Life

Bartender Makes The Most Complicated Drink Ever

by Lara Rutherford-Morrison

Prepare to be ashamed of the sad, three-ingredient cocktails you make at home. What, your IKEA bar cart doesn’t have a smoker? Pathetic. In a video from Bartender’s Magazine, award-winning bartender Takumi Watanabe whips together a little refresher called a “Rum Martinez,” by way of a process that appears to be just slightly more complicated than putting together a car engine. According to Sploid, the Rum Martinez contains rum (Zacapa Centenario 23, apparently), vermouth, Maraschino, and rum bitters. Watanabe starts by rinsing a decanter with rum. He then scoops wood chips into the strainer of a teapot and burns them with a cooking torch, before pouring the rum from the decanter through the tea strainer. He follows by pumping smoke into the decanter with some kind of smoke-making contraption, and... OK, I’m lost already. Just know that there are approximately 20 more steps, involving a dropper, a strainer, and more smoke.

Watanabe is clearly a master at his job, but here is the important question: Does the Rum Martinez actually taste good? To me, it looks like it would taste how cigars smell, which is...not my thing. But some people obviously love cigars, and I imagine that, to them, the Rum Martinez looks like heaven in a glass. If you want to try your own, just head on over to The Sailing Bar in Sakurai City in Nara, Japan. (That's totally on your way home from work, right?)

Image: Youtube