I remember when I was 13 years old, I went into my parent’s spirit cupboard to “borrow” some of their alcohol for my upcoming school disco. I was going to make my friends and I a “Haxa”, which in a direct translation means, “Witch”. It’s an outstanding concoction of everything in the cupboard carefully blended in a, well, plastic bottle, shaken without ice. You then refill each of the bottles you have thieved from with water to cover your tracks. I thought it was a genius idea until I poured water into a bottle that said Ricard on the front, and the content turned milky white. Shit.



My so-called Cocktail tasted like the liquid you would find in a pub’s slops bucket and I was grounded for a week. That day I decided where I would take my life, and killed my father’s dream of a straight A student who would go on and follow in his footsteps.



The road, as we all know, has to start somewhere, and mine started with bar backing. 60-hour weeks filled with bin changing, floor scrubbing, glass polishing, fridge stocking, heavy lifting and too much alcohol drinking. It took almost a year until I finally was allowed to make drinks, but not in front of customers; no, trapped up in a basement with no one to talk to and a machine that just wouldn’t stop spitting out dockets. Ladies and Gentleman; I present to you the Dispense Bartender. Your job description would be to smash out as many fine-tasting drinks to the diners as humanly possible. I learnt speed and specs (bar terminology for drinks recipes), but being stuck in a basement where no one can see you made me a messy bartender with no chat. I like to think I've moved on.


In the quiet hours I would read shit Swedish cocktail books. Of course I didn’t know that they were useless until later on in my career. God, I wish someone had told me who Jerry Thomas or Gary Regan were in 2001, it would have saved me some time and cut down numerous embarrassing moments over the years.



The next section in my bar life I would like to call “Let there be light”: where I was pulled out of the basement and put to work on a bar.
I realised in 2004 that the Swedish (or at least my punters at Buddha Bar) idea of a classical cocktail was a P2 (vanilla vodka, apple sours and lemonade, garnished with a lime wedge.) I thought there must be more to Bartending than that. I moved to London- the land of Bartending dreams.
I was in for a rude awakening. I knew nothing in comparison to these cocktilians. After The Sanderson, Hilton and Harvey Nichols, better cocktail books, longer hours, harder work, wine studies, much more interesting chat, trainings, some competitions, more alcohol drinking, no daylight and better mentors to lead me on the way, I started working at the Lonsdale. It felt like I was taken to another level, these bartenders, and especially Charles Vexenant- mixology legend- were walking and talking drinks information banks. Time to step up again. But this time it felt like we all had something to give - knowledge, passion, bad jokes in terrible taste. And now I'm learning to share my knowledge, my passion. And the only joke I ever remember.


When you are infatuated with someone, it takes over your whole life. I'm writing this at the bar in the Lonsdale. What else can I say?

Cocktail Competitions

This week’s blog is about Cocktail Competitions. This is where we as Bartenders try to prove ourselves to win everything from pride to a trip to a land far away, or a Mac book.

A brand sets the rules; that normally goes; minimum of 35 ml of our product, maximum of 5 ingredients, no dairy allowed and we would like you to invent like the new Gin and tonic...! (No pressure?) I tell you- it’s not an easy task- We have to go up in front of most of the bar industry and make drinks with some amazingly, funny and knowledgeable chat for legends- Yeah, they normally judge it. With legends I mean people that have, in years gone, set a mark on the industry in one way or another. They headed a bar we looked up to, wrote a book we don’t leave our house without, is the master distiller of the actual brand or managed to create a classical cocktail and still be alive. The Noble Prize winners of bartending basically.

So why do we do this? We are a creative bunch, often also a bit competitive. We might get some recognition to what we do, and/or win a sexy prize. (Trip to Brazil anybody?) We also get to hang out with our friends and family for a day and drink free booze and nibble on canapés. It also puts us on our toes; everybody needs a kick up the ass from time to time. It’s not a smart thing to turn up at a Cocktail Competition without researching every ingredient you are putting in to your drink with a magnifying glass. I’ve done this, trust me, not a smart pull. Hopefully I have learnt a lesson out of it.

So why would we not want to do it? Sometime I wonder if these brand people actually know who we are. They make Bartenders get up at 7am to be at the Competition ready to play at 10am. I’m thinking, I finished my shift 4 hrs ago, and I don’t even work in a nightclub! Some friends of mine also thinks that it is too much politics going around in these comps- that the winner might be set in beforehand, or the favourite gets the price, even though that bartender might not have had the best drink. They might be right; I don’t really have a view point on that.

Once (or maybe various times) I’ve done the big mistake of turning up hung over and unprepared; feeling pity for myself and thinking a bottle of Tequila down me might solve this problem, and gone up and made a total fool out of myself. I get nervous before competitions and that kind of behaviour might be the not so good after taste. When I think back on these times, it makes me want to stay in bed.

But to be honest with you, these days are mostly fun filled with a bunch of drinks geeks chatting, drinking and thinking about alcohol all day. Much more entertaining than a day at the office I would think. And when the day comes when you actually win the thing... It is truly magical.

On Thursday last week I was in the UK Final of The Martin Millers Gin yearly mixology competition. About 6 months ago they had heats around the UK, to try to find the strawberries in the Eaton Mess . It is 3 parts to the competition; Your remake of the G&T, a classical Gin drink that you pull out of a hat on the day and then pull out your speech out of your..? to then present it to the judges, and then last but not least the speed round. How many Gin and Tonics can you make in 1 minute? GO! The whole day was held at Martin Millers own Millers Academy off Westbourne Grove. (This is an amazing boutique hotel btw, if you would like to treat yourself!) I went in with my nervousness and got caught in the corner with a fellow bartender sipping frozen Jager from the bottle with a straw. Still managed to stay sober, and I did turn up prepared! And I almost said everything I intended to say. It did taste like a Gin and Tonic, but there was no Tonic in it, eyh!, and it looked well pretty. But, I was competing against all of these amazing guys with their molecular mixology, gin and tonic caviar, sorbets and foams! I made 17 beautiful (?) Gin and Tonics in a minute and when the totally scary judges, including some Hot Shots from the States and Martin Miller himself went up to announce the winner; it was me! That single moment makes me want to get out of bed for the next one.

Pink G Buck #7

50 ml Martin millers Gin 40%

35 ml Chamberyzette

15 ml Bercherovka

Half a Lemon

Top up with Ginger Ale

Procedure: Put 3 ice Cubes in the bottom of a Catalina glass, squeeze in the half lemon into the glass (might want to cut it up first), add more ice and the rest of the ingredients. Cap shake (Take a smallish tin, put it on top and shake quite gently), top up with Ginger Beer and garnish with a few Mint sprigs.

Welcome to the Lonsdale, an exceptional cocktail bar in Notting Hill that specialises in authentic London classic drinks of yesteryear. We have gone a long way to make sure our drinks are as close as possible to what Englishmen were drinking from the early 1700s to this evening.

We want Lonsdale to be a learning experience as well as entertainment for our customers, friends, family, clients, patrons and patients. Also, of course, for you to have a great drink in our bar.

We set up this blog to guide you through the shark-infested waters of cocktail culture in its recent epicenter, London. Where to, how to, what to, drink. If you’re reading this, you don’t need me to tell you the why to.

My name is Rebecca “Bex” Almqvist and I shall be your spirits guide and cocktialian in this labyrinthe underworld of bars in London.

Lonsdale has seen many great bartenders and legends from all around the world through the years and it’s an honour for me to work here.

If you are wondering why we freshly squeeze our lime and lemon juice on the spot, why we keep our vermouth in the fridge, why we don’t stock your particular brand of vodka or why we seem so frustrated when someone behind the bar screams STATION DOWN at 10.30 on a Saturday night- this is where you will find out!

Until next week, remember:

Good tequila does not give you a hangover

Rebecca

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A great drink takes a few moments to make