A Taste for Drink - Inspire Your Beverage Creativity

By Ed Walker

Become the bartender everyone wants at their event.

Do you know why certain drinks taste good?

Do you want to know how to make something amazing for yourself and your friends with whatever is at hand?

Then this is your book.

Learn how to become a knowledgeable taster.
The purpose of A Taste For Drink is to inspire your own beverage creativity not force you to march in lock step with a specific set of recipes.
This volume provides you with the tools to make creative decisions rather than simply provide overused templates and recipes identical to a thousand other books that have gone before.
A Taste For Drink will quickly become an important adjunct to your arsenal of knowledge. Chock full of tasting technique this book will educate you in how flavors combine and affect your tastebuds.

- Learn the proper way to examine and judge your drink.
- Learn what makes a good drink good.
- Learn why you mix in certain proportions.
- Learn what flavors enhance or complement each other
- Learn how to make flavored syrups to use for coffee, desserts, or alcohol.
- Learn to create your own custom alcohol flavors by flavoring base alcohols.
- Learn mixing techniques of professionals.
- And so much more.
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A Taste for Drink will quickly become the one source of information that you use to mine your other books for recipes and then deconstruct them to make new and exciting concoctions.

Following the advice of an expert on 'mixing on the fly' you will learn to identify flavors that complement or counteract each other. You will learn the art of mindful tasting and begin your journey to becoming the Bartender you always wanted to be.

Bartenders, home experimenters, and anyone who always wanted to understand why they like the drinks they like will receive benefits from this book.
This isn't a book for posh wine tasters, it's for the hard (or casual) drinker, the cocktail aficionado, the man or woman who wants to make and drink the tastiest beverages on earth.

Some of the topics covered in this book:

Beverage History
Tasting Glassware
Cleansing the Palate
Training Your Taste Buds
How Flavors Combine
Balancing Dominance of Flavors
What is Proof
Alcohol Intensity
Quality - Cheap vs. Expensive
Base Alcohols
Liqueurs
Flavor pairings
Flavored Syrups
Mixed Drinks
Proportion Control
Mixing Technique
Bar Glassware
The Value of Bar Recipe Guides
Mixed drink families
Mixed Drink Recipes
Homemade Flavors
Flavored Alcohols
Fresh vs Dried vs Frozen
Making Flavored Alcohol
Sanitize
Cordials
Simple Syrup
Ageing

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ionosphere Press
• Release date: Apr 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781386621430

Ed Walker

Ed’s background is as a humanitarian aid worker with Tearfund. He worked for nine years in war and drought and countries with high malnutrition, working mainly with displaced populations. Countries he worked included: Burundi, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Sudan, Darfur, Northern Kenya. His final post was as Director of Tearfund’s largest ever programme in Darfur where he was responsible for 400 staff working in one of the world’s most dangerous operating environments. Prior to that he graduated from Exeter University where he had played hockey for England Universities, and in the national league. After his stint in Darfur he worked for the YMCA for three years before giving up the position of ‘Director of Client Services’ to start a tiny charity. Hope into Action has now grown into a charity with over 50 homes. In Peterborough now, the charity has over 13 churches giving the homeless a home. Ed is married to Rachel. They met overseas and Rachel is a nurse. They have three children. Ed lives in Peterborough and attends Bretton Baptist church.

Book preview

A Taste for Drink

Inspire Your Beverage Creativity

By: Ed Walker

Table of Contents

Bartenders of the Apocalypse

Belly up to the Bar

A Flavorful History

It’s a Matter of Taste

Ready, Set, Taste...

Tasting Glassware

Cleanse the Palate

Training Your Taste Buds

A Learned Art

How Flavors Combine

Balancing Dominance of Flavors

What is Proof

Alcohol Intensity

Quality - Cheap vs. Expensive

Base Alcohols

Liqueurs

Sampling

Flavor pairings

Flavored Syrups

Mixed Drinks

Proportion Control

Mixing Technique

Bar Glassware

The Value of Bar Recipe Guides

Mixed drink families

Example Tasting Sessions

Mixed Drink Recipes

Homemade Flavors

Flavored Alcohols

Types of Ingredients

Fresh vs Dried vs Frozen

Making Flavored Alcohol

Sanitize

Preparing the Ingredients

Maceration

Strain

Brewer’s Portion

Cordials

Simple Syrup

Combine Ingredients

Ageing

Cordial Recipes

Flavored Syrups

Making Syrup

Last Call

About the author with site links

––––––––

A Taste for Drink

Inspire Your Beverage Creativity

By: Ed Walker

Copyright © 2013 Ed Walker

For more information about the author, and to read the blog related to this book, please visit:

http://atastefordrink.com

Follow us on Twitter: @ATasteForDrink

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All Rights Reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

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Published by Ionosphere Press

This book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Sarah, who convinced me that I should write.

AND

To all those drinking companions over the years who have sampled my beverages and helped me to learn my craft.

Special thanks to my beta reader, Diana Clark for her insight and suggestions.

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Cover image © Suto Norbert | Dreamstime.com

Cover design by Joseph Niedbala

Taste the tasteless - Lao Tzu

Bartenders of the Apocalypse

The Bartenders of the Apocalypse: Book of Drink, Revelations 6:1-8

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, Come and see!

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a jigger, and he was given a Crown Royal, and he rode out, a mixologist bent on inebriation.

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come and see!

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take sobriety from the earth and to make men become ill with drink. To him was given a speed pour.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come and see! I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a blender in his hand.

Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, A shot of tequila for a margarita, and three shots of rum for a punch, and do not blend the water and the wine!

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come and see! I looked and there before me was a pale horse!

Its rider was named Drunkenness, and Hangover was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to inebriate with blender, measure and free pour, and by the distilled spirits of the earth.

Belly up to the Bar

Don’t worry, you haven’t picked up a tome dedicated to sobriety and warning you away from the evils of ‘demon rum’. Some people look upon alcoholic beverages as an evil on par with the worst imaginings of the Biblical Armageddon. Pshaw!

Alcohol is an ancient beverage that has been part of man’s civilization for as long as recorded history. It relaxes us, brings us joy and provides a lubricant for social interaction that is unparalleled. True, it can be misused, but then again so can an automobile but we’re not giving those up anytime soon.

Once upon a time I joined a trio of other young men who loved to mix drinks and share our concoctions with all those around us. Our skills became such that people in our social circles actively sought us out. Parties where we tended bar often produced a stream of inebriated bodies and large gaps in people’s memories. Party goers called us the Four Bartenders of the Apocalypse.

The Bartenders each had their specialty:

One made a singular beverage that was like chocolate sex in a bottle.

The second made potent beverages that would make strong men gasp.

The third could duplicate the flavor of any known non-alcoholic beverage you could name using high proof ingredients.

I, as the fourth, had the ability to take any materials available and turn them into unique, tasty beverages.

This book is written to help you learn to create drinks through the understanding of how tastes combine and become a mixologist known and respected by all who sample your wares.

In my misspent youth, I tried my hand as a bartender in clubs but I quickly realized that there was no real economic security there and instead followed a different career path. That however didn’t mean I’d lost my love of mixing and the lure of the stage that is the bar. Instead I channeled my energies into mixing drinks and creating my own flavored spirits for my personal enjoyment and that of my friends and guests.

Large events or parties are my meat and potatoes. I'm given a chance to get behind a bar again and just entertain rather than worrying about pouring to keep sales flowing.  It is this type of environment that is conducive to experimentation and creativity.

Let me clear one thing up before proceeding too far. There are two terms in common usage to describe persons who create drinks: bartender and mixologist. I use these terms somewhat interchangeably in this book but they really are two different things – to some people. One person will tell you that a mixologist is just a bartender who wants to inflate their job description much like custodial engineer is just a fancy name for janitor. Others, myself included, will tell you that bartenders are people who pour drinks for pay and are knowledgeable in many recipes and bar showmanship. Mixologists normally do not perform their art for pay. This term describes the home dabbler who wants to try different tastes and experiment regardless of an audience.

I rarely tend bar for pay these days so I now lump myself into the category of mixologist. Use the term that makes you most happy, but keep in mind when at your favorite watering hole, if your bartender prefers one over the other; use the right one if you want to continue getting great drinks.

The most basic question to get us started is: why do we drink?

Humans drink for many reasons but central to all of them is pleasure. The goal of any mixing endeavor is to create something to imbibe that will cause you and your drinking companions to smile in pleasure and reminisce about the experience when a trigger scent or taste occurs at a later time.

Most drink related books provide tried and true concoctions to memorize and serve. That's all well and good if you just want to be another run of the mill barkeep but what about the person who wants to be the bartender? How do you get to the point of being acknowledged as Lord of the Libation, King of the Concoction?  To get there you need to be original; and practice, practice, practice.

Anyone can make a Screwdriver or, by flipping to the right page in a book, make a Zombie but not many people can just step behind a bar, look at what is available and create original, tasty drinks that keep people coming back for refills and talking about them after the event is over.

We'll examine how to mix drinks off the cuff using whatever is available as well as choosing alcohols and mixers to make your bar very flexible.

The purpose of A Taste for Drink is to inspire your own beverage creativity not force you to march in lock step with my choices. I want to provide you with the tools to make creative decisions rather than provide overused templates and recipes identical to a thousand other books that have gone before. I hope that this book becomes an important adjunct to your arsenal of knowledge. I want it to become the most important book in your library; the one that you use to guide you to mine your other books for recipes and then deconstruct them to make new and exciting concoctions.

Allow me to digress a bit and tell you how I got to this point. I’ve been blessed, or cursed, depending upon your view, with very sensitive taste buds. I’ve always had a problem with spicy foods and can taste even the slightest variations in seasoning. This often makes food and drink choices problematic but also made a young boy very curious about flavors. When every flavor you put in your mouth is very intense you want to see how things taste because the good things are really good.