Belfast mixologist’s new cocktail tome unpacks myths and recipes
A new book by a North Belfast mixologist is debunking some of the myths around classic cocktails while giving readers inspiration to make their favourite drinks with a twist.
Adam Jamie Hussein’s Rise of the Bartender investigates the history of the cocktail from its beginnings centuries ago to the modern age.
Adam Jamie started out on in hospitality in his late teens as a bartender at Lavery’s in the city, before moving to The Limelight, then Australia during the third year of his business studies degree at Ulster University.
“It was when I was in Australia where we (Adam Jamie and a friend) both bartended (that) I knew the skill was super transferable and we could get a job anywhere. It (bartending experience) was something to have in my back pocket,” he explains.
“It was never something I saw myself doing for a long time. I thought, I’ll do it through university and it’ll help me have a bit of money. But whilst I was there, I got picked up by a bar pretty quickly and that led me into moving to Tasmania. I got to run a bar down there and then came back and ended up working in a classics cocktail bar called 1806. That’s kind of where I fell in love with classic drinks which is what the book is all about.”
A move to New Zealand would follow for the North Belfast man followed by a job with The Arcadian in London before a return to home in April 2019.
Encouraged by a previous bar manager Adam Jamie decided to write his book , using “a bunch of notes and notebooks” he’d built up over the years.
“Anything I picked up I just wrote it down and then I would expand upon it later so I didn’t forget the point that I was thinking about.” he explained.
