The Mixxa vs…

Friday saw me and the crew descend upon the bar of Shaker & Company (Home of Shaker Bar School) in central London for the filming of the first in our series of short films called The Mixxa vs…In this case, it was The Mixxa vs Amit Sood.

Amit has been a good friend of mine for a number of years now. We first met and worked with one another as trainers on a range of national bartending courses including some 'great' times driving up and down the country (for Diageo) in an antiquated, overloaded Luton van!!

A few years ago, after an illustrious career as a mixologist and flair bartender, Amit took a position with Shaker Bar School as their head of training, during which time he has honed his already significant mixological skills. It was this that lead me to invite him on as my first guest. The format of the programme is simple…. the guest chooses a cocktail for us both to mix, we then get the drinks blind tasted by some random members of the public and we discover who's variation is the best.

For this episode, Amit chose the Perfect Lady, a lesser known variant of the classic White Lady made with peach brandy rather than Cointreau!

Filming went really well and we captured some great moments, but to see the results and who won the first of my numerous upcoming challenges you have to watch episode 1 here.

The first series is going to contain 6 episodes, of which 1 has been filmed, 4 more are agreed and 1 is yet to be confirmed. However, series 2 is also being looked at right now, with a shortlist of potential challengees! If you would like to be considered as a guest on a future series, drop me a line and we can consider you as a potential challenger for The Mixxa.

The Mixxa

This Friday, along with my cameraman, I will be making my way to the Shaker Bar School in London to film the first in my new online series, 'The Mixxa vs …..'.

In this series I will be introducing you to some of the most influential mixologists in the business. To me they fall in to one of a number of categories. Either they have had an undeniable influence on the evolution of mixology in the UK or Internationally, they have been an influence to me throughout my career, they possess superb mixological (mixing) skills or they are people that I happen to like a lot!!

The first of my guests is going to be a good friend of mine and long time bartender training partner, Amit Sood. Amit has kindly put himself forward for the unique challenge of The Mixxa vs ….., namely to select a cocktail that we both shall mix and then offer to a selection of random people to blind-taste and ultimately decide which is the best!!

The question is, will I start the series with a victory, or will The Mixxa start with a defeat! To find out, keep watching this space, my twitter feed @TheMixxa or my Facebook page where I will announce the posting of this episode.