Scottish bar staff to swap Edinburgh for Taipei

One of Edinburgh’s top bars will take part in a unique international exchange as part of Naked Grouse’s LiBARating swap next week.

For four days, two Edinburgh-based bartenders from Bramble, at 16A Queen St, will embark upon a once in a lifetime opportunity to switch with their peers from Taipei between 4-7 September, where they will be immersed in an entirely new location to discover fresh ingredients, flavours and techniques that bring whisky mixology into a bold, unconventional future.

At the heart of this year’s swap is ‘The Future of the Whisky Serve’, an advocacy programme to inspire over 150 bartenders across the globe. During the exchange, bartenders will host a workshop on the theme before jumping behind their host bar to create their own serves with inspiration from the seminars.

The concept aims to engage bartenders around the world with Naked Grouse and encourage them to experiment with the blended malt to inspire the next generation of whisky drinkers with new and exciting serves.

Following its successful launch in 2017, The Naked Grouse LiBARating Swap will return for a second year bigger and better, taking twelve of the most highly skilled bartenders from six of the ‘World’s 50 Best Bars’ on an exciting global exploration of flavours, cultures and cocktail serves. The swap encapsulates Naked Grouse’s philosophy to educate and inspire bartenders across the world on the unique potential of the blended malt.

This year, bartenders will be swapping from Dandelyan in London (#2); Indulge in Taipei (#28); Imperial in Tel Aviv (#50); Bramble in Edinburgh (#52); Ruby in Copenhagen (#58) and Red Frog in Lisbon (#92).

The 2017 exchange brought together eight bartenders from four cities famous for their cutting-edge bar scenes: Himkok in Oslo; Tjoget in Stockholm; East End and FRANK in Taipei; Kilo Lounge in Singapore and Asia’s number one bar – the Manhattan Bar, also in Singapore.

The bartenders took their passion and love for the craft to the next level, exploring the streets and hidden gems in a new city to find cocktail inspiration that represented the city they were visiting. Naked-inspired creations included the Naked Vibe, Mad Dog, Honey, Where’s my Manhattan and No Pineapple in the Pine Forest.

Elaine Miller, global marketing manager at Naked Grouse, said: ‘Naked Grouse is founded on the ethos of being uncomplicated and unconventional and that’s what the LiBARating Swap represents. The recipe is simple – we invite some of the most talented bartenders in our global markets to explore a new city and use the inspiration that comes with that adventure to showcase innovative flavour explorations of whisky. It’s about investing in the experts who bring our whisky to life on a day-to-day basis through the art of mixology.’

Henry Philip, global brand ambassador at Naked Grouse, added: ‘At the heart of Bar Swap, there is an ambition to propel the Naked Grouse brand across the world. The program was launched to encourage bartenders from the best bars in the world to share ideas, mix cultures, challenge convention and ultimately inspire more people to try Scotch whisky.’