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In each episode, we talk to distillers and creators about particular expressions that their brand have released, what they are, why they were created, and in what cocktails they can be used.
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While you might be hard-pressed to believe the cocktail syrups are the elixir vitae, or elixir of immortality, spoken about in ancient alchemy, for lovers of tropical drinks, balernum is not far off.So it's unsurprising that U.S.
premium cocktail syrup brand Liquid Alchemist has just launched their own balernum, the most recent addition to their stable of flavors.
To find out more, we talked to a modern version of an alchemist, former bartender and Liquid Alchemist founder, Randy Tarlow, about flavor, tropical cocktails, and the importance of syrups to the balance of a good drink.
Thank you for joining us, Randy.
Hello, Tiff.Thanks for having me.
Now, you founded Liquid Alchemist back in 2009.How did that come about?
So I was a professional bartender, spent most of my life in restaurants doing a number of roles.
And Liquid Alchemist was a side project because I was doing event catering and bar programs and cocktail syrups that were of a natural premium nature at that time.So it came about as a necessity.
It was just making cocktail syrups from natural, fresh ingredients.
At that time, all the cocktail syrups that were available commercially had artificial flavors and colors and preservatives and essentially cheap products that you can buy at grocery stores or liquor stores.
So the customers and the clientele that I was working with wanted premium type of product to serve to their guests.So I needed natural ingredients.And so because I couldn't buy it, I had to make it myself.And that's how Liquid Optimist started.
There must be a fair amount of difference between making a syrup for bar use and a syrup that has to go on a shelf and have shop stability and all of that sort of stuff.I mean, that must've been a bit of a learning curve.
It's a great question because when I started, I was making everything, you know, in small, bad micro batches, a few bottles at a time, you know, grabbing ingredients from whether it was a farmer's market or a grocery store, just customizing and making to order.
So doing that, you have a lot of control over it and you can, really make things exactly the way you want it.You can make things for pars.If it's a bar, you know, hey, I only need to make a few ounces of this syrup, so it's great.
But when you start scaling the product to make it shelf-stable, to make it last, that really is a challenge.And there was certainly a learning curve with it.And it took a lot of trial and tribulation to perfect that.
But we have, and that's where we're at today.
Now, I believe the brand is incredibly popular amongst your fellow bartenders.How important have they been in spreading the message of the brand?
Yeah, we're a beloved brand amongst the bar community and cocktail enthusiasts alike.I really owe a lot of the success of Liquid Alchemist to our loyal bartender and cocktail enthusiasts following.We wouldn't be here
without their loyal support and, you know, whether it's in bar programs or purchasing our products online, you know, retail stores or through a distributor.We really do owe a lot of our success to that supportive community.
I suppose also people who are interested in cocktails look at what bartenders use in a bar situation and then go out and buy that sort of product themselves.
So I assume that a lot of the kind of word of mouth to cocktail enthusiasts came from watching bartenders use the product.
Definitely.Customers go to bars to experience their favorite cocktails, but also learn about new things.
When they see bartenders tinker or make cocktails with certain spirits or ingredients that they're not familiar with, we get a lot of excitement as a result.
Those customers are going to go try to understand what that bartender is using and where they can find it.And so the purchases of Liquid Alchemist online or in retail space are certainly a result of that.
Now, I must say one of the things I rather like about the brand is that you present your bottles in different sizes.So home bartenders can get smaller bottles and not worry so much about
the syrup going off or, you know, having to use it up that you would get from one of the tall 750ml bottles.
That's exactly right.So we started off with 750ml bottles. typical size in bars and restaurants, it's 25 ounces.And we realized that that was a lot for a consumer just to purchase off of the shelf in a grocery store or look online.
And that's a lot of syrup, right?So our usage is about an ounce and sometimes just a little bit less.So we realized, well, let's create a bottle that's a little more consumer-friendly. but that could also be used in bars and restaurants.
And that 375 ml bottle or 12, around 12 ounces came to be really popular.Definitely for consumers, but, but also in the bars and restaurants, because it's a very, it's a small, very friendly bottle.It doesn't take up a lot of space.
You can, you can have a few flavors of our products and it's not taking up a huge footprint in your, your well or, or in your, uh, in your storage.So the 375 ML was really something that came about after that exact thought that you mentioned.
It's certainly a consumer-friendly bottle.
Now you have more than 15 syrups in the range.Can you take us through a few of them and indicate which are the more popular ones?
Yeah, so the liquid alchemist line expanded.Wow.We started with, well, I started tinkering with just a couple of flavors in my kitchen and now, yeah, you're right.We've got 15.Falernum being the most recent, which we're really excited about.
They're really results of our customers asking after there's consumer demand for a specific flavor. I listened and challenged my team with producing them.They have to meet our specifications as far as the quality standards that we as a brand expect.
It takes time.But over the years, we now have 15 flavors. You'll see those flavors and really they're staple flavors inside of bar programs and inside of typical cocktails that are popular that you see in cocktail books that you find on the internet.
At Liquid Alchemist, we don't really do eccentric flavor combinations.We like to keep our flavors straightforward, but high quality.And so we consider Liquid Alchemist more of a utilitarian syrup product rather than an eccentric syrup product.
Yes.How important are syrups to the canon of cocktail ingredients?
Well, you know, by definition of a cocktail, sweetener is essential ingredient in a cocktail.Now, it's open to interpretation on what a sweetener needs to be to balance a cocktail and how much of that sweetener.
But in the modern cocktail, you're seeing syrups being used because it enhances the flavor with sweetener, the sugar or the agave or whatever sweetener you want to put in there. And then it adds in the fresh, juicy flavor component.
And it really allows you to keep consistency in your cocktails.And so syrups over the years have become essential ingredients in cocktail recipes.
A lot of bars will make them in-house so they can have control over them or they can make those fun flavor combinations, as I mentioned before, but also customers just
want a straightforward flavor that they know is going to taste good that they can find in the retail shelves.So the fact is that syrups are essential in modern cocktailing.And if you don't have syrups, it limits your capability to make cocktails.
It's really putting you into more of a classic cocktail style situation, which is wonderful.Love classic cocktails.But if you want to make exotic cocktails or tropical cocktails, tiki per se.
If you want to expand into sours and different margarita-style cocktails, of course the margarita is the most popular.You need juice and you need sweetener to balance that cocktail.
Now let's get on to the bologna.I assume there must have been a call for that for quite a while because it is an essential for tiki or tropical cocktails.
We're getting a call actually for quite a few years, and as I mentioned before, the flavor in our portfolio are a result of consumer demand.
Like you mentioned, we are a very popular brand inside the tiki community, and so certain tropical drinks call for staple syrup flavors, you know, orgeat. passion fruit, coconut, all of which Liquid Alchemist has currently.
Flareon was always a request that we received and we said, you know what, we're, you know, there's just not enough demand out there.This is a great flavor.You know, we love it.It's essential, but it's usage really limited.
in tiki cocktails, and that's kind of where it lives predominantly.So we said, you know what, let's just put this one on hold.But the demand kept coming, which is great.So we decided to produce it.
We took a shot, and it took a lot of time to get it right.But we're really proud of our Falernum, and we recently launched it.And it's been going well.It's well-received, and we're really excited about this flavor.
Now tell us exactly what falernum is.
So falernum is a syrup that is made from lime and ginger and almond and has some baking spices in there like a clove and allspice.
So it's a flavor that is found in tiki cocktails, as we mentioned, and it's really something that came about debatably where we think Barbados but in the Caribbean for the most part.
So that type of spice and that type of flavor, complexity goes great with rum.And those island spices work with rum and other tropical flavors, very juicy flavors. So that type of syrup, that falernum syrup, became very popular in tiki cocktails.
And there are some wonderful tiki recipes that call for that falernum.It's not as widely used as something like an orgeat or a passion fruit or a coconut in tiki cocktails, but it is a flavor that is essential to make certain tiki cocktails.
And which cocktails would that be?
Yeah, so most popular is going to be the Saturn.Okay, the one that that I say rings true with most folks, as well as the zombie. Also a very popular cocktail, very exciting.But Falernum is a flavor that you can work into a lot of tiki cocktails.
You can put a small dose of Falernum in there, you can put up a quarter ounce even, and it's really strong in flavor.The spices I mentioned, the clove and the allspice, they're indicative of holiday for some people.
So those rich seasonal flavors really come through in juicy cocktails, tropical cocktails specifically.
We don't necessarily, to be politically correct, we think of tiki as a culture, as a kind of a pop culture, but specifically the style of drink, we consider them tropical cocktails.
I imagine with that baking spice and all the other ingredients that you mentioned, making it at home would be a bit of a nightmare.So it's useful to be able to commercially buy it.
Just like anything, you know, when we make our culinary recipes at home, there are some things that are easy.Boiling pasta is relatively easy, but man, sometimes it gets too soft or it gets al dente.It's way too hard, you know.
All we got to do is follow the recipe for the timer and boil some water, but yet it can be even challenging to boil pasta. It's the same with any culinary type of process.It's just following directions, it's balance, it's taste.
When you have a syrup like Falernum, yeah, it's complex.There are quite a few ingredients that need to come together in harmony to make a balanced syrup.Too much spice, too much clove and allspice, it's not good.It's like potpourri, but not enough.
And it just tastes like, you know, lime syrup.So really the balance is very important when making at home.So some people are like, you know what?I could do it.Maybe I don't feel like it.
So I'm just going to go ahead and purchase it from Amazon Prime and it'll be there in two days.You know, this is, it's all good either way.
Talk us through the process of producing a syrup like this. So when you first thought about, okay, we are actually going to do this, what were the processes that you followed between that and literally bringing it out?
Referring to liquid alchemists in general, our process, or to the phylangter syrup, our number 15?
Well, both.What, what did you go through to learn them out?
Yeah, so just focusing on Falernum.So again, it first starts with listening.We as a team are very thoughtful in our processing.We like to consider first what our team thinks and what they hear from the market.
We like to listen to our customers and what they want. And then, of course, we have a number of national distributors, but the largest that we use is Southern Glazers.And then, of course, we'll use big sites like Amazon.
So this little formula that I mentioned is how we consider bringing on new products.We want to make sure that we're selling things.
We want to make sure that our products stay as fresh as possible, so we have to make sure that we plan for that accordingly.We have to make sure that our ingredients are accessible.But most important, we have to make sure it tastes good.
And that's probably the most challenging process, and that takes time.We do our best to make sure there's consistency, to make sure that our products taste exactly like they're listed on the label.
And with that, you know, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of focus.So to bring a product to market, it takes time.It could take years to get it right.
So for learning specifically, I was very particular about that product because, you know, it had been, it had been stewing for so long as far as requests.
So like, well, if we're going to do it and we've got this big loyal following in the Tiki community.
Like, we're going to make this for everybody, but specifically, you know, this is kind of an homage to the support that we've got for all these years from the Tiki community.So, you know, I want to make sure we do right by them.
So put a lot of effort into this, into this flavor.And, uh, I think we nailed it.
How many iterations did you go through to come up with the one that you actually released?
Ooh. I'll get specific, quite a few.You kind of go back and forth.I try to get the profile that I'm looking for, that I want, and then I present it to our team.We try to get opinion from, you know, in-house.
We then, you know, take that flavor as a bench sample, if you will, and we make cocktails out of it.We make a lot of cocktails, and we try it in all different things.We use it in culinary uses.
We make it, you know, non-alcohol drinks, sodas, SodaStream, et cetera. We really put that syrup to the test to make sure that it has a lot of uses and it also holds up to the expectations.
I personally can think of five really good versions that we came up with that I think all were delicious in their own way, but the last one just kind of the golden star from that and it was just the aha moment.This is the one, let's go with it.
Being around since the 18th century, I imagine there would be countless recipes with different measurements and different ingredients.How do you work out which one to go with?
Yeah, so you know, case is subjective first and foremost, and you know, for brands, their offerings are going to be as original as possible.It's a flavor that's been around, yeah, certainly since the 1800s, if not earlier.
So you see a few products on the market that are liqueurs. But falernum syrup has been around a very long time, and certainly there are interpretations of that syrup.
And as I mentioned before, taste is subjective, so that means that some producers or some bartenders or some people making it might want a little bit more of one ingredient than another.
really have to determine what it is that I or we or you like and what we want to see in our cocktails and what we're trying to communicate through that cocktail and therefore that determines the taste profile or the flavor profile of that syrup.
So for us, you know, we wanted We wanted a syrup that was going to be pronounced in its spices, so that it's going to hold up in a rich, juicy, spiritous, yet sweet, tropical-style cocktail.We made sure that the spices were pronounced.
Then we wanted to make sure that you can taste the lime juice, and you can taste the ginger, and you can taste a small component of almond.We try to create the harmony.
really between all of those to make sure that somebody that's tasting it can pick out exactly what's on the label.I generally, as I mentioned before, bring forward utilitarian style flavors.It's strawberry, it's blood orange, it's ginger.
So it's very understandable.But when we have this flavor combination, which is falernum, certain flavors might get lost easily or be hidden by another flavor.So we try to make the balance in our syrup just as we would making a balance in cocktails.
Anyone who makes tropical drinks with any regularity would probably be familiar with John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum.How is your Falernum different?
So the The J.D.Taylor has been around for a long time.It's been an industry staple, and it's a liqueur.It is fortified with alcohol in it.It has a low ABV.I love alcohol.Liquid Alchemist is a syrup.We are a non-alcoholic product.
I will not speak specifically about the production of J.D.Taylor's, but you might find
the Liquid Alchemist version to be more of a natural tasting product that might have richer ingredients in it, as opposed to a more value-priced liqueur in the J.D.Taylor's.
If somebody is making a tropical drink at home, what flavor difference will they find between the liqueur and the syrup?
Well, first, I think it's to determine if that person wants to consume alcohol.That's the first step because with our product, you could have a choice to make an alcoholic cocktail or a zero proof or a non-alcohol cocktail.
And as we know right now, non-alcoholic versions of cocktails are very popular.Non-alcoholic distilled spirits exist so that people can take them home and they can reproduce their favorite
cocktail in a non-alcoholic version and still have fun with mixology.So with Liquid Alchemist, I would propose that it's a little more of a diverse offering rather than a liqueur, which asserts that the customer has to create an alcoholic cocktail.
But to answer your question specifically, Tiff, I think you did answer about a flavor profile. You know, I mentioned before that Liquid Alchemist generally seems to be very rich in its quality ingredients.
Those ingredients really cut through and they're pronounced, where I find that many liqueurs, including J.D.Taylor's, tend to be a little bit more described. subtle in their flavoring.We don't like to use the word value priced or cheap ingredients.
I don't think that's fair.I just think for what the product is, the Falernum liqueur might miss some of the spices or be very subtle, whereas Liquid Alchemist is going to be something like we make in-house
or at the bar, where you get a lot of that flavoring and a lot of those spices coming forward in the flavor profile.
So it's a lot more robust, shall we say?
I think robust is a great description, yes.
Okay.As an ex-bartender, did you actually create Tropical Drink for the launch
Actually, we decided to go with two drinks, and one of which our national ambassador, Kyle Rio, created and is going to be showcasing in a few weeks.
And then the other, we decided to do a classic tiki cocktail, which I mentioned before is the Saturn, which is a really great vehicle to showcase the falernum syrup in.
And what's in the satin for those who aren't aware?
So that is a gin-based tiki cocktail that includes falernum, as well as passion fruit, and orgeat, and lemon.
Why do you think tropical drinks have remained so popular?
Well, first, I think the tiki revolution is upon us.Maybe about 10 years ago, tiki made a comeback. And that was rolling.It's huge.But there was a time before that where I wouldn't say Tiki is dead, but it was less popular in the US.
We saw a lot of Tiki bars that were just becoming relics.There wasn't a lot of effort put into them.They just remained, you know, from mid century up to now, they just existed.
But the Renaissance of Tiki started, like I mentioned, about 10 years ago when we saw really, really good bar groups put a lot of effort, not just in design, but development of the cocktail program and the bartenders that were making those drinks.
And then fast forward 10 years now, we're in a tiki boom.So you see a lot of tiki bars that are making tropical drinks.You see a lot of top-notch professional bartenders competing at a world-class level, making tropical drinks.
So those drinks right now are then, you know, echoed into the consumer world.So cocktail enthusiasts then want to recreate those drinks in their kitchen and in their backyard lanai's.
So now we have a demand for the syrups that go into those, and then the spirits like the rum.
So business is good for rum right now, whereas some years ago rum was on a decline, and likewise in syrups and in our business with Liquid Alchemist, our shot is our top seller.We are thankful to the tiki community for
for being supportive of that flavor, but also it's really because of the tiki community and the culture that's upon us that we're seeing that flavor be so successful, as well as our passion fruit, our coconut, and then now the Falernum.
So the reaction to the Falernum has been really good across, you know, both bartenders and consumers then.
It has, yeah.We've had great responses from professional bartenders, from bar owners, from our distributor experts, from, you know, world-class mixologists getting their hands on our Fullerenum.
So the response from the professional community has been great.Consumers that have been tasting our product so far so good.We're very thankful for those who have purchased it. And we also know that it's a newer product.
We just launched this a few weeks ago.So, you know, we're still, we're still really given an initial push out of the, you know, out of the starting line.
So I would expect by next summer, with full Aaron being about a year old, that we're going to really build upon the success from the start here and see what we do for next summer.But for right now, the launch has been great.
Now, you mentioned earlier that you have nationwide distribution and you're also available on Amazon.
We're available in all 50 states in the U.S.and beyond, in North America, and soon to be in the U.K.and Europe.And you can purchase us right on Amazon.You go Amazon Prime, get it in 48 hours.You can go to our website. liquid-alchemist.com.
You can go if you're in, for example, in the market, you can go to Total Wine, you can purchase our products, certain grocery stores around the country.And then if you're a bar or restaurant, you can purchase our products through wholesalers.
The largest that we use is Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits. They have our products in most of their states.And then we have some other great distributors that we work with in other states where you can access our products too.
You can also buy our products wholesale on fair.com.
We're very thankful for our distributor partners because that's allowed us to get to bars and restaurants and it's allowed bartenders to be able to experiment with our products and to be able to use them in bar programs.
thankful to the to our distributor for for letting us grow inside their network.And that's really what we tribute a lot of success with is that combination of professional bartenders using our products, purchasing them through the wholesaler.
And then as we mentioned before, that going into the consumer world, and then the loyal support of our cocktail enthusiasts that are purchasing our products online or from a retail store.
Now, if people want more information, they can, of course, as you mentioned, go to the website, which is liquidalchemist.com or connect with the brand via your socials.
Yes.So you can go to our website.Our website was created to be a resource where you can go to liquid-alchemist.com.Unfortunately, it's got a hyphen between the two.That's what it is.
But with SEOs, you can probably just type in Liquid Alchemist and it'll go right to it.But we created that website to be a resource.And what that means is that you can go and you can learn about cocktails in addition to the story of Liquid Alchemist.
But you can click on a flavor. and it will tell you exactly how to mix.It will give you examples of some of the recipe guides that we create for holidays and beyond.
We have a really cool zero proof non-alcohol cocktail guide in there that you can download.We also encourage people to go check out our Instagram. which is Liquid Alchemist.
And there, what we do is we try to spotlight what our professional bartenders and even our home cocktail enthusiasts are doing with our products.
You can learn and see some of the cool things that people are shaking up, whether they're videos or reels or photos.But Liquid Alchemist really is, again, designed to be a resource to help educate
and to point people in the right direction of how to make cocktails and also how to use liquid alchemists.
All right, Randy, well look, thank you so much for your time and good luck with the further rollout of the Philonium.
Thank you, Tip.I appreciate the time.Thank you for having me on your podcast.I really appreciate it.
And we'd also like to thank you for listening.Be sure to visit cocktails2steel.com to access the show notes.And if you like what you've heard, we'd love you to subscribe, rate, or give a review on iTunes.Until next time, cheers.
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