Tony Conigliaro, theme contributor and bar operations manager for Zuma and Roka, chats to Ian Morgan, half of bar consultants The Players, and co-owner of newly opened cocktail bar Socio Rehab, located in Manchester's up and coming Northern Quarter. Together with business partner Beaumont Myers, he has proven that cocktail culture is not exclusive to the capital, and benefits from a wealth of experience in some of the country's finest bars.

As somebody who has a brilliant repertoire of drinks how do you view modern cocktails?
Ian: Modern drinks are becoming more and more adventurous if not, perhaps, a little too complicated. The reason that I say this is the fact hat I think a lot of bartenders seem to jump into the kitchen or the food courts looking for a lot of obscure ingredients and flavours, but seem to spend very little time playing with the basic flavours that work so well. It's not that I disagree with being experimental with new flavours, but it just seems that everybody is trying to make drinks with the most difficult to source ingredients possible, and forgetting about how the drinks should taste. It is almost like the primary goal is not one of taste but of obscurity of ingredients.

Are you saying that there is a lack of structure to these drinks? That the primary goal is to include the rarest ingredient rather than create a balanced drink that has structure?
Ian: There are a lot of great new drinks out there, it just seems that bartenders are trying too hard to be different. By different I mean obscure. Some things I think are best left in the kitchen or food courts for now, and we should be concentrating on getting the basics right, the basics being well balanced and structured drinks. These can be hard to find in this day and age, and that's saying something when we are supposed to be making better drinks than ever before. I am not sure whether this is down to poor training of the bartender or due to the fact that as much as the customer would like to think they know what they are drinking they don't, or rather they do but they have no idea of how it should actually taste. So when somebody does happen to drop into your bar and knows a thing or two about drinks (and it seems everybody does these days), they are often met by an angry and sometimes very rude bartender. All this because they may have pointed out that they would like their Manhattan without those two barspoons of maraschino syrup. Maybe we should be reading more cocktail books than cookery books. After all, we all have seen what happens when Ainsley tries to make a margarita.

I know what you mean by every ingredient but the kitchen sink, but is there not a case that a new ingredient, be it from the bar or from the kitchen, is good, as long as it makes a good structured, balanced drink that the customer enjoys. Peychaud Bitters were not available to every bar in the beginning, but because it enhanced drinks so well, the demand grew and the producers met the demand and now it is used in some fantastic modern drinks and available to all. What might start out as an obscure product could one day be a cocktail staple.
Ian: I totally agree with you, but as you mention "as long as it makes a good structured, balanced drink" and my point is about enjoying the balance and the structure of the drink, And if they manage to find some Dodo egg white for my Whisky Sour well that's nothing short of a bonus!

Ha ha, I like that! How were you taught about how drinks structure works and how to balance drinks? I think a lot of it comes from looking at old Cocktail books, then tasting, tasting, tasting, and, of course, seeing how other bartenders make drinks...
Ian: I wasn't lucky enough to have a mentor when I first started in the world of bartending, so I suppose I was self taught, but I sponged everything I possibly could of fellow bartenders. With balancing drinks I think it takes a lot of practice, as I've have tasted a lot of drinks that are supposedly balanced and are far from it. I agree with you 100% about tasting. This to me is the most fundamental thing you should be doing when making or creating a new cocktail (closely followed by writing down that new recipe that you say will never forget).
As most people know, a chef would not let a sauce go out of the kitchen without tasting it. Mr Ramsay once said "mistakes are left in the kitchen". This is how I feel about drinks. If it's not right then that's fine, as long as you know why. If not, I'll happily tell you.