Fragments: on mixology

I'm in the process of putting together a training session on cocktails and mixology. It should - hopefully - fit into our standard 2 hour session format, and it follows six weeks of spirits and liqueur product knowledge. Here's a couple of excerpts from the work in progress.

There's a difference between making cocktails and creating cocktails. The toolkit is the same - techniques, ingredients, and ingredients - but the name of the game is pattern recognition.

...

Disappointingly, it's so improbable that anyone can do anything genuinely groundbreaking outside of current toolset as to be indistinguishable from impossible. So, what then? Well, let's start playing with our tools.

On wine

I've been tasked with presenting a wine training course at work in a couple of weeks time. With that in mind, I decided that I should put some effort into discovering more about wine - y'know, expanding my knowledge so that the sessions don't seem like I've copied them from a book. Here's what I've learned so far: Wine fucks you up.