Cocktail Adjacent

As one of the largest cocktail festivals in the world, London Cocktail Week has been a mainstay for the past 11 years. But even though London has now opened up, bar owners across the capital are still finding it tough. 

To help encourage people back to the bars, this year's festival has again been extended to run for a month over the whole of October. 

Offering masterclasses, immersive pop-ups, bar takeovers and cocktail dinners to name but a few of the highlights, the event is set to see the return of favourite bars like Tāyer+Elementary and Lyaness, as well as some new names including Park Row and Hacha Brixton. 

To find out more, we speak to organisers, Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhan Payne, about how the land lies and what to expect from this year's event

As more and more people took to making drinks at home during the pandemic, the need for home bar tools has grown exponentially over the last two years. 

At the forefront of supplying this need is New York cocktail tool company, Cocktail Kingdom. But beyond just supplying tins, muddlers and glassware, Cocktail Kingdom has their signature range with contributions from some of the biggest names in the industry. 

We talked to owner Greg Boehm about pivoting through the pandemic, creating speciality lines and working with bar personalities. 

While today it might not be so uncommon to see women behind the stick, it hasn't always been easy for women to make an impact behind the bar. 

As a way to try and level up that perception two female New York bartenders, Ivy Mix and Lynette Marrero held the first-ever Speed Rack competition. And it didn't take long for their energy and passion to spread not only to other US cities but also through the bartending community across the globe.

A decade later, the competition is about to hold its long-awaited, ninth season final in New York as part of Tales Of The Cocktail. We speak to Lynette and Lauren Paylor, Speed Rack's digital maven about equality, women in hospitality and what changes they have seen in the industry over the past decade.

If you'd asked anyone two years ago, what we would be doing today, slowly recovering from a global pandemic would probably not have been their first answer, but here we are. 

But in a pandemic, like in any other disaster, it is the quick and the nimble, who are not only the most likely to survive, but will also be the most likely to be there to help those around them.

One such organization that jumped into the fray was Another Round, Another Rally, a fledgling non-for-profit when COVID struck, the group led by Amanda Gunderson and Travis Ness adapted pivoted and everything in between to help out the hospitality industry when they needed it most. 

To find out how they managed it we talked to Amanda about the effects of the pandemic and what the future looks like for both the charity and the industry at large. 

We all like to know that the spirits we are drinking are the best out there. So we often turn to the results of spirit competitions as our guide. If the brand we are drinking has won an award, we often feel reassured that we've made the right choice or alternatively, we can discover new brands that we may not have seen before.

As the public becomes more influenced by the spirit award results, transparency is becoming much more important. People, not only want to know whose opinions they are taking, but also how the awards are worked out. 

One spirit competition, the LA Spirits Awards is looking to make everything more visible from their judging through to their entry process. 

To find out more, we talked to LA Spirits Awards Director Nicolette Teo about judging, winning and everything in between. 

Returning for its 19th year, the world's largest cocktail conference Tales Of The Cocktail will be running from the 20th to the 23rd of September.

Offered this year as a hybrid, digital and in-person event, the show is designed to advance not only the craft but also the culture of cocktails.

That aim this year will be supported by more than 60 digital seminars, 30 of which will be in panel format.

To discuss the educational aspect of the show further, we speak to Lynette Marrero educational committee co-chair, bar director at Llama Sans New York and Llama Inn, and co-founder of Speedrack

Believed to be one of the largest movements in recent US history, the implications of Black Lives Matter have changed the world. 

Sending shockwaves across socio-economic, cultural and racial bounds, it has left many looking at privilege and racial history in a completely new way. 

One person who saw the need to highlight the stories of black America, not only from the past but also the present and the future, is LaShana Daniels. 

Starting her business, Do It For The Cocktail Culture, Daniels seeks to enlighten, educate, and unify people around the tales of the bar, from bartenders to distillers and everyone in between. 

We talk to Daniels about the people who made history, their libations and the inspiration it provides for the future. 

One of the largest premium craft spirit events on the US calendar is Bar Convent Brooklyn. More commonly known as BCB, the event spent last year in a remote virtual format. 

But this year, BCB is about to take Brooklyn by storm, yet again, as the event is back live. 

But with the industry still struggling to get back on its feet after COVID, we speak to Jackie Williams, the event director for BCB about what this year means, what to expect from the show and what precautions will be taken. 

Hanna Lee Communications or HLC has long been a prominent name in drinks and hospitality marketing and PR, with Hanna herself recently being listed in 91st place in Drinks International's Bar World 100. 

For the last 17 years, the firm has been instrumental in telling the stories of spirit brands, as well as bars and restaurants from around the country, through mainstream and social media. 

In an effort to explore a new way to communicate, the firm has started HLC Book Incubator Media in partnership with publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  

Their first book tells the story of award-winning mixologist, Masahiro Urushido and he's a claimed Japanese New York cocktail bar Katana Kitten. 

To find out more about the book, we speak to co-author and freelance journalist Michael Anstendig. 

Setting up a new business, especially in the spirits industry, takes creativity, inspiration, and hard work, but more importantly, it takes networks and money. 

In the US in particular, multicultural entrepreneurs have reportedly only received a 2% share of venture capital annually over the past decade.

In an attempt to help bridge that gap, SIA Scotch Whisky has partnered with activist, actor, producer, Wilmer Valderrama, and online business mentoring group Hello Alice to launch the Entrepreneurial Spirit Fund by SIA Scotch. 

We talked to SIA's founder, Carin Luna-Ostaseski about the grant and how it aims to change convention while inspiring others to achieve the unexpected.