Nick Wu: Bar Mood (Taipei)

Nick Wu is the founder of Bar Mood in Taipei. He makes us two cocktails, one with Vodka and Gin and the second with Muscat Grape Liqueur and Homemade Jasmine Tea Syrup.

Nick introduce yourself
I’m Nick Wu, the founder of Bar Mood and co-founder of Bar Mu with Bannie and Tryson. I have two other bars in Bangkok, called Find the Locker Room and Find the Photo Booth that we opened with Colin Chia, Hidetsugu Ueno and Ronnaporn Kanivichaporn. I did F&B school and started to work in clubs, hotels and restaurants. At the same time I was doing flair competitions, then I saw the World Class competition and met my mentor Ueno San. I changed my whole technique, learnt about classic cocktails and adapted a more Japanese style of working. Then I did some consulting before opening Bar Mood two years ago. The idea behind Bar Mood is very simple… it’s all about comfort with good quality drinks and delicious food. It’s a bar and a bistro at the same time. We’ve invested a lot of money on the sound system, there are 48 speakers for the whole venue, so you can hear the music from everywhere, but it’s not too loud so people can chat easily. For the drinks, we use local ingredients that are hand-drawn on the menu. It should become a book with all the beautiful illustrations in it.

The classic you want to show us
Vesper
50ml of Tanqueray Ten Gin
15ml of Ketel Vodka
5ml of Noilly Pratt Amber
10ml of Cocchi Americano

The bar you dream of
My dream bar would have a pairing menu in collaboration with a chef, where people can order a fine dining set menu with cocktail pairing.

What do you do in your time off
I like to do different things. I love to meet different people and to have different ideas and influences. Right now, I am working on a gin book in my spare time.

The spirit you like the most
I like cognac in a cocktail because it’s fruity, spicy and woody all at the same time. It’s also easy to enhance one of these elements in a cocktail. My favourite brand is Hennessy and I recently visited their distillery in France.

What makes a good cocktail
It’s all about details. My philosophy is like a triangle with the five senses in the middle: knowledge, techniques and portions.

What ingredient do you enjoy using in cocktails
Because my grandfather was a tea farmer, it’s feels like a part of me. When I work with tea it’s easy for me to understand the flavours and the proportions. There are so many teas available, you need to know how to choose the premium ones. I love oolong tea because it has a lovely roasted flavour, due to the fact it’s traditionally smoked with charcoal.

The signature cocktail you want to show us
Season With Flowers
45ml of Kimono Gin
10ml of St Germain Liqueur
10ml of Pavan Muscat Grape Liqueur
12.5ml of Homemade Jasmine Tea Syrup
25ml of Lemon Juice

Where do you think we need to go to interview another bartender
You have to meet my mentor Ueno San at High Five in Tokyo.

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: Bannie Kang: Bar Mu (Taipei) - Le Cocktail Connoisseur

  2. Pingback: Tony Lin: Testing Room by Draft Land (Taipei) - Le Cocktail Connoisseur

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