News
Vogue your bar: it’s all about style AND substance
How to make your bar the coolest? It’s all about the ice, ice baby
Ice… from figure skaters carving up the ice rink to Arctic explorers cruising through ice fields, it can seem both stunning and scary.
In the world of bartending, ice can be just as easy to love or hate. The wrong proportions can expose a cocktail to the wrong temperature or dilution and disrupt delicate balances.
WHY IS ROSE GOLD SUCH A MARKET WINNER?
Take a stroll around any mall or shopping complex and you'll find products with one colour that has occupied a spot next to timeless and classic colours such as Gold, Black and Silver - Rose Gold. The Rose Gold phenomenon started 3 years ago and it's craze seems to mimic the significant uplift in heritage and craft hues.
Today, Rose Gold is prevalent across many products in a myriad of industries and it's shade can be found in everything from bar tools to phones, ipads, electronics, watches and housewares. Restaurants, hotels, manufacturers and retailers have succumbed to the lure of Rose Gold, with the public seemingly not getting enough of the finish!
But what’s driving the Rose Gold fad?
1. Rose Gold is a timeless colour, enjoying rises and falls in popularity as fashion dictates.
2. It’s not as "bling" as gold.
3. It exists within a narrow band that sits between fashion and luxury.
4. Rose Gold has a warm and re-assuring feel that implies quality and familiarity.
5. It has unisex appeal.
In 2015, Uberbartools™ introduced Rose Gold finishes across several ranges in response to customer demands.
The resulting feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and to date since introduction, across several industry types and markets, our Rose Gold range continues to experience growth and significant demand.
WHY IS ROSE GOLD SUCH A MARKET WINNER?
Take a stroll around any mall or shopping complex and you'll find products with one colour that has occupied a spot next to timeless and classic colours such as Gold, Black and Silver - Rose Gold. The Rose Gold phenomenon started 3 years ago and it's craze seems to mimic the significant uplift in heritage and craft hues.
Today, Rose Gold is prevalent across many products in a myriad of industries and it's shade can be found in everything from bar tools to phones, ipads, electronics, watches and housewares. Restaurants, hotels, manufacturers and retailers have succumbed to the lure of Rose Gold, with the public seemingly not getting enough of the finish!
But what’s driving the Rose Gold fad?
1. Rose Gold is a timeless colour, enjoying rises and falls in popularity as fashion dictates.
2. It’s not as "bling" as gold.
3. It exists within a narrow band that sits between fashion and luxury.
4. Rose Gold has a warm and re-assuring feel that implies quality and familiarity.
5. It has unisex appeal.
In 2015, Uberbartools™ introduced Rose Gold finishes across several ranges in response to customer demands.
The resulting feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and to date since introduction, across several industry types and markets, our Rose Gold range continues to experience growth and significant demand.
WHY BAR TOOL DESIGN HAS NOT CHANGED SINCE PROHIBITION
Let’s think of the bartender as a craftsman. That essential style of the cocktail can only be imparted by the right tools. In the same way a carpenter brings his own tools to the job so he can complete his craft with finesse, so too do the best barmen and bar women.
Bar tools add to the performance of cocktail creation, the better the function and aesthetics conceivably the better the expected results.
So, what does this suggest today when we look back through history to discover that the bar tools we see today in our bars (and homes) today, are not far removed from those used during Prohibition.
Most designs trace their roots back to the 19th century – great examples are the Julep strainer, wooden muddler (evolving from a toddy stick),a Boston shaker, a Hawthorne strainer and the Cobbler shaker..
Whilst some other tools were tried (an aluminium shaker – but drinks tasted of metal, or cast iron juicer – bit cumbersome but good for shutting up a pesky client!) the basis of what we see today is not far removed from products developed almost 100 years ago.
By the time we reached Prohibition the tools and production of classic (modern) cocktails was becoming established, yet as production, materials and machinery improved, it seems that generic bar products are being produced and sold for price for less and less money.
So wouldn’t we imagine the consequence of this that something must give; namely quality, function and performance?
The old adage that a tradesman is only as good as the tools that they use still stands true today.
Bartender Injury... The Dukes of Hazards (Part 1)
Repetitive Strain Injury or Occupational Overuse Syndrome are injuries becoming increasingly common amongst bartenders.
Injuries involve... fingers, hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders.
Many of the underlying causes of workplace injury can be traced back to:
- Poor legacy tool design pre-dating Prohibition.
- Price!
Legacy design implies unquestioning continuation of bad design based on the weight of history (that’s the way it’s always been) rather than the evolution of human workplace reform centred around the physical and comfort requirements of bartenders. Funnily most all other areas in and around a working bar have improved... except the most obvious, the tools, bartenders use.
When hospitality experiences are centred around the guest, then the show, well, should it not come as a surprise whose last... the bartender!
The other significant contributing factor, NEVER spoken about is PRICE!
No sane manufacturer will innovate when its customers mandate cheaper and cheaper pricing; ease-of-use and comfort will always be sacrificed.
Sadly when these 2 factors combine the fate of countless generations of bartenders is set; suffering years of endless pain.
So what’s changing:
- More people making bartending their profession/lifelong commitment with injury accumulating progressively over time, rather than disappearing with the ins and outs of successive generations of bartenders.
- Workplace health and safety concerns morphing into accepted RIGHTS!
- Social networks acting as amplifiers to exchange ideas and discussion etc.
Industry leaders such as Dushan Zaric, Simon Ford, Jacob Briars, Angus Winchester and Simon Difford have introduced injury into the bartender lexicon... whilst they all highlight the issues and some physical relief... the long term solution of innovation, ease-of-use design is missed... Is it a case of why bother with things that aren’t valued?
This became the calling which became the point where Überbartools™ journey started years back! Now that’s a whole other discussion!
So then let’s look at the Consequences, Culprits and Changes of Work Place injury. (Part 2 to follow next week)
