proven itself to create more positive vibe, better working relations and more positive energy within my staff, all together. Ratio of 7-3 in favor of male bartenders worked great.
So, bar managers get women in your bars as well and look at the customers come back and profits up and all staff producing a great vibe and being happy.

What is Absinthe?

Absinthe's history is full of controversy and interesting facts about it in general. It was a banned liquor since end of 19th beginning of 20th century, many believing that it has a hallucinogenic effect. However, that was not the only "reason" for absinthe to be considered as such. Absinthe had affected French Wine industry in the 19th century and winegrowers had to get rid of it by any means. The Absinthe mania was quite a wide phenomenon that it created a special rituals of consuming it in some parts of Europe. Many of the great artists of the 19hundreds had their times of Absinthe mania, including the famous story of Vincent Van Gogh when he removed one of his ears under the influence of "Green Fairy", synonym under which Absinthe was known at the time.

The term Absinthe was derived from one of it's basic ingredients, Artemisia Absinthium, the Wormwood. 

Artemisia Absinthium was used for medicinal purposes since the old times, and still used by the contemporary pharmaceutical industry, cuisine and in folk alternative medicine.

Wormwood is not the only ingredient that NS(neutral spirit) is infused with. There are many other plants, roots and herbs that this anisette liquor is infused with. Its production process is somewhat like the one we do with Gin. Infusion of high proof neutral spirit is set to be infused with all the secret botanicals and  distilled again to give birth to Absinthe. For the difference of Gin, the Absinthe, after the second distillation is again infused to intensity the flavor and create a green color, that is, besides the specific flavor, second most important feature of Absinthe(Green Absinthe).

From the early history of Mixology, before Prohibition, Absinthe has it's trace as well in some classics such as Sazerac. Contemporary Mixology gave birth of many absinthe cocktails since the liquor was legalized, recently. 

The thing is, many bartenders are creating, in my opinion, wrong concepts with Absinthe. Those creations, I have seen in bars in Europe are usually based on multiple liqueurs and spirits, including absinthe, with some fruit juices and sodas as well. Usually created for European beach bars, all along Mediterranean. Those, so called party drinks can be vary amusing, but they seem to lack the gastronomical dimension and have very little originality as such. Not really a superb drinks. I believe that we, the bartenders, should focus more on classics and simple but original creations, trying to put their own signature on it by making simple, tasty, meaningful cocktail.

Neb Lazarevich.

Classics VS Contemporary

Having all these new age drinks, recovered and recreated from Tiki cocktail Culture, Cuban cocktail Culture, Caribbean long drinks and fancy martinis I found that most of the bars are missing a good classic concept of Cocktails and their simple recreations on their menu. Is it Bartenders? Is it managers, or is it consumers, guests, the general public that does not order these anymore?

I believe that there is a bit of every one of these factors that had the influence on contemporary bar concepts and their menus.

One more, in my opinion crucial factor is media, TV and Internet majorly and marketing concepts of Liquor brands. Even tough, I know quite a few Bar where true classics are at the spotlight.

 Classics are now coming back big time, in their original form or recreated, and they are here to stay.
This one will be my first pick when get back to the bar tomorrow.

Competitions keep us up to the task

Competitions are like fair days, where bartenders don't have to walk to far away to find their interest. It is also a Holiday of Bartending where bartenders are celebrated and being at the spot of the interest of all of the visitors.

17.12.2013 we were on the competition in Novi Sad, Serbia that was organized by regional Bartender Association- "BarmeNS". Great competition, superb organisation and great fun time. It was a comp to wish for every month at least. Venue itself was a great pick, in a really good equipped club, with two separate stages, both for Mixology, and Flair show. Both on IBA(International Bartender Association) standards there were  more than thirty competitors on both sides.

Competitors from Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Romania fought for glory, cups made of Smirnoff shaker and cash prizes. 

Here is the list of Mixology competitors:

1. mesto Milos Janosevic - Srbija / Beograd 
2. mesto Tamara Santai - Srbija/ Senta
3. mesto Marko Lapcevic - Srbija/ Beograd 
4. mesto Tomislav Bozanovic - Hrvatska/ Zagreb
5. mesto Jelena Mladenovic - Srbija/ Novi Sad
6. mesto Perisa Pavicevic - Crna Gora/ Podgorica
7. mesto Goran Mijic - BiH/ Mostar
8. mesto Srdjan Stankovic - Srbija/ Beograd
9. mesto Mario Stefanek - Srbija/ Subotica
10.mesto Mirza Jajetovic - BiH/ Sarajevo
11.mesto Nikola Stoisavljevic Srbija/ Beograd
12.mesto Ante Zigo - Hrvatska/Split
13.mesto Marko Benkovic - Hrvatska /Pula
14.mesto Vladan Lukic - Srbija/ Beograd
15.mesto Zoran Budimirovic Srbija/Novi Sad
16.mesto Edis Duvnjak - BiH / Sarajevo
17.mesto Filip Filipovic - Srbija / Nis

Flair lineup looked exactly this way:

1.mesto Karlo Damijanić - Hrvatska/Pula 

2.mesto Marko Benković - Hrvatska / Pula 

3.mesto Alexandru Avirvarei - Rumunija/ Temisvar

4.mesto Darko Lazevski - Makedonija/Skopje 

5.mesto Sinisa Sinkeey Novković - Hrvatska / Rijeka

6.mesto Nebojša Lazarević - BiH/Banja Luka 

7.mesto Toni Ivica - Hrvatska/Split 

8.mesto Boban Vasic- Makedonija/ Skopje

9.mesto Monika Vojnic - Srbija / Subotica 

10.mesto Mario Stefanek - Srbija / Subotica 

11.mesto Stevan Rupcic - Srbija/ Beograd 

12.mesto Nenad Sheva Chronicle - Hrvatska/Zagreb

13.mesto Saša Pilipović - Srbija/Subotica 

bez plasmana Mario Majcen - Hrvatska/Zagreb

bez plasmana Ante Zigo - Hrvatska/Split 

How to Barrel Age a Cocktail with Whiskey

Bartenders are going shoulder to shoulder and matching the famous chefs achievements in culinary matters.

We are entering a new age of a cocktail mixology and bar experience as well. That's great. The sad thing about it is that these bars will not be located on to many places in the world.

Roadhouse World Flair Grand Final 2013 - Rodrigo Delpech - Flair Fearles...

Another Roadhouse great thing for this year is not only that all the big ones came in for the finals but
the official camera stand: front and back. Enjoy!