THE CRAFTY CRAFTSMAN
Lebanese bartender, Johnny Mansour, set a country first when he won second place at the Grand Finals of the Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge 2018 and best rum cocktail after winning first place in the Middle East and Africa championship. Throughout his 13 years of mixology experience, he’s garnered many awards and managed a large-scale with three different concepts. HN talks to the wizard about what’s currently causing a buzz in the business. While cocktails have many ingredients, like spirits, liqueurs and bitters, syrups are what really give the cocktail its unique flavor. For example, a Mai Tai, following the Trader Vic’s recipe, contains amber rum, dark rum, lime juice, Cointreau and Orgeat syrup. If the Orgeat syrup is substituted, the drink can no longer be considered a Mai Tai.
How do you go about selecting the syrup brands you use?
There’s a broad range of local and international syrup brands available to choose from. Some feature artificial flavors and coloring and others use natural extracts. Personally, I always use the ones with natural flavors, irrespective of where they are produced. In some cases, I even make my own syrups, like passion fruit syrup and spiced syrup, for example, because I haven’t found the exact taste that I need for some cocktails. In some cocktails, the use of a fresh fruit muddle is recommended instead of a syrup, to give the cocktail a fresher taste. On the other hand, we sometimes face difficulties in finding seasonal fruits and in getting the same taste from the fruit all year round, which can affect the consistency of the cocktail and that makes using fruit puree a necessity. In general, when I select a syrup, I choose it based on how well it matches the cocktail being made, and in most cases, I go for more natural-flavored brands.
What strategy do you adopt, when customizing a drink using local dishes and ingredients?
The mixology field is evolving fast and mixologists around the world are becoming more creative in making new cocktails, introducing their twist on classics and using new flavors, such as popcorn. Sometimes, these twists are used to present the flavor of a culture or a country. For example, vodka sour has simple syrup as an ingredient. However, if you substitute this syrup with meghli or thyme syrup, you will have a different cocktail inspired by Lebanese culture. These examples show how the bartender is, at times, inspired by the flavors of a culture and also by the story behind the creation of a certain spirit. This is where creativity comes into play and a new drink or syrup is born.