The Alchemist - The Alchemist Cocktail Book: Master the dark arts of mixology

RECIPES AND CONTENT COMPILED BY:
HOLLY TUDOR, FELIX CROSSE AND JENNY MCPHEE

All the worlds a stage,

And all the men and women merely players

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

AS YOU LIKE IT, ACT II, SCENE VII

The world is a peculiar old place and life comes at you pretty quickly. Occasionally, its good to stop and marvel at all its mystical wonder. And if all the world is, in fact, a stage, then lets inject a dash of theatre and have a little fun along the way.

So, lets play on, players, and begin by setting the scene. The Alchemist began many moons ago, bubbling up in Manchester in 2010 as a molecularly mad bar and restaurant. Drinks were served in all manner of vessels and cocktails were crafted with an obsessive eye for detail. Bedazzling and bewitching, they charged the senses for everything that followed

If youve ever visited an Alchemist bar and taken a front row seat for the show, youll remember the performance: bartenders wielding flaming beakers of bubbling brews, plumes of smoke and an array of colourful cocktail concoctions that play with the senses. So much more than smoke and mirrors, our Light-Bulb Moment cocktails changed everything from flavour and colour to peoples lives. Theatre Served was born.

There are many definitions of what an alchemist does, and while well keep trying to turn base metal into gold, we like this one best: an alchemist is someone who transforms things for the better . A great example of this is our bestselling cocktail, the Smokey Old Fashioned.

There is, of course, method to our magic, and every Alchemist bartender goes through weeks of complex training to comprehend the craftwe want their performance and your experience to be exceptional every time. We want the same thing today as we did that first day: for every drink you order to be delicious, consistent and spellbinding. We find inspiration everywhere, and every drink on our menu is the result of a lot of research, trial and error, teamwork and explosions.

Over the past decade, we reckon weve concocted a thousand different drinks and every one of them tells a story. While thats definitely too many to fit in to one book, weve picked out some of our favourite tipple-y tales, so you can tell them at home. Your cocktail journey will take you through some weird and wonderful ingredientsand make sure you have those goggles at the ready, because were going to show you some serious science along the way.

Are you ready to become an Alchemist?

A bar blade is no ordinary bottle opener: it is a speed opener, allowing you to open ten bottles of beer in 4.2 seconds (with practise!) We use it as a mark of seniority: as a bartender works through our progression scheme, they earn a personalised Alchemist bar blade, each with its own unique number.

We choose to create our cocktails using a Boston tin and glass shaker, rather than a tin-on-tin shaker, as we like to add a dash of theatre to everything we do. It means that, whether your cocktail is shaken or stirred, youre always able to witness a glimpse of the production.

When it comes to the art of the shake, build your ingredients into the glass, then slide on the tin at a slight angle and twist slightly while pushing down to seal. Hold the bottom of the glass securely with one hand while holding the top of the tin with the other. Sling the tin in one rapid motion over your shoulder and back down to lock (an added bonus is that this makes you look pretty cool). Turn the shaker upside down so the glass is facing upwards, then shake.

To unlock the tin, make sure the glass is facing upwards and use the palm of your hand to gently smack the tin where it meets the glass.

Two of the most essential pieces of equipment for any bartender, place your Hawthorne strainer in the top of your Boston tin, with the coil facing downwards, and use it to hold back the ice as you strain your shaken cocktail into your glass. If your shaken cocktails are being served straight up (without ice), use in combination with a fine strainer to remove any ice shards or pulp.

The bar spoon is the crme de la crme of spoons. The long spiralled handle makes light work of mixing drinks, even in the tallest glassware, and the flat end works perfectly for layering spirits in cocktails to help you show off some artistic flair. Whats more, a bar spoon holds about 5ml of liquid (the same as a teaspoon) so it can be used to measure out those smaller amounts of liquid which can be difficult to accurately do in a shot glass.

We use a muddler for mashing, grinding or crushing ingredients such as fruit, herbs or spices. Essentially, this breaks them down, releasing their juices, oils and flavour compounds.

While some cocktail enthusiasts may already own a foamer, its not necessary. You can create your own foam at home using a hand blender or electric whisk and a piping bag.

After stirring drinks in the glass part of your Boston shaker, use a julep strainer as you transfer the drink into your glass. Place the strainer, curved side up, over the ice (the glass should be almost full to the brim with ice) and hold it down with your index finger as you pour.

A good-quality blender is an important piece of equipment in any bartenders arsenal. Whether you are prepping batches or foams, or simply blending up a strawberry daiquiri on a hot summers day, its important to make sure you have a high-powered blender to help get the job done.

We use blenders in different ways to get different results. Blending with a scoop of crushed ice will create a frozen cocktail, while blending with three ice cubes will help to dilute the cocktail slightly, while creating a fluffy texture and velvety mouthfeel.

A useful piece of equipment, whether you use it to torch a cinnamon stick for a sweet and spicy aroma, to caramelise a lime or to toast a meringue foam garnish. Theres something about adding fire to any situation that always gives that wow factor and is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

We create our foams using an iSi foamer and N2O gas, which allows us to create velvety and stiff-peaked foams.

One of the most important pieces of equipment we use on a daily basis is a set of good-quality, ultra-precision scales, accurate to the nearest 0.01g. Many of the powders we use are extremely powerful in small quantities and a variation of just 0.1g can change a drink drastically, so its important to be accurate. You can pick up a set of these scales fairly easily online and they are generally inexpensive, so definitely worth the investment.