The Grand Prix / Jeff "Beachbum" Berry

When I received Jeff's answer to the few questions I had emailed to him, and when I finished reading it, I just felt there was no job left to be done for me really. He had simply done such a great job, I decided to leave this interview uncut the way he emailed it to me, segmenting it in two parts.
Here comes the 1st one revolving around his own experience.

- Name, age, location, bar you work in.
Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, 52, USA, not currently working in a bar.

- Your record of achievements (awards...):
I’ve written five books on vintage Tiki drinks and cuisine, which Los Angeles magazine has called “the keys to the tropical kingdom.”  I’ve been profiled in the New York Times, Imbibe magazine, Salon.com, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Saveur.com, and the Miami Sun-Sentinel; I’ve also been featured in the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.  I created the cocktail menu for the Luau in Beverly Hills, which the New York Times cited as one of the nation’s 24 “Bars on The Cutting Edge,” and co-created “Tiki ” for iPhone, a drink recipe app which Macworld magazine called “beautifully rendered and, thanks to Berry’s tireless reporting, impeccably sourced.”  My original cocktail reci-pes have been printed in publications around the world, most recently Food & Wine Cocktails 2010 and the 67th edition of the Mr. Boston Official Bartenders Guide.   I am on the advisory board of the Museum Of The American Cocktail.

- How did you become a bartender, you personal story. First "bartending mem-ory":
As a child taken to Polynesian restaurants, I watched adults ordering these amazing-looking exotic cocktails served with ice cones molded around straws, fancifully gar-nished with flaming lime shells.  But by the time I was old enough to order one, all the places that served them were disappearing.  So I looked into how to make them myself.

- What's your field of expertise?
Post-Prohibition tropical drinks, 1930s-1970s.

- What IS a Tiki drink?  Why do people love them?
Good question!  I think there are four bases to touch:  
1)  most (though not all) Tiki Drinks are rum-based; 
2) they count fresh citrus juice among their ingredients; 
3) they tend to be tall drinks rather than short hoists; and 
4) the best of them tease your palate with unexpected, unidentifiable layers of taste, usually accomplished through the sly use of syrups that non-tropical bars tend to ignore (orgeat, passion fruit, vanilla, falernum, cinnamon, etc.) People love them not just because of their taste, but because of their “conversation piece” novelty:  their fanciful garnish and elaborate presentation turn drinking a cocktail into a theatrical experience.

- What do you personally like about the tiki cocktails?
Their complexity:  that balancing act which juggles sweet and sour, strong and light, fruity and dry, providing new layers of taste that keep the flavor evolving from the open-ing notes to the midpalate to the finish.

- Could you explain us your workshop about tiki cocktails?
The workshop traces the past, present, and future of “Tiki Drinks,” and the crucial part that Cuba played in the Tiki phenomenon.  Havana Club Rum played a part as well -- it was served at the original Tiki bars. 

- How did you conduct the workshop? In a few words, describe the workshop.  Showcase Tiki culture and revival and Havana Club.   [ Vic at Florida, Don using blenders ]
In 1934 Donn Beach (alias Don The Beachcomber) created the Tiki bar, which created the Tiki craze. We tell the story of Don's first exposure to tropical drinks in Cuba (where he learned the blending technique perfected by Constantine of La Florida bar in Ha-vana) and Jamaica; his years as a Prohibition bootlegger; his meteoric rise as restaura-teur to the stars in 1930s Hollywood, and the evolution of his exotic drink repertoire.
We also tell the story of Trader Vic, and how a visit to Havana’s La Florida bar in the 1930s inspired Vic to go Tiki.   After learning how to make tropical drinks in Cuba, Vic finds his own style apart from Don's:  Vic shakes instead of blends; he introduces orgeat as an ingredient; he invents the Scorpion, a lighter Donn-style drink, then comes into his own with the Fog Cutter and the Mai Tai.
Twenty years  after his education in Cuba, Vic returns to Cuba and opens a Trader Vic’s in the new Habana Hilton -- bringing Tiki Drinks to the tropics, and bringing full-circle the Cuba-to-California-to-Cuba feedback loop.
We serve drink samples to show how both Donn and Vic took Cuban drink formulas and used them as a template to create their “Polynesian” style drinks.

- How would you describe the audience's reception to your workshop?
They must have liked it, as afterward I got invitations from audience members to give the seminar in London, Berlin, and Amsterdam!

- How would you describe the Havana Club Grand Prix compared to the other cocktail competitions?
What set it apart for me can be summed up in two words:  Michael Menegos.  He was the perfect host, who made sure everyone -- contestant and judge alike -- was always entertained, stimulated, and engaged in the event and the city of Havana.

 - What according to you made this year's edition of the Grand Prix different than the previous edition?
This was my first Grand Prix, so I couldn’t say...

- Have you noticed any particular new trends and techniques?
More attention to boutique glassware, and more use of bespoke bitters and other home-made ingredients.

- What was the most difficult for you as a judge?
Choosing between the competitors, who all brought so much skill, passion, and enthusi-asm to their presentations.

- Your overall perception of the competition and of this event in general.
An enlightening experience, in an unforgettable city, drinking an unparalleled rum.