Features

Five Calvados you need to try

Calvados seems to have the answers to many modern-day questions. Oli Dodd speaks to five of its biggest fans about five of their favourites

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25 January, 2024

Features

Fearless food - how dishes are changing in bars

Once the domain of salty nibbles, bars have become a melting pot of small-plate creativity as owners recognise the opportunity of an edible offering. By Ellen Manning

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24 January, 2024

Features

How much? Charles Spence on maintaining value for money while raising prices

With costs rising, so are cocktail prices. But how do you maintain a sense of value for money? Professor Charles Spence looks at the psychology of price.

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15 January, 2024

Features

Joe Wadsack on fizz without fuss

Joe Wadsack hunts down the best value bubbles from the shadows of the likes of champagne and prosecco.

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11 January, 2024

Features

The New Hebrideans - Dave Broom on a new age of scotch

Across Scotland’s remote islands, distillers are reviving communities as they create new, terroir-driven whiskies. Dave Broom investigates this new movement of young producers.

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11 January, 2024

Features

How to make Truffle Martinis

Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown’s abundant garden has yielded a big surprise - the discovery of truffles. What else but truffle Martinis...

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03 January, 2024

Features

All hail wassail - the drink of the 12th night of Christmas

Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown are using windfall fruit for their take on the pagan hot drink, Wassail, which was typically drunk on Christmas Eve and the Twelth Night of Christmas (5th Jan).

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03 January, 2024

Features

International spotlight: Class explores Jewel of the South in New Orleans

Opened in 2019, this creole cottage-set bar has quickly become a must-visit for any cocktail aficionado. Hamish Smith gets the lowdown on the offering

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30 November, 2023

Features

The full English - Pal is the bar attempting to stock only local products

If you’re serious about localism, how about going that step further to a local spirits selection? Lewis Parry is doing just that.

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30 November, 2023

Features

Matching wine to the most popular bar food

We tasked our wine expert Joe Wadsack with tasting his way through London’s best bar food – and naming his favourite matches.

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27 November, 2023

Features

Is kokumi the new umami?

Professor Charles Spence takes us to Japan and the latest flavour-enhancing ingredient. Kokumi in your cocktails anyone?

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27 November, 2023

Features

Exploring Bacanora, the lesser known agave spirit

There’s a world of agave drinks beyond tequila and mezcal. Laura Foster gets to grips with one of the more obscure family members.

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21 November, 2023

Features

Five English whiskies you need to try

English whisky is emerging from the shadows of its neighbour. Oli Dodd speaks to some early adopters about which expressions to try first.

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20 November, 2023

Features

Going local - how bars are changing supply

Rachel Hendry discovers the bars putting a firm focus on local produce to add exciting and unique elements to their drinks.

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09 November, 2023

Features

Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown on making drinks with lemongrass and shiso

Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown share their secrets of growing, cooking and using shiso and lemongrass in drinks.

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09 November, 2023

Features

The cocktail bars that are now scotch bottlers

North of the border, some of Edinburgh’s best bars are bottling their own lines of scotch. Class' Scotland correspondent Bylthe Robertson reports.

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08 November, 2023

Features

Anna Sebastian's guide to tender agreements

Consultant Anna Sebastian leads the delicate business of tender agreements for her clients. We asked her for some careful advice.

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08 November, 2023

Features

Is your bar causing hearing damage? Here's some sound advice

Noise can be a big problem in today’s cocktail bars – and can even cause hearing damage. But Hannah Lanfear has some sound advice to help make for a better and safer bar environment.

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01 November, 2023

Features

Techniques and trends: tomato cocktails

Tomatoes have finally come into season in cocktails bars around the UK, says Tyler Zielinski.

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25 October, 2023

Features

Angel's Treasure - the spirit world's lesser-known phenomenon of divine evaporation

Hamish Smith explores the distilling world in search of Angel’s Treasure.

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24 October, 2023

Features

How do you best describe a cocktail?

On menus, cocktails are so often described by three words. Ellen Manning says you have to choose them wisely.

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06 October, 2023

Features

Fine drinks and high jinks - the making of Passing Fancies

Hamish Smith is at the New Bar of the Year, Passing Fancies. He chats to owners Matt Arnold, Eve Green and Tommy Matthews about what increasingly feels like Birmingham's flagship bar.

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04 October, 2023

Features

A bartender's guide to sake

Co-owner of London sake bar Moto, Erika Haigh offers her guide to the various styles of Japan’s national drink and explains why it’s a perfect food pairing.

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31 August, 2023

Features

Why cold red is hot

You don’t have to ditch the red wine on hot days. Take Joe Wadsack’s lead and chill it down – the results may surprise you.

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23 August, 2023

Features

Exploring...Genever

Laura Foster dips into the national drink of Belgium and The Netherlands with a glance at history and a look at how some of today’s brands are being used in cocktails.

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23 August, 2023

Features

David Wondrich on American whiskey as it was (and could be again?)

Historian David Wondrich explains how today’s American whiskey has evolved from a narrow bloodline. What few records there are of the US’s distilling past reveal a far more diverse set of practices.

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23 August, 2023

Features

Five agave experts pick five Mezcals

Mezcal comes in many styles, but most people have only tried those made from espadín agave. Oli Dodd asks five experts to suggest some sippers that might open up your agave options.

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08 August, 2023

Features

Vintage cocktails: a tasting of 1,000 years of history

Salvatore Calabrese has amassed a treasure trove of vintage spirits. Hamish Smith tries some of his ancient collection in cocktails tasted against their latter-day equivalents.

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20 July, 2023

Features

New tech: enter the Naviglio Extractor

There’s a new piece of lab tech that cuts time and increases extraction. We asked Shane Eaton – professor by day, cocktail enthusiast by night - to investigate.

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10 July, 2023

Features

Who won the CBA's Drinks Menu of the Year?

In a tightly contested final, Lyaness took the title of Drinks Menu of the Year (sponsored by Franklin & Sons).

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04 July, 2023