How do you dine out on the ‘I did chemistry at uni card’ without coming across a total tool? I’m fast approaching 20 years since graduation, not once have I got a job that specifically asked for that qualification. Chicks definitely did not dig it. You know what though, Chemistry has been applied to so many different parts of my life, now more than ever. Weirdly, the phrase I have always remembered is not very chemical; ‘Cite your references’. Don’t worry, it's a relatively surface level fetish, but it's one I think keeps me grounded. Cocktails have a vast history and are accessible to pretty much every human who has access to a mixing vessel and liquids that can be consumed. That is a high volume of the world’s population and creates a massive amount of permutations and combinations. You make a mind blowing cocktail, chances are it has been done before.

I got a job as a bartender at THE fancy cocktail bar back home where I had some great mentors who put me through my paces. I learnt pretty early on that there is a balancing act, an equilibrium if you will, the entire time you dabble with mixed drinks. At the time, there was no real access to the bounty of books and internet articles we have to hand now. Diffords guide volume 4 was the holy grail and held more knowledge than the www at the time. I used to download fancier cocktail bar menus in New York¹ and try to reverse engineer how they were producing the drinks. I’d piece together ideas of infusions and techniques in order to cobble together something that was no doubt a pale imitation, but it fascinated me. One of the world's best bartenders, Jeffery Morganthaler, put a blog out in 2004 and I would wait eagerly for his updated posts. He put out a recipe for a barrel aged Negroni but I couldn't get hold of a mini cask. I managed to get hold of Jack Daniels wood smoking chips they were selling for BBQs, made from their old casks. I would try to make the infusions that way, my boss at the bar thought I was a weirdo. I thought my science had a pretty sound logic but because of the disconnect in technique the drink didn't land home. 

So I had managed to mesh together some ideas but I also found that if you went too far down the rabbit hole of science and cocktails it became a little tricky for everyone to approach. There was this other part of me that was trying to regain the balance. The romance of a great drink, the art of it, all the while keeping it fun. Sure I was one of those bartenders that wore braces and a bow tie, but we all did, it was cool, well we thought so. I found out that the thing that made me tick making drinks was the experience for the customer. For example, I’d watch a bartender force a spirit forward² drink into the order which should really have been a woo woo. As a collective we were so obsessed in making bartender drinks, we were missing out on what cocktails are - part of the package of people having an epic time.

I met a guy around this point who became a part of the story. He was my girlfriend's housemate and considering I basically became an extra housemate that did not contribute to the rent, we hit it off. Well, he tolerated me. But we would hang out and talk about everything and anything. Art, food, music and drink were where we really connected. You know what was nice, without realising it, we always cited our references. It was never a contest of cool, it was always about searching and understanding. About finding things that enhanced a life. I will save the story of how we ruined his soda siphon trying to make carbonated old fashioneds for another time but the theory was there. Cite your references. Other people have done cool things, how do you take a hold of that and do something that is yours?

We always talked about bottling cocktails. How could you view them? Would there be push back? Could you make them to serve like a wine? How do you get that passion across? Is there a disconnect? How do they stand up to someone mistreating them? Most importantly, how do you make them fun? Then this incredibly talented bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana opens a bar with no perishables³. Basically bottling cocktails and serving them at his bar in order to reduce the wastage to zero. The concept resonated with me on a level I had not expected. I started to treat drinks and their recipes with even more respect and tried looking at them in a different light. The backbone of every drink can be traced to a classic. Instead of revamping a modern drink, why not go all the way back to the origins.

One day I talked trash with Dash and we stumbled onto the topic of bottling cocktails. It wasn't new then, it isn't new now but we both felt we could offer something. We asked ourselves similar questions to the ones before but we looked to put answers to them. There were some guidelines we put into place. I won't bore you with the ins and outs of our company ethos but on the surface they were and still are; The drinks have to taste great, that was a given. They have to be approachable, not just ones our Mums would buy (out of sympathy). They have to look banging. They have to be fun and unafraid. Underlying all these, scientifically speaking, all things have to be in equilibrium. The outcome has been our company making products where we are wearing our hearts on our wraps. 

There you have it, a waffling way of saying, welcome to Hammer + Dash. Your friendly neighbourhood bartenders / art lovers / part-time chemists / radio6 specialists.

HAMMER x

1. PDT and Death & Co. - Bars in New York i used to download PDF versions of their menus to try and fathom their magic.
2. I bloody hate that term ‘spirit forward’, lets call it boozy or pure ethanol.
3. White Lyan RIP