For two hours Dave took us on a journey of discovery – through the world of acids, brix, polydextrose, glacid, hard water, nitro muddling, clarification (Spinzall 2.0 currently available), carbonation, and the story behind ‘Justino’ (turns out there’s a lot in a name).

Campari Academy are incredibly grateful to those of you who came to join us, and for those who we couldn’t fit in the room (believe us, we tried!!), we’ve included all Dave’s notes and anecdotes below.

Stay curious!

DEMO 1 – AVERNA & LOW ABV

When creating low-abv serves, one of the biggest issues we face is a loss of texture (body and structure) which we usually rely on alcohol and sugar to provide in our cocktails. To combat this let’s introduce you to our first two secret weapons – “Glacid” and “Poly-D”.

“Glacid” is a relatively new approach to adding body and structure to carbonated, low alcohol drinks. “Glacid” is a mix of champagne acid, water and vegetable glycerine (full recipe below). “Poly-D” aka Polydextrose is a complex carbohydrate made from glucose. When added to liquid it adds a similar texture and weight to sugar, but without the sweetness (don’t sleep on Poly-D, this ingredient is huge in the U.S.A bar scene).

For this demo Dave created a highball with Averna as the base, supported by Glacid, Poly-D, and a Celery Seed Syrup, this was then force carbonated. It comes in at 4.53% abv and 37gm/L sugar.

Usually, not adding enough soda to this kind of cocktail will create a drink that is too bitter. Too much soda and the drop in sugar/ABV will render the drink weak and watery. Glycerine is the best solution to these problems. Glacid fixes both issues simultaneously, is easy to jigger, and is shelf stable. A half-ounce (15ml) of glacid lets you make a robust eight-ounce (240 ml) drink with less than two ounces (60ml) of amaro. The large amount of seltzer added to these drinks (165-172 ml) also means they have good carbonation even if you don’t force carbonate them.

37.5mL Averna
15mL Celery Seed Syrup
15mL “Glacid”
80mL “Poly-D Hard Water”
92.5mL Filtered Water

Batch, force carbonate at 45psi, garnish with lemon twist.

500ml Glacid:
298 grams water
15 grams tartaric acid powder
17 grams 88% lactic acid solution
252 grams food-grade vegetable glycerin
Combine, dissolve.

400ml Celery Seed Syrup:
250 grams granulated sugar
275 grams water
12.5 grams celery seeds
Simmer for two minutes. Cool. Strain.

1000mL Poly-D Hard Water:
110 grams polydextrose
890 grams room temp water
Blend

DEMO 2 – WILD TURKEY 101 JUSTINO

The “Justino” (pronounced whoo-stee-no) method creates a clear spirit by blending liquor with fruit, vegetables, or spices, adding the enzyme Pectinex Ultra SP-L (our third secret weapon), and spinning the mix in a centrifuge. Pectinex breaks down fruit structure, allowing for clarification in alcohol, which many enzymes can’t do. Clarified fruit juice adds sugar, acidity, and bitterness, familiar cocktail elements. We’re using Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon with Northern Territory KP Mangos (for acidity) and dried mango (for sweetness).

The Justino was born when Dave wanted a banana cocktail without the thickness of a smoothie. Blending bananas with booze and centrifuging them yielded a clear rum with pure banana flavor. The name stuck after a reporter asked him what to call it, and make sure you ask him about it next time you see him.

750mL Wild Turkey 101
220gm Fresh KP Mango
107gm Dried Mango
3mL Pectinex SP-L

Blend for 20 minutes. Centrifuge in Spinzall 2.0

Once you’ve spun your Justino it’s time to check your sugar and acid, and it often benefits from a dash or two of 20% saline solution. Most Justino’s need a twist (lemon, orange, grapefruit) to seal the deal.

DEMO 3 – ESPOLON BLANCO NITRO MUDDLING

Traditional muddling crushes ingredients to release fresh flavors but also activates polyphenol oxidases (PPOs), enzymes that cause herbs like mint to turn brown and taste muddy.

PPOs have two enemies: alcohol and vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid). Liquor (40% alcohol) disables PPOs, while citrus juice slows them down. However, regular muddling isn’t enough—PPOs act before alcohol reaches the leaves.

Our fourth secret weapon is liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen freezes herbs super quick, stopping PPOs and making our herbs brittle, allowing us to powderise them by muddling. After nitro-muddling, we thaw them in liquor to keep the herbs green. We then finish with citrus juice to neutralize PPOs completely.

60mL Espolon Blanco
22.5mL Fresh Lime
18mL Orange Syrup
7gm Parsley
2gm Lemon Myrtle

Add herbs to toby tin with enough liquid nitrogen to freeze. Thoroughly muddle so herbs are fully pulverised. Add tequila first, then remaining ingredients. Shake with one large block, and three small cubes, then fine strain into a chilled coupe.

Orange Syrup:
100gm Navel Orange Juice
78gm Sugar (Assuming OJ is 11 Brix)
Stir

Dave’s nitro-charged pointers:

• Don’t hold the bottom of the tin while muddling
• Herbs must be frozen – use the right amount of liquid nitrogen
• Thoroughly pulverize the herbs
• Add booze first to begin thawing
• Shake on a large cube
• Don’t forget to fine strain out all the fine herbs (and wash your tins really well!!)
• Don’t put nitro in a tin and seal it (you’ll end up with a bomb iykyk)

A huge thankyou to our helpers on the day, who had no idea what they were signing up for. We couldn’t have done it without you:

• Joey Tai
• Kelvin Low
• Elisabetta Luppi
• Kayla Saito
• Jack Somers
• Omar Alvarez
• Seb Borja
• Eoin Kenney

See you at the next Campari Academy!!

I will start talking about me and my past experiences. 

I am Italian, born and raised in Rome, my mother’s family side of side owns a coffee brewery in the north side of Rome, and a bar opened more than 70 years ago, I grew up with my grandmother, in that bar Mondi Caffè. 

After school when I was 19, I decided to go to London, obviously my English was poor, my bartender skills and knowledge were even worse, so as any other bartender in London, I started as a bar-back, for a very famous company of Private members club. I spent 4 years working for Soho House, in my opinion, one of the best hospitality school in London, there you really have an idea of regular customers, floor service, busy, not busy, fine dining situations and big functions or weddings. 

It is a very good place to learn classics cocktails, and to understand the importance of mise en place, and how both of teams, morning and evening are equally important, when you do more than 1500 espresso martini, picante, and margaritas the only thing to keep the standards up is mise en place and teamwork. 

I will start talking about this article and what we will talk about, main topic is classic cocktails and how to twist them. 

In my experience if we talk about classic cocktails, we can’t just talk about how to twist them, but we need to start from the story, is very important to understand the recipes we will choose, especially the oldest ones, how they became so popular, how they were executed in the bars during the decades. 

This is really important because technically, even if now the Bar world is on a completely new era in terms of flavours and community around the world, the cocktails we choose has been already twisted hundreds of times during the years by other bartenders and they were probably already on other menus of great bars. 

So, it is important to understand the story of the cocktail and turning it into a selling point or using it in a competition. 

The story and popularity of the cocktails is still changing the palate and the choices of our customers, otherwise there was no way that someone was asking you a mojito in a basement in London when outside is minus 2. 

When the costumer knows the full story behind and how you arrive to that combination of flavours, you will see the reactions and interest growing up in your costumers. 

Perfect example is the Pina Colada, I think that is cocktail with so many memories about places a moments that any type of twist, milk punch, champagne, sorbet, carbonated or a classic frozen will be always one of the best sellers in any city in the world on any menu. 

Now that I made my introduction, I would like to talk about our cocktail menu down in Rockpool, Is divided in two parts, one is called “ Forgotten Classic”, as the name suggest, is a page dedicated to fun cocktails, old or not, that we choose based on the popularity, or hidden recipe or maybe just to show our own way to balance it and choosing products we think are the best for it, we have all types of classics on the menu tiki, sours, straight up, martini, highballs…. 

The first part of the menu allows to go a bit further with flavours with the second one, the second is dedicated to our way to see a classic and how could be an interesting way to adapt it to our days. 

The introduction I made is to support the concept that when we choose a drink must be iconic, or we need to make it iconic trough the storytelling, otherwise will be more difficult to push the flavours on cocktails like old fashioned, negroni, martini…. 

When the original cocktail and the culture behind is so significant that sometimes is difficult to make the costumer try something new. 

Our approach starts from finding a hidden classic or something iconic to twist it in a modern way, we study the elements and the flavours of the original cocktail, and later on we start to propose the best way to make it funny and delicious. 

Making an example one of our bestseller in Rockpool is the Pendennis Highball, in this case we didn’t change much in terms of flavour, comparing to the classic sour cocktail, instead what we did is proposing the same set of flavour in an Highball cocktail, but using the carbonation as primary technique and clarifying the lime juice and make it part of dilution of the entire batch, the result is very similar to the original cocktail in terms of “sourness and sweetness”, the bubbles, instead they bring up the all balance of the cocktail with an incredible result; my opinion as soon you find the right dilution in a carbonated cocktail you will have great result from the beginning. 

Going forward, another key point is how to develop the flavours, so if we are talking about modern techniques obviously everyone would love to have Rotovap, or centrifuge or a freeze drier or any other amazing machines, but without it, we can still reach  a lot of results , only using a sous vide you can develop great flavours with a lot of consistency, making different trial versions based on time and temperature. 

The more curious you are, better will be the result, to bring up flavours you just need to choose the right technique. 

Before to finish I would like to talk about my favourite technique to use, the milk washing, let’s start saying that the milk, actually the fat inside of any dairy or plant-based products, carry the flavours in the best way as possible, boosting flavours increasing scents and textures, bringing more flavour and having a crystal clear effect on the drink. 

Sometimes the answer is even more simple than what you think, I mean you can do something great only using a simple a thing or technique; Try to cook in sous vide cocktail based on vermouth, make the fortified wine open bringing up new flavours, using the fat wash on simple classic like miso butter Old Fashioned, or cacao butter Paloma or maybe chilli oil Tommy’s, this are all example about a simple preparation but with great results, you will understand straight away how the fat affects the flavour and texture making the cocktail more enjoyable for every palate. 

Chipotle Margarita – Clarified
35ml Espolon Anejo
10ml Connemara
5ml Ancho Reyes Original
5ml Ancho Reyes Verde
15ml Chipotle Agave
15ml Coconut Cream
25ml Lime Juice

Batched, clarified and served on block ice.

One of my favourite forgotten classics to make for guests looking to get weird is the Yellow
Parrot. It first appeared in print in 1922, and appears in Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book,
however, I first read about it in Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.
On paper it’s ridiculous – a harrowing blend of equal parts Absinthe, Yellow Chartreuse and
Apricot Brandy, it all hangs on the dilution. The earlier recipes recommend shaking, however.
I’ve found if you stir it for long enough it becomes this silky, louchey delight, bringing out all of
the complexity and sweetness of the respective liqueurs and taming them into something
soft and wonderful. It reads like a liquid tribute to French culture.

When I’m twisting a classic, I normally take one of a few routes. The simplest is the
ingredient swap: changing base spirit, flavour of liqueur, flavoring a syrup or an infusion. On
the other end is the deconstruction – creating a drink that on paper might have little
resemblance to the classic but imparts some of the same flavours or has the same energy.

I normally follow a design-like process to create cocktails, a hangover from my degree (gotta
use some part of it!). I start with what I like about the cocktail and what’s essential to its
construction: The Yellow Parrot is a drink that has a robust and silky texture, a complex array
of spice notes, and some lovely round fruit notes. Dilution is an important element.
Once I’ve got this, I’ll grab a notebook or start a spreadsheet and start throwing out anything
I can think of that connects to those notes, whether it’s a list of flavours or a particular
technique. I’ll do a fair bit of research into the ingredients, articles and books to find
inspiration and something I can connect with. The more time I spend in this phase, the
quicker the drink comes together in the end, and it nearly always helps with future drinks.
I have a running notes app of random ideas that has come in handy more times than I can
count, sometimes with half-baked ideas from years back.

I’ve always loved to draw so I connected with the visual storytelling of the fight for Mexican
independence on the bottles of Espolon. The Reposado bottle depicts José Guadalupe in
the marketplace as an important centre for sharing ideas and planning between
revolutionaries, so I wanted my drink to read as a market list from the melting pot that is
Mexican culture.

I challenged myself to construct the flavours and spirit of the Yellow Parrot using unique
ingredients. Espolon Reposado was my jumping off point – the time spent in American oak
softens the peppery spice and citrus of Espolon while amplifying the stone fruit notes and
adding some caramel and baking spice flavours. It’s infused with Saffron at 45 degrees for 1
hour to infuse it with a deep yellow colour, and pull out some of the earthy sweetness of the
strands.

The next big question: how do you replace the inimitable flavours of Yellow Chartreuse and
Absinthe? I love using Yellow Chartreuse for its fresh, gingery spice. It’s bright, with almost
mint and citrus zest top notes and a honeyed texture. I landed on Bianco Vermouth – the
honeyed texture and citrus/fruit notes combined with the herbaceous botanicals provided the
perfect base. To bring in some of the depth from apricot brandy, the Vermouth was cold
infused under vacuum for 48 hours with dried apricots and fresh sliced ginger. The cold
infusion protects the delicate vinous notes from the Vermouth and brings out a softer spice
from the ginger.

The dilution is important to the Yellow Parrot to soften and harmonise the strong flavours and
ABVs. So why not utilise that to add as much flavour as possible? Using coconut water gives
the dilution some extra body and the lightest touch of tropical to bring out those notes in
Espolon Reposado. To begin to build a profile approaching absinthe, dried Aniseed Myrtle
and Peppermint tea were infused into the coconut water to create a punchy herbaceous
flavour, with plenty of fresh and bright top notes. An extra lift in the form of star anise, lightly
toasted to bring out its maximum flavour, layers in a rounder and sweeter anise flavour as
well as contributing a few of its oils to the mix (the cause of absinthe louche).
Mole bitters is the finishing touch to lace all the flavours together. The combination of
absinthe or chartreuse and chocolate will change your life, so the cacao and cinnamon spice
of the bitters subtly amplify these flavours in the drink, especially lifting out the vanilla and
baking spice in the Tequila.

Served on a roughly cut block of ice as if the revolutionaries had hacked it off a la minute,
and to finish it off and visually call back to the original recipe, a citrus twist. Instead of lemon,
the Gallo Amarillo (Yellow Rooster) is garnished with an orange zest cut into the shape of a
roosters tail, pierced with a metal skewer to represent Guadalupe was riding Ramón the
rooster into battle, and call to the bright orange of the Reposado bottle.
Salud!

Gallo Amarillo
40ml Saffron Espolon Reposado
20ml Apricot & Ginger Vermouth
20ml Aniseed Myrtle & Peppermint Tea Dilution
2 dash Mole Bitters

Batched together and chilled. Serve on a hand cut block of Ice
Garnish: Orange zest rooster tail on a metal skewer

Day one features Dr Anna Sulan Masing, Kevin Kos, Billy Wagner and Hanna Lanfear.

Day two features Stefanie Hanssen, Anistatia Miller, Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Christian Delpech.

The discussion revolved around setting up the food pairing occasion and heroing food and dining personalities to help bartenders better understand the role that bitter plays in the before and after dinner occasion.

The event was staged in three courses of discussion and degustation, with snacks and drinks curated by our chef talent and Campari Academy team.

The event was held at Shell House, running from 4pm until 6pm, the perfect Monday Aperitivo.

Trisha Greentree (Fratelli Paradiso) and Aaron Ward (Shellhouse) were joined by Jordan Kretchmer (Gourmet Traveller) and Alex Boon (Pearl Diver).

WHAT YOU DRANK

THE MEZZANINE
40mL Del Professore Rosso
20mL 1757 Vermouth di Torino Extra Dry
10mL Campari
Dash Grappa

Add all ingredients to mixing glass
Stir over good quality ice until chilled and diluted
Strain into chilled coupette
Garnish with two fizzy grapes*

*Fizzy Grapes
20 grapes
1 isi soda siphon
3 Co2 cartridges

Fill soda siphon with chilled grapes and seal
Charge with 1 x Co2, discharge, then charge with remaining 2, and leave in chilled for at least 4 hours
Slowly release gas when ready

THE VELVET REVOLVER – ALEX BOON
40mL Amaro Averna
20mL Oloroso Sherry
10mL Wild Turkey Rye
10mL Banana & Shio Koji Caramel*

Add all ingredients to mixing glass
Stir over good quality ice until chilled and diluted
Strain into chilled coupette
Garnish with layer of coffee & bay leaf cream**

*Banana & Shio Koji Caramel
1kg over ripe banana
1kg under ripe banana
.1gm pectin x ultra
500gm caster sugar
100mL shio koji
1gm banana oil

Blend banana and add pectin and sous vide at 40 degrees for an hour then strain off juice.
Skins of banana are chopped and placed in sugar overnight.
Juice and sugar and then mixed with shio koji and banana oil over low heat then finely strained.

**Coffee & Bay Leaf Cream
3l full cream
1l full cream milk
500g fresh coffee beans
500g fresh bay leaves/chopped/shredded

Sous vide at 45 degrees for 1 hour
Strain off then whip it, whip it good!

How do you celebrate the amazing people and local legends who bring red passion and creativity to your neighborhood? The organisations who help shape and support your community? The local grocer or café whose passion or craft make your work trip that much more enjoyable?

This Negroni Week, we want to hear these stories.

We are taking it back to grass roots – a Cocktail for a Community, a Cocktail for a Cause.

How do you celebrate the amazing people and local legends who bring red passion and creativity to your neighborhood? The organisations who help shape and support your community? The local grocer or café whose passion or craft make your work trip that much more enjoyable?

This Negroni Week, we want to hear these stories.

We are taking it back to grass roots – a Cocktail for a Community, a Cocktail for a Cause.

Ciccio’s Negroni

30ml Salted Banana Infused Gin 
20ml Coffee 
20ml Campari
20ml Ciccio Coffee
15ml Sweet Vermouth / PX Sherry house blend 

Stir all ingredients over cubed ice
Strain into rocks glass over large cube
Garnish with orange wedge

How do you celebrate the amazing people and local legends who bring red passion and creativity to your neighborhood? The organisations who help shape and support your community? The local grocer or café whose passion or craft make your work trip that much more enjoyable?

This Negroni Week, we want to hear these stories.

We are taking it back to grass roots – a Cocktail for a Community, a Cocktail for a Cause.

Le Sbaliato (Campari, Vermouth, Grapefruit Sparkling Rhubarb Wine):

• 35ml Campari 
• 17.5ml Cinzano 1757 Rosso 
• 17.5ml Oscar Bianco 697
• 60ml Rhubarb wine 
• 5ml Grapefruit cordial 
• 35ml Water 

Everything carbonated and served on tap

How do you celebrate the amazing people and local legends who bring red passion and creativity to your neighborhood? The organisations who help shape and support your community? The local grocer or café whose passion or craft make your work trip that much more enjoyable?

This Negroni Week, we want to hear these stories.

We are taking it back to grass roots – a Cocktail for a Community, a Cocktail for a Cause.

How do you celebrate the amazing people and local legends who bring red passion and creativity to your neighborhood? The organisations who help shape and support your community? The local grocer or café whose passion or craft make your work trip that much more enjoyable?

This Negroni Week, we want to hear these stories.

We are taking it back to grass roots – a Cocktail for a Community, a Cocktail for a Cause.

Salted Cherry Negroni
30ml Salted-Cherry Campari
30ml Bulldog Gin
30ml Cinzano Rosso

Stir over ice in mixing glass- Pour over block ice in chilled rocks glass. Garnish with fresh cherry & orange twist.

Salted cherry Campari Recipe
Remove pits and stems from 30-40 cherries depending on size & ripeness. 
Throw the prepared cherries into a pot and muddle.
Add a few generous pinches of salt, a measure of sugar & 30mls of Heering Cherry Liqueur. 
Remove from heat once the mixture reaches boiling point.
Add a bottle of Campari and stir well.
Bottle everything together and refrigerate overnight.
Fine strain before use.