Kenyans wow the world with bartending skills

Hero Bar Head Bartender Monica Riungu (left) and Tribe Hotel Bar Manager Kelvin Thairu make a cocktail drink at Hero Bar, Nairobi on July 22, 2023. PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG

It’s often billed as a job where you get ‘paid to party’. The life of a bartender.

On a Saturday night in Barcelona, Spain two Kenyan bartenders pack up their cocktail shakers and turn up to work at the world’s best bar that is Paradiso.

The duo armed with Kenyan spices and ingredients are ready to juggle, stir, mix, craft delicious drinks with a plan of creating an enjoyable atmosphere at the majestic Mahali Mzuri-esque curved wooden bar that was ranked the 2022 World’s Best Bar.

Kelvin Thairu and Monica Riungu during the bartenders’ competition at Paradiso Bar in Barcelona, Spain earlier in July 2023. PHOTO | POOL

Monica Riungu, Hero’s bar manager, mixes a drink for a reveller, nothing looks out of place about the 29- year- old except the seriousness on her face.

The drink; a Procera gin made with African botanicals and a mixture of mint muddled with chamomile.

“Bartending is kind of my DNA, this is what I have been doing in the last five years give or take and I’m now taking my craft a notch higher with takeovers. We are the first bartenders in Kenya to do this,” Ms Riungu, vaunts.

In the course of her hospitality career, Monica was a waiter at some point but questioned the idea.

It was fulfilling but wasn’t filling her cup and that’s how she ended up enrolling at a bar school in Nairobi then worked in a few city bars before making Hero her home where she has risen to the rank of a bar manager.

In the last two years she has been galavanting the world taking over bars, that’s how she ended up here at Paradiso.

Whereas takeovers are a common phenomenon in the modern bar industry especially in Europe, it is still in its infancy in Kenya.

For takeovers, top bartenders from one corner of the world travel to the other, spend a night showcasing their virtuosity in bars.

This is done by way of invitations and only the crème del a crème master mixologists land such invites.

What this means is that the resident guests are treated to the hospitality of an establishment by the visiting bartender, that they might not get the chance to visit in the flesh.

“For me, the takeover began when Hero got into the extended ranking of the World’s 50 Best Bars. That was the first step for Heroes to be on the bars international scene and now we started having bartenders from all over the world visiting Hero and then it got to our turn,” Monica explains.

Kelvin Thairu mixes herbs to make a cocktail during the bartenders’ competition at Paradiso Bar in Barcelona, Spain earlier in July 2023. PHOTO | POOL

At the Paradiso bar, Ms Riungu is flanked by her boss, 34-year-old Kelvin Thairu, Tribe Hotels Group manager who is on a shaker getting busy.

Although these escapades aren’t anything new, takeovers have been gaining traction in recent years and Thairu’s excitement over them wears off any doubts.

“My vision is to elevate the bartending scene in Kenya, our cocktail culture, how we do it and what experience we export abroad,” he says.

For the last one year or so, Hero Bar at the Tribe Hotel, Nairobi has been hosting bartenders for takeovers.

The latest bartender Hero hosted was Japanese best master bartender Hiroyasu Kayama four months ago.

Kayama, ranked Tokyo’s top mixologist, owns Bar Benfiddich which was named the best bar at Asia’s 50 Best Bars Awards last year.

A cocktail prepared by Monica Riungu during the bartenders’ competition at Paradiso Bar in Barcelona, Spain earlier in July 2023. PHOTO | POOL

“Last year we hosted Salmon Groove from Madrid but this year we have focused more on us travelling out for takeover to showcase what Kenya has to offer in terms of cocktails and ingredients that we source in our country,” says Thairu.

He adds that takeovers are what separates the good from the great. The greats are perfectionists.

The greats as Thairu considers himself to be, prepare for every eventuality and to this effect his secret weapon has been the locally assembled ingredients and spices he packs to go wow the world with.

“Kenya, and Africa in general, is blessed with a vast category of spices, herbs and fruits that are indigenous to us. We try and focus on spices that the Western world does not have, things like tree tomatoes, baobab, and black cardamom. With such spices they are always wowed with cocktails we offer them,” he explains.

It’s these spices that Thairu also credits for revolutionising the cocktail culture in Kenya.

“A few years ago the cocktail culture was blant, many shied away from cocktails because someone would mix some cheap liquor and sugar. We heard constant complaints of hangovers and as such there was need to offer better experience and enjoyment of cocktails. Understanding spices has been a game-changer for me, and we are now setting the trend.”

To be the best, Thairu says you should see this as an exchange programme rather than a competition.

He also confesses takeovers have been an eye-opener to him and his entourage because the Westerners are more advanced.

“We have to agree that the Western world is advanced when it comes to takeovers and it’s only through such exchange programmes that Kenyan bartenders will be able to edify our craft. Monica agrees with a nod.

Revellers during the bartenders’ competition at Paradiso Bar in Barcelona, Spain earlier in July 2023. PHOTO | POOL

“I have learned a few things in the course of my career but with the take-overs, my craft is only getting better which is good for Hero and the industry dream which is to make Nairobi the capital of cocktails,” says Monica.

She adds, “With the takeovers, my mindset has greatly changed. I’m now leaning more towards being a chemist (a bartender in the lab). When you are out there you see the techniques, how they filter their drinks, and presentation. Most of these process happens in the lab and not on the front bar.

It’s fun to be at the front bar, but I’m now drawn into doing the work into finding out how we can make for instance basil water or a clear drink from a black drink.”

At Hero, they have already set up their own lab where fermentation and experimentation of various spices and ingredients take place.

With the overseas experience, Monica has been throwing a spanner to works and gives an example of a successful experiment on the Pina Colada cocktail.

“When you order Pina Colada, it’s essentially a rum punch drink made of milk, pineapple and rum. If you order it in a traditional bar it comes creamy, white and heavy, but if you are to order the same from our bar, make it clear and it comes to you like water. All you are getting is all the flavours of the very same ingredients”

Monica prefers to offer a margarita cocktail.

“It’s my favourite cocktail, because of its simplicity. Basically tequila, triple sec and lime juice. But if I want to wow you I will make you a Low Key or a Boy Scout cocktail. That has whisky, bourbon, bitters, and maple syrup, rosemary and it comes smoked.”

Hero Bar Head Bartender Monica Riungu serves a cocktail drink at Hero Bar, Nairobi on July 22, 2023. PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG

But if her intention is to impress your palate, then basbousa cocktail will do.“It’s a classified Pina Colada,” she says.

During the three takeovers, what wowed the revellers most is the new cocktail on offer at Hero Bar, Tomartina.

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