14 September 2017

Signing off in my favorite way…

This week was Quantum Spatial’s Annual Partner Event at the beautiful resort of Osthoff on Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin. As the outgoing CEO, this was one of my last formal duties as the transition to our new leader and my personal friend of three and a half years – Bob Hickey – begins. It was great meeting our partners and thanking them for all the business they enable.

Like I had said during my last year’s event, while I have always enjoyed the formal duties of being a CEO and certainly very proud of what the team has done (some would even suggest – in spite of me 🙂 ) in the last three and a half years, the real thrill was always in the informal perks of the job. Getting to know the backgrounds of my team members, their kids, their personal aspirations, the personal history of my peers in the industry, picking up some sharp one-liners from Bob and so on. But the best perk of all was being the official mixologist at our Partner Event. I truly get to know each and every one of them as individuals, their struggles and dreams as they build their own businesses and has almost always inspired me to try out some new ideas.

This year, keeping in mind that it was going to be a cooler day than last year, the theme was Old Fashioned. And we tipped our hats to our team mates in Lexington, Atlanta and Sheboygan by having three varieties of Old Fashioned with – Bourbon (Kentucky), Southern Comfort (South) and Brandy (if you did not know, this is the prevailing Wisconsin style of making an Old Fashioned).

How many times does one get to put one’s personal passion and professional passion together? Thank you Quantum Spatial and all the team mates from QSI for letting me sign off in a passionate way!!

Category: Cocktails, Work | 56 Comments on Signing off in my favorite way…
13 September 2017

4 miles on the Ice Age Trail

Great run on a historic trail that marks the terminal moraine (the edge of the glacier where it dumped all the rocks that it carried) before the glaciers withdrew in the last Ice Age. About 1,200 miles in length (of which I ran only one mile 🙂 to and fro – twice), it is incredibly beautiful. And quiet. And narrow. You have to step aside for another person to pass.

My friend Bob ran this portion earlier in the day and had reported a lot of turkeys and even more deer. I was keeping my ears open for animals, since I had to keep the eyes on the trail. Else, I would have surely stumbled on all those rocks and roots on it.

Suddenly I could hear a turkey near me (and they are not particularly pleasant noise). I was so focused on trying to fix in my mind how far the turkey was from me, that I was not watching out for anything else. The trail took a turn and right when I went around the bend, I came face to face with the scariest of all animals – another human being! Apparently, she was trying to locate the turkey too. We landed up scaring the heck out of each other.

Anyways, we had a good laugh and then went our own ways to take in some more of the beauty and the solitude of the trail…

Category: Running | 5 Comments on 4 miles on the Ice Age Trail
9 September 2017

Funny one

I was researching for something on the net and stumbled upon this image. Got a chuckle out of it! If you have not seen this before, this should give you a laughing start to this Saturday. Unless you are a friend of mine from Europe or Asia. In which case, it is too late in the day for you and I got nothing on you 🙂

Category: Humor | 4 Comments on Funny one
9 September 2017

From the bartender’s corner – Moon River

Continuing with the theme of experimenting with gin and apricot brandy. This one is so far the best of the lot. Gin, Apricot Brandy, Galliano, Cointreau and Lemon juice. So many ingredients make it very complex. The nose is still that of the gin but the palette is taken over by the citrus (both lemon and orange). Garnished with a maraschino cherry.

Category: Cocktails | LEAVE A COMMENT
8 September 2017

A beautiful couplet

“Waiz! Teri duaon mein asar ho
To masjid ko hila kay dikha
Nahin to do ghoont pee,
Aur masjid ko hilta dekh”

To understand this beautiful couplet, one needs to understand the basis for Sufism – which was a liberal offshoot of Islam. The proponents of Sufism – the Sufis – composed a lot of beautiful poetry around three things that could purportedly put you in a transcendental high. The spirit of God, the intoxication of alcohol and the beauty of your woman. Some would argue that they actually merge at one level.

In fact, there are some interesting duels between those three concepts. This couplet is one of them. The poet is saying…

“If your prayers have that much power
Then make the mosque sway in front of me
Or else, come sit with me and take a couple of sips
And watch the minarets swing in front of your eyes” !!!

Category: Music/Poetry | 5 Comments on A beautiful couplet
6 September 2017

From the bartender’s corner: Gin #19 – GW Goodwynn Gin

The literature on this gin is as bland as the gin itself is. First off, I could not find where the distillery is exactly. All that materials that I could find – and that was not a lot, mind you – said that is is made in France and then imported by a company in California. There is more material on the internet about the company in California that designed the bottle label than there is about the pedigree or the uniqueness of the gin.

It is certainly of the London Dry variety. And the juniper is noticeable. It also has citrus and coriander that you can get in the finish. The official website of this gin claims “hints of cucumber”. I have to admit, I missed all those hints. This is nothing like a Scottish Hendricks gin or even an American Uncle Val Botanical.

On the whole it is a very middle of the path gin. Rather tame at that. I would suggest using it in cocktails where there is something else that will render a stronger nose and palette. e.g. mix it with Campari and Sweet Vermouth and have a Negroni perhaps.

Category: Cocktails | LEAVE A COMMENT