Val Stephanov will be join me in the studio today to Shoot 2 segments of the first season of the Mad Mixologist. Today we are talking about Foam on drinks. Air foams, Meringue and more. We are also talking about Caviar Pearls and Ravioli. These will be two of the most anticipated Episodes of the program.

I am super stoked. I have worked with Val for some time developing these concepts for the show. Val is a studied professional that really knows his stuff. I am proud to have him on the program, proud to call him a friend and even more proud to call him a student of mine. Val was in one of my Arts and Sciences class a few years back.

Please do not take this as me gloating about his success. For that he has achieved all on his own.

Cheers to Val for his dedication to the Craft of Bartending. He is an emerging presence.

Cheers

D

CNN reports that we are just 21 hours from Obama. Such a great vibe for change going on around the world. It seems as though the entire world is on hold waiting for the 44th President to be sworn in.

We are not sitting idley watching the world. In fact I am very excited about 2009. This marks Flairco's 11th year. In this year we are going to do a grand launch of 5 products including Flairco Lites, FAST Tender, The Flairco Floating Shaker tin. We have a new Bartneder tool kit as well as a brand new Portable bar coming soon.

There are a few new business relationships on the horizon as well as the anticipated arrival of the Mad Mixologist.

We have already shot 2 days of the footage with the mad Mixologist. These days included drink recipes such as The Bubble gum martini, Sweet pepper, Apricot Jamming vanilla smoke cocktail , Baby Food, Peanut butter cocktails.

The Mad Mixologist will be shooting for another 6 dyas to create 6 30 minute programs that will be launched on the internet in the coming months. You will also be able to purchase all 6 episodes on DVD and video download in the coming months.

Watch for tomorrow as we update the shooting schedual with Molecualr Mixologsit Val Stephanov.

See you then.

Dean

I was invited to train bartenders in the Turks and Caicos this month.

This is a small island south east of Florida.

It is funny how so many trainings are all the same and that the animal of the bartender rarely changes.

The bartenders here were mostly Canadian imports. In fact 50% of the people working at the resort were Canadian. So I felt quite at home.

The Nikki Beach resort is beautiful. Right on a small private beach the resort offers a unique party atmosphere. They were looking for a little flair and fun to add to their dynamic facility.

While there we invented the Conch Mary. This is the Bloody Mary created with a Conch soup base and some unique spices. I can not give away the secret ingredients however if you are ever in the Turks and Caicos be sure to visit Nikki Beach Resort to enjoy this unique beverage.

I was able to take in a little kyaking and snokeling while on the island and look forward to going back.

Keep on Flairing my Canadian sisters.

Cheers

Dean

NY NY.

I was recently given the absolutly royal treatment by Canadian Mist Whiskey. Anna Kitsen was the lead on this Canadian Mistology Competition.

The compettion had any one submiting their favorite Canadian Mist Whisky cocktail to the Mist website. the top 5 cocktails were selected as the winners of the contest. So what did they win and why was I a rock star?

In short. I was part of the prize.

The winners were given a free trip for 2 to NY and were put up at the luxurious Trump Hotel. They were fed and watered daily.

In addtion to this was a cocktail training and tour of elite cocktail bars in NY. The training was hosted by yours truely and involved a host of cocktail how toos, some magic and a dash of Flair. Each of the winners were instructed on how to create their own cocktails and there was a healthy dose of whisky and cocktail tasting.

Off to the tours. We selected a number of bars on the tour that gave spectacular views and tasty cocktials. We sipped cocktails overlooking time square and the headed off to the Pegu Club. It was here that the events really happened. The Pegu Club bartenders really showed their superiority in the industry. At one point we took notes on the Sweet or Sour, Strong or Weak preferance of each of our 10 guests. This is all the bartenders had to go on.

Each of the of the drinks was a direct hit for every one of us. These bartenders were inspiring to say the least.

It was a great pleasure for me to travel NY in style and to be given the opportunity to eat and drink in some of the finest establishment and with such a great group of people.

Special thanks out to Anna of Canadian Mist for being such a gracious host.

Cheers

Dean

Jack Astors hosted their annual international flair comp finals on Wednesday. It has been over 12 years since I worked for Jacks and I was invited to MC the event this year. I am very honoured.

The night went extremely well. Although it was well over 4 hours in total and some of the spectators had to leave everyone had a great time. I did a Flair demo at the end. This was a just for fun demo that I packed with the floating shaker, some dry ice, glow in the dark liquid, black light and some more dry ice.

Just a note for you. If you plan on doing a water fall from dry ice be sure to use a lot f water. My water froze in the glasses and nothing poured out. LOL. It was all in fun. The new Flairco Lite bottles were a big hit.

Looking forward to next year quite a bit.

I would like to thank Tarah Gibbs and Dean Campbell for making this happen.

Cheers

D

Great trip to NY. The NY Bar Show was again god to us as I was on stage every hour on the hour for about 30 minutes. We are able to watch an ar wrestling competition and point at people and say things like "hey look its sly stallone" and "what was that movie, Oh yeah Over the top". It is nice to finally find a sport that we can send similar Tom Cruise comments back at. Lucky for them Sly Stallone is quite a lot cooler than Tom Cruise and I am sure they do not get harrassed too much seeing as they have Bi ceps that size of Chris Cardone.

Hung with DJ Chef on Day 2 and Kevin Brauch from the Food Networks Iron Chef stopped in to see what we we up to.

Long Islands Battle of the Bottle was a gret success. Although this was an already big night for the bar we managed to raise over $1100 for charity.

Back home and straight to the Jack Astors finals.

Every so often I get an unsolicited testimonial in from around the world. This one came in via Facebook. I accept all friend invitations from bartenders and people with flipping bottles as their facebook picture.

This note came in today and is, as I expressed back to the writer, one of the single most motivating factors for me. Letters from people that use products that I have created fuels the creative furnace and inspires me to keep inventing useful products designed to better the lives of bartenders everywhere.

So to Murat in England. I say thank you very much.

The quote below is a copy and paste from my Facebook inbox.

"hi dear dean my name is murat from england about 2 or 3 months ago i bought flairco dvds and bottles they are fantastic and believe me i learned lots of things from you and there is still lots of things to learn
and i am very greatiful to you if i was working in a bar nobody would show
what they know all yhe time i watch dvds and every day i learn new things
who knows maybe one day i become like you thanlk you very much
murat ozdogancik"

I am the only Dean Serneels on Face book. Feel free to look me up.

Cheers

OK it is technically called a bartender training.

Level 1 March 24th - 27th.

We have such sights to show you.

Join me for more fun with mixxing than you can have any where in the world.

Scouts honour. Pinky swear.

Dean

Is there a Bartender in the house?

After an extremly successful day we were off to dinner and then back to my Speakeasy. Dinner was at a local place that we will not name to protect everyone involved. Nick being our most local yokel new the bartender. Now this gent was pretty easy going and actually opened the bar up to anyone that would take it.

Yes he says "you guys are all bartenders. Make your own drinks."

Dean is on the wheel faster than you can say Margarita Bacon anyone? ( See day 3 for details)

I had a blast hammering out drinks on service bar for the floor staff. I had never met these people of course. I also whipped together all of the drinks for the class. That bar had never seen some much action. The bottles were flipping the glasses were flying, the drinks were selling. It was a great fun time to actually be able to show off on a bar for my students.

The drinks were great. Unfortunaly dinner took far too long and I had to skip out and get home.

After dinner the entire class journeyed back to my home bar. In hand was a 3 liter bottle of Jack Daniels. My personal poison. THey must have loved me. This was a great (however short lived) gift from the class. Awesome.

Over 10 shooters, beers and mixed drinks later. Two couches were full, the thing in the bath room had been knocked onto the floor, Karl was feeding drinks though a straw, Gord likes Jack really warm and Dale just might have an iron stomach. Another amazing conclusion to a Dean Serneels class.

We would have nothing if it were not for the fun and the laughter and the friendship.

The Spirit and Soda sequences had yet to be fully examined. Although we had introduced them on Tuesday we no worked together to syncronise the movements and to push the limits a little. Although some need a little more taunting than others we managed to bring together 3 great tandem or team  shows. Team Florida wins with their breakneck speed and accuracy. Everyone left the day with more flair skills than they had even anticipated.

Some now had the juggle under full control with tricks, some juggled for the first time others found satisfaction in other areas of success. There was a tremendous amount of success in that room. Every student and including myself were pushed over the edge to see beyond their limits.

With everyone all worked up we needed to blow off some steam.

The rest of the night would prove to be just what the Bartender ordered.