Me & Loaded Magazine

I am now the resident bartender for Loaded Magazine... the following blog contains my full articles and how I come up with the drinks featured...

[tua-loaded-magazine]

Loaded Magazine: My First Article... The Words...

With the photo shoot complete, the next thing I needed to provide were words for the article. Who I am, my experiences and my thoughts on this beautiful industry of mine.

With each article, I shall be writing as much as I want and the guys at Loaded will take what they need.

Below is a snippet of the article I wrote for Loaded Magazine: 

"Anyone can be a bartender. Well that's what they tell me. I mean it's easy to shake a cocktail, pour beer or wine into a glass and top a spirit with a mixer over ice right? If you'd have asked me that question seventeen years ago I probably would have agreed with you and in some cases I still do. What I've learnt over the years is how difficult it is to make it look easy. That bit, now that's the art. It's in the attention to the detail, the flair, the technique, the presentation and as well as remembering a multitude of cocktail ingredients, the history of spirits and whether the beer is pouring at the correct temperature, it's also creating and controlling the ambience. All of this done with a smile on your face...

  How much of the article was used? How does it look?

You can purchase Loaded Magazine off the shelves at any major stockist.

www.the-urban-alchemist.com

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Loaded Magazine: My First Article... The Photoshoot...

With my mind full of the cocktails I had learnt, heard of, created and read about over the years, how would I decide which one I would use to introduce myself to the readers of Loaded Magazine? The Martini? The Daiquiri? The Sex On The Beach? I felt I was overcomplicating things and probably worrying unnecessarily. When the email came through from Loaded with their brief, life became a sea of calm once again and a decision was made. The issue I would be featured in wouldn't hit the shelves until after the New Year and they wanted a cocktail created from the "leftovers" of the festive period. Their ideas were along the lines of ginger beers, wines and liqueurs, but I had other ideas. Having worked alongside some incredible bartenders I had been taught from a very early age to think outside the box when creating drinks. So I went to an old bartenders favourite, the mince pie daiquiri. Now for those of you that don't know, a daiquiri is a cocktail made with rum, fresh lime and sugar syrup. It also happens to be the bartenders favourite rum cocktail and they are forever making variations, using rums from all over the world to see how they differ, replacing the lime for lemon and adding flavoured sugar syrups. Occasionally they will reach for fresh fruits, herbs and spices to see how they affect the overall flavour of the cocktail. The mince pie daiquiri was introduced to me when I worked at TIME Bar in Leicester and it seemed the perfect fit. When I sent over the ingredients of this particular cocktail to the editorial team at Loaded Magazine I think the term "mind blown" seems appropriate. Now with the drink in mind, I needed to organise some photos to send over to the guys. There was only one person I was gonna call.

This guy:

Tom Wren happens to be both a very good friend of mine and the best photographer I know, so it only made sense I would turn to him. The next thing I needed was a venue. Being the head of the Leicester Bartender Association (LBA), I am in a privileged position of knowing quite a number of bar owners around the city. Alistair Smith at Taps Bar Leicester was more than happy for us to use his venue for the shoot. We quite literally took over his bar and being a Saturday afternoon it wasn't exactly the quietest of times of the week. The team at Taps were incredibly patient with us and we even managed to get some of their clients involved!

The following photos weren't used in the final article but are some of my favourites of the day.

The above photo is my favourite taken on the day but couldn't be used for obvious reasons...

A test shot, but also an opportuntiy to have a little fun...

and of course the drink...

the-urban-alchemist.com

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Loaded Magazine: How It Started...

I was contacted asking if I wanted some national exposure and was naturally intrigued and a little sceptical. Over the years I have been contacted a number of times with people offering the moon on a stick and more often than not I have been left holding a stick. Then that phone call. The voice on the other end asked how I'd feel about writing about cocktails and alcohol for a magazine. This is something I'd been more than interested in for a while so I naturally jumped at the chance. I wasn't even bothered what the magazine was, but I asked as I felt I should. I won't forget the next set of words for a long while; "oh you may have heard of it, it's a little magazine called Loaded." I remember pausing and becoming very quiet. I must have been quiet for a while as there was laughter on the other end of the phone. At first I thought this was where the punchline comes in but quickly realised the laughter was at my silence and obvious shock. It's not everyday you get a phone call from a national magazine asking you to write for them. i mean this was Loaded Magazine. I'd been reading Loaded for years and now they wanted me to write for them! As the conversation continued I realised this wasn't a joke and allowed myself a little chuckle and shake of the head in disbelief. Little ol' me from Leicester was going to be featured in Loaded Magazine, as their resident bartender. It still makes me smile now thinking about it. I hadn't even had time to fully register what had just happened when I received an email with the brief to my first article for Loaded...

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